In message , Mary Fisher
writes

"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message
...
In message , Mary Fisher
writes

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley writes:
|
| Possibly it depends on variety, but the ones that are spreading
across
| my allotment (I'm going to dig some out and give them to my
| cousin-in-law come autumn) form new plants via roots that run maybe
an
| inch under the surface. The roots beneath the canes are deeper, but I
| don't have two feet of top soil for them to grow in, and I don't
recall
| them going down more than a foot.

I do and they did, when I had them. I dug them out 1' down, and they
still came back. Only weakly, unlike bindweed.

Mine come up strongly and repeatedly, often in the veg. plots where it's
difficult to dig during the growing season :-(

Mary


I trust youall have noticed that I'm making a distinction between runners
and other roots. It's the runners that the OP would be worrying about.

Well, it would help others if you'd explain the difference :-)


In the case of raspberries runners are specialised structures involved
in vegetative reproduction. They grow parallel to the surface of the
ground, and produce roots and shoots at points among their length. I
suspect that technically they may be rhizomes, which are technically
underground stems, not roots. Compare the runners of strawberries (which
being aboveground, are technically stolons.)

Roots are feeding and anchoring organs, sometimes pressed into service
as storage organs (as are many other parts of plants).

The yellow-fruited autumn-bearing variety that I have sends up new
shoots several feet away from the canes. I also have a red-fruited,
summer-bearing variety which is less aggressive.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley