On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 07:53:29 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:

~
~"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
~ Sorry Jane I am a raspberry novice they were summer fruiting and yes I did
~ cut them all down, I thought thats what you did oops i'm wrong, any help
~ appreciated
~
~Cut out (or thin) old fruited canes and leave new canes to fruit the
~following season.
~
If it helps, the new canes are usually much greener stemmed. I find
that once you're ferreting about in the patch trying to work out which
branch is from fruited and which from new when they're all tangled up
is a bit of a mare. So I go by the green stems!

The one positive you have here is that you've probably allowed the
plants to bulk up better for future years by having stems instead of
fruit this year! They do take some time to get to full height (which
should be about 6')

Have you got wires for them to be tied to? The usual recommendation is
to stick in 6' posts on either end of the row, and make sure they're
solid by propping if necessary. I cheated and used 2' metposts as I'm
about 15" above solid chalk. Nothing tilts when you sink into that!
(Warning: you need something firm to stand on while clobbering posts
with a sledgehammer!!)

my ascii art is not the best but... this looks ok in fixed pitch and
variable pitch fonts!

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ok the dots are the wires (reasonably thick ones, but flexible) and
they should be fastened tautly to vine eyes in the posts. Can't
remember the heights of the wires but the top one's about 5'. You tie
the canes to the wires by attaching gardening twine to the eyes, and
paying out the twine till you reach a cane. Wrap the ball round the
cane and wire in a sort of half-hitch and move to the next one. Tie
the twine to the other eye at the end This sounds weird but it means
that in winter gales the canes don't blow around along the wires,
which could saw them in half. Also it keeps them well-spaced relative
to each other and you know which are fruiting canes for next year as
they're the tied ones!

The other technique is to take your 6' canes when you finally have
them, and in autumn tie them in inverted u-shapes to the top wire.
Leave them like that for the winter. In spring, cut the bent bit out,
leaving just verticals. I think it means any frosted ends with
die-back are trimmed off leaving you with a full-length productive
cane, but I'm not sure. Anyone?

Also, raspberries don't much like alkaline conditions so if you have
them, add manure or other acidic mulches regularly or the plants will
only last 5-6 yrs instead of 10.

Good luck!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!