Kitchen Garden Forum

Do others find that the primocane autumn fruiting raspberries more invasive than the traditional summer fruiting ones?
I am delighted with the performance of my autumn fruiting ones and they are very easy to manage but I do need to dig out developing canes from adjacent beds and ground.
It is less of a problem with the summer fruiting raspberries in the garden, but they are less productive.

Just send em over here!

Hello Stephen
I'm surprised that you find your summer rasps less productive than the autumn ones. It is usually the other way round and by a big margin. Are your summer ones getting a bit old and crowded?
As far as spreading out from the row goes, it's just a matter of being really ruthless with a spade and digging out the stray canes.

John

Hi Stephen,
My Raspberries are contained by slates placed vertically into the soil around the periphery of the beds. Now that is only possible in areas where slates are used and second hand ones are easily obtainable.
A vertical heavy duty polythene wall sunk into the ground around the bed would have the same effect because it will, as the slates do, deflect the sucker roots back into the bed rather than allow them to wander quite far. Raspberry roots are fairly shallow and you only need bury it about 9" into the ground.
JB.

My summer fruiting raspberries are more productive too but I guess it could be the varieties. My autumn raspberries are in an isolated bed with grass around so any trying to grow away from the bed are mowed off.

I have had summer fruiting ones that spread just as much but the ones I have now are newly planted so i can't comment.

Thanks for the responses. It's not a "problem" but I did notice the difference.
All the escapees I dug out in January were rehomed in their designated place. Those poping up now will just be discarded (the bed is pretty full of canes).
None of the plants are particularly old (although modern varieties may not last as long as older ones). The summer ones in the garden are six years old, the autumns are younger, three years with me.
I do plan to move the bed in the garden (a little) so I can refresh some of those (I like to have more than one variety anway).

I have planted about 12 canes into my allotment in March in one long row. It just occurred to me that I might need to take steps to control the roots.

Bearing in mind these canes have only been in the ground 2ish months and are coming into growth, does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should do at this point to stop the roots getting out of control over the next few years?

From googling, I get the impression that maybe digging a narrow 18 inch deep trench 18 inches either side of the row and burring a some thick plastic would do the trick.

Any thoughts?

Should I leave it until next year?

Just dig up suckers and replant them where you want them.