Your cart

Your cart is empty.

Continue shopping
You'll love these, too
Plants & Gardening

Planting, growing, and caring for raspberries: your guide to success

Raspberries thrive in sunny locations. The delicious berries and their long harvest period make growing raspberries well worthwhile. In addition to the classic red ones, you could also consider growing blue or yellow raspberries, or the European dewberry.

January 7, 2025Lue suomeksi

To ensure healthy raspberry plants, it’s best to use new, disease-free seedlings when planting. Old raspberry patches are often hosts to viruses, so they aren’t suitable for propagation. However, an established raspberry thicket can sometimes be a botanical treasure worth preserving—a winter-hardy variety that produces an abundance of sweet berries and may be resistant to yield-reducing viruses.

A wide range of raspberry varieties are grown in home gardens, making it challenging to identify specific varieties. In the 1950s and 1960s, the most commonly planted varieties were ‘Asker’ and ‘Preussen’. Some home gardens may still have raspberry plants dating back to the early 20th century.

Yellow raspberries are also grown in home gardens; they were commonly grown as early as a hundred years ago. Hybridization and self-seeding have done their part in expanding the range of raspberry varieties available. ‘Maurin Makea’ (“Mauri’s Sweet”) is an example of a seedling selected for propagation.

Preserving old raspberry varieties and strains helps maintain nationally valuable genetic resources. Whether or not you know the name of it, a good variety is worth preserving by growing it in your garden and generously sharing seedlings with others who are interested.

Growing raspberries—how to succeed:

Optimal site and soil

To produce sweet berries, a raspberry plant needs a sunny and warm growing site with airy soil. Dense or wet soil can hinder growth and overwintering. The ideal soil pH is between 5.5 and 6.5. Raspberries don’t like wind, but they don’t thrive in completely stagnant air either.

A mineral soil rich in humus is ideal for growing raspberries. Stony moraine soils are also suitable, although they may be labor-intensive for the gardener. In clay soils, roots don’t develop properly; in peat soils, overwintering can be challenging. Sandy soils are acceptable as long as proper irrigation is ensured. Regardless of soil type, make sure no stagnant water remains in the root zone of your raspberry in autumn.

Planting

Avoid planting your raspberry seedlings too deep. Plant them on a ridge that is 10–30 centimeters high, spacing them about half a meter apart, depending on the variety. A good width for the raspberry bed is about a meter or slightly less. If you have multiple beds, they should be spaced at least 2.5 meters apart to ensure the bushes receive ample light.

Containerized seedlings can be planted at any time. Make sure to water them before planting, and plant them a few centimeters deeper than they were in the container. The seedlings shouldn’t be cut back.

Bare-root seedlings should be planted in late fall or early spring when the ground is still moist. It’s important that they are dormant. The roots must not dry out; during planting, protect the seedlings with burlap or place them in a bucket of water. Water your raspberry seedlings after planting and cut them back to 5–10 centimeters. Mulch the soil with geotextile fabric or black plastic, for example, and spread wood chips at the base of the seedlings.

Support

Your raspberry plants need sturdy support. When the canes are well-organized, the berries receive plenty of sunlight, which enhances their sweetness and makes picking easier. For tall varieties, a V-trellis, where the canes are attached to wires, is most suitable. For other varieties, it is sufficient to set up two wires between which the canes can grow freely. The shortest varieties can manage entirely without support.

Watering

During the weeks following planting, make sure your raspberries receive consistent moisture. Weeding is also important in this early stage.

Going forward, avoid watering your raspberries in early summer, but provide water during the fruiting stage, as dryness causes berries to dry out and reduces their size. Watering is also necessary if the summer is particularly dry. Since raspberries have shallow roots, even an old raspberry patch benefits from watering if it’s growing in coarse soil. Mulching helps the soil retain moisture.

Fertilizing

Fertilize your raspberry bushes with multi-nutrient garden fertilizer or organic matter such as compost soil, manure, or grass clippings. Ash containing boron is also beneficial for raspberries. Autumn fertilization is not necessary, but if desired, it can be applied in mid-August.

