Colin Hammond wrote:
: "Cat(h)" wrote in message
: ps.com...
: Earlier this year, I planted a number of fruit bushes in my brand
: spanking new garden, including a good number of raspberry canes.
: Being the totally naive newbie to fruit bushes, and bearing in mind
: that the raspberry canes were quite tiny at the time, it is only now
: that they are shooting up in every direction that I invested in the
: Hessayon Fruit Expert... which tells me to build these super duper
: structures to support the canes... before planting them. Ahem.
: Having put the cart before the horse, what about trying to squeeze the
: horse in at this stage? I am a dab hand at wigwam making. Would a
: sturdy (sturdier than what I do for beans, say) individual bamboo cane
: wigwam for each plant to which the new shoots which are to fruit next
: year would be tied do the trick? Or do I have to bite the bullet and
: build a structure with four-be-two, bells, whistles and taut thick
: metal wire? (In the latter case, I will probably have to buy in
: expertise...)
:
: Cat(h)
: The world swirls...
:
: You should have planted in a straight row. All you would then need is a post
: at each end and some wires in between. I have used some old metal piping,
: from a scrap yard, driven in with a hammer. Remember you have to remove old
: canes, after fruiting, every year so some sort of wigwam could be difficult
: to cope with. You will also need a cage to deter the birds if you want a
: good crop. If you have planted them all over the place as if you were
: growing sweet corn I should start again next year.
: Colin

Raspberries can be grown in all sorts of ways. All that Hessayon is
giving is the "standard" advice for commercial growing, which might or
might suit your garden/pocket/situation.

I'd give the wigwams a try. I tend to use fairly light weight posts and
lash long bamboo canes between the posts to tie in the raspberries.
However raspberries are not naturally tidy brutes, and will run in all
directions, making it difficult to keep nice tidy straight lines.

Indeed my autumn rasps are grown in a 4x15 foot bed that is now over 10
years old with absolutely no supports other than each other. However
summer fruiting do tend to need support, otherwise they bend over and
suffer wind rock in winter - causing serious problems.