In article , nmm1
@cam.ac.uk says...

In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:

I would really like to use the clipping to mulch
around my respberries as they are getting old and weak
and I was hoping that would help next years canes
develop.

Plant new ones, preferably somewhere else. Mulching won't
help worth a damn in such a case.

Yeah, I know that is what I ought to do, but there are
a couple of problems:

1) Space - there is no where for a new fruit cage to
go, apart from the lawn, and swmbo will not allow
that!

2) The possibility that we move, age, remoteness,
large garden and family pressures!

Then plant new ones in the same location! I really do mean
that there is no hope of any of the Rubi recovering once they
have started to go downhill. They haven't adapted to recovery
from fungal root-rots, viruses etc. and rely on new plants
taking over. Longer-lived and more woody plants have some
recovery mechanisms, but Rubi are not like that.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

That's encouraging, but I understood you should not
use the same patch, partly because of the problems you
outlined.

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales