If you are looking for a plant that bears fruit, can be grown in a small area or even a pot, is easy to care for, and comes back every year, try planting raspberries.
Transplanting Raspberries in Your Yard
- Raspberries transplant best in the early spring.
- Find a location where they will be in mostly full or, even better, full sun. They will bear more fruit in full sun.
- You can purchase bare-root plants from a nursery or farming store, but you also may be able to find them from someone who already has a patch. Raspberries are great at spreading out and producing new shoots. We have easily created new patches among multiple families with these shoots.
- Mulching your raspberries will help hold in moisture and prevent weeds growing up in your patch.
- Water your new raspberry transplants frequently. Do not allow them to dry out while establishing their roots. Light spurts of water daily are more beneficial than drowning them a couple times a week.
Growing Raspberries in a Pot
- Choose a pot or container that allows for the raspberry plants to grow now and in future years. Remember that it needs to have holes on the bottom for water drainage.
- Start with 3-5 canes for your pot, taking into consideration the size of the pot.
- Potting soil will work great, though your plants will do best with fertilizer.
- Mulching your raspberries will help hold in moisture and prevent weeds growing on your container.
- Keep your raspberries in full sun and water them frequently. Light spurts of water daily are more beneficial than drowning them a couple times a week.
Caring for Your Raspberry Plants
- Decide if you want your patch to focus it’s energy and nutrients on growing wider or on producing berries. If you allow the bushes to grow more canes, you will see less berries but ultimately a bigger patch and more berries in future years. If you want more berries and a smaller patch, keep the canes from growing but mowing or trimming them down.
- Prune your raspberries every year. Cut out the dead branches. Thin out your patch to your satisfaction.
- Water your raspberries from spring to after harvest, when your plants are no longer yielding fruit.
New raspberry transplants usually need 1-2 years to establish themselves before they start growing berries. However, once they start giving to berries, you may suddenly have much more than you expected! While eating berries fresh off the branch is the best, there are a lot of other things we can do with with raspberries and several ways to store them for another day. Read here about how to store raspberries.
Raspberries are so easy to plant and maintain, and it is so exciting and satisfying to see them come back year after year!
