Propagating raspberries
I don’t normally feel this Pollyanna-ish about weeding. But when dozens of little raspberry suckers pop up in my veg patch and ask to be pulled up, I can’t help but look on the bright side.
Raspberries propagate themselves by sending up suckers from their shallow root systems. Left alone, these will soon turn your neat plot into a thicket, but if you pull them up once they are about six inches tall, making sure you gently ease out as good a quantity of root as you can manage, you can increase your stocks.
I’ve got about six little cuttings sitting on my balcony at the moment in pots, waiting to grow up. Not all take root, of course, but if I give them a good supply of water and warmth then I can propagate enough canes to double my stocks of autumn- and summer-fruiting raspberries, and give some away to gardeners I particularly like. Now if only I could feel so cheery about digging up bindweed…
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Those suckers! Got so annoyed with them one year and in the heat of the moment I pulled all my raspberries out. What was I thinking? Sure do regret it now. But this spring, I suddenly see a few suckers coming up. Will those grow up to be big fruit bearing plants?
Hi Annelie,
Yes they will! You should see them producing canes for fruiting the following year…although when they actually produce a crop depends on whether or not they are autumn-fruiting or summer-fruiting. My autumn-fruiting suckers should produce fruits next year, which is fabulous!
Issy
Thanks for this site: I have only one rasberry plant. ( can some one out there can answer this ) If I push some extra soil up to my plant root area around it & higher, Will it produce more suckers ? (( So we can start more plants to increase our stock of plants)) Thk’s Will & Peg ( in Calif)
Hi Will,
I’m not sure it would encourage more suckers per se, although obviously mulching with a good garden compost will promote vigorous growth. Raspberries are very shallow rooting, and spread their roots out over a fairly wide area. I have suckers coming up at least two foot away from their parent plants.
Hope that helps.
Isabel