Pruning

Both containerized and bare-root seedlings planted in the fall should be pruned the following spring. Pruning your raspberries is essential to ensure they keep producing berries. For tall canes, top them at a height of 1.7 to 2 meters.

Plant protection

When getting new seedlings, make sure they are disease-free and plant them in a new, weed-free spot. A dense thicket can increase the risk of cane diseases. The most troublesome pest is the raspberry beetle, whose larvae are also known as the raspberry fruitworm.

Harvesting

The raspberry harvest period lasts from late July to the end of September. During hot periods, you should harvest your berries frequently, every couple of days.

Unusual raspberry varieties you should try

In Åland and the southernmost coastal areas of Finland, you might encounter the wild, ground-creeping European dewberry (Rubus caesius). This relative of the blackberry also grows naturally along the coast of southern Sweden.

The matte berries are the color of blueberries, and they have a strong flavor and plenty of acidity, though they’re not quite as tasty as raspberries or blackberries. Nevertheless, they work well in jams and juices, adding a unique flavor and color. A traditional delicacy enjoyed in Gotland, Sweden, is pancake served with European dewberry jam (“salmbärssylt” in Swedish).

The European dewberry is a great option for a ground cover plant since it spreads and roots quickly from new shoots. It isn’t picky when it comes to soil types, as long as the ground is well-drained. The growing site should be warm. The European dewberry thrives in most of southern Finland. Seedlings are available from seedling nurseries such as Blomqvist and Huutokoski.

If you plan on growing the European dewberry for its berries, it’s wise to support the plants to keep the berries clean. Using plastic mulch can also help with this.

The Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) is a close relative of the raspberry. It should be planted against a warm, south-facing wall. In Finland, the varieties ‘Siperialainen karhunvadelma’ (“Siberian blackberry”) and ‘Sonja’ have overwintered well. Their berries are sweet but very thorny.

The ‘Thornless Evergreen’ variety is thornless and sweet, but it’s not very winter-hardy. Its berries ripen late, so it requires a greenhouse when grown in northern latitudes.

The Allegheny blackberry has been hybridized with many raspberry varieties, resulting in cultivars such as the boysenberry.

In the early 1900s, it was common to see yellow-fruited raspberries in home gardens. The varieties were usually not known by name, though at least the Dutch variety ‘Golden Queen’ was available and still is today. Yellow raspberries are sweet and mild-flavored.

Different varieties

Professional raspberry growers still mostly use the old Canadian varieties ‘Muskoka’ and ‘Ottawa’. In the 1970s, the first Finnish raspberry varieties were developed, and they came on the market in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Red raspberries:

  • ‘Asker’: Resembles wild raspberry, does not require support. An old variety, now rarely sold.
  • ‘Jatsi’: FinE variety with high yield. Tall growth with moderate cane production.
  • ‘Jenkka’: Abundant cane production. Similar to ‘Muskoka’ but more winter-hardy.
  • ‘Maurin Makea’: FinE raspberry, grows in small bushes. Requires pruning to keep the bushes thick.
  • ‘Muskoka’: High-yielding, relatively low-growing with abundant cane production.
  • ‘Ottawa’: High-yielding with sparse cane production. Grows tall.
  • ‘Preussen’: Soft berries, which are best used fresh. Early and long harvest period.
  • ‘Takalan Herkku’: Bushy variety, similar to ‘Maurin Makea’.
  • ‘Ville’: Small berries with the taste of wild raspberries. Tall growth with abundant cane production.

Yellow raspberries:

Yellow raspberries generally have a milder flavor than their red cousins. Varieties include ‘Golden Queen’, which has been grown for a long time in Finland, and ‘Fallgold’. Home gardens may have yellow raspberries of unknown origin, and seedlings have also been transferred to gardens from the wild.

Fall-bearing raspberries:

These shrubby varieties, about a meter tall, produce fruit on the current year’s canes. The harvest begins late in the fall, limiting cultivation to only the most favorable locations.

Most recent
Latest
terve
Terms and conditionsPrivacy policyOur cookie policy