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Gill Matthews · 15-01-2007, 09:42 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article , says...
My new allotment was dug up by the council with a massive digger, so there's
lots of debris (boulders, wood boards, etc) buried in the soil. The soil is
very heavy and wet.

Last weekend I started to dig out a trench for raspberries, and holes for
red/white/blackcurrants. After about 1 or 2 spits deep, more often than not
I hit rubbish that took herculean efforts to dig out, and very soon my back
gave up.

I'd planned to dig 2 spits deep and then add manure to the trench. If
there's debris at the 2 spits depth, is it okay to leave it there and hope
the roots find their way around, or does it all have to come out?

Thanks.

IME raspberries seem to send their roots outwards and not too deep. I dug
out some very old raspberries from rubbly soil on my allotment and few roots
were as deep as 2 spits. They came ot because they were not performing too
well, but I think this was due to the fact that the canes were more than 20
years old according to people from the surrounding plots. I planted my new
canes elsewhere on the allotment in slits in improved soil to about 1 spit
and they seem to have done well.

Gill M