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
"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...

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.

J Jackson wrote:
Colin Hammond wrote:


Snip

Thank you Colin and J.
In fact, I ended up reasoning with myself that I wasn't beyond planting
proper stakes, nor putting proper strong wire between them. I visited
my friendly local garden centre last week end - about 200 yards from my
house - and purchased some 6ft tall tree stakes from them. I did as
Colin suggested. I drilled a series of holes along the length of the
(chamfered square section) stakes, planted one at each end of the my
three rows of 3 raspberry plants (each). I still have the blisters in
my hand to prove the effort of hammering the stakes deep enough for
them to be solid. I then threaded strong metal wire through the holes,
making the wires taut, and then using some wee gadgety plant ties tied
the fresh shoots to the wires. I'm affraid this latter part was only
partly successful, the ties being unsuitable - they're a sort of semi
closed c shaped plastic thingy, and the wires or the shoots can - and
do - escape. I'll have to rethink that this week end - good old
loosely tied raphia, maybe.
All in all, my stakes may not be absolutely level and straight, one of
them refused to get planted quite as deeply as the others, but I am
quite pleased with myself.
Yet again, I discover that nothing is quite as impossible as it might
first seem :-)
As to the necessity for netting, I have learned from this year's
magically disappearing modest crop that I would most definitely have to
plan for that next year.


Cat(h)
The world swirls...