Permapotes

Raspberry

Raspberry: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar

The raspberry is a fruiting shrub in the Rosaceae family. Familiar red and yellow raspberries mainly derive from Rubus idaeus. Their soft, fragrant fruits combine sweetness with a degree of acidity and feature in desserts, jams and sauces. Colour, size and the balance between sweetness and sharpness vary between selections, so a large raspberry is not necessarily more flavoursome than a smaller one.

The plant has a perennial crown and root system that produce stems known as canes. Individual canes have a limited lifespan, usually two years, while the whole plant renews itself across successive seasons. This explains why a raspberry plant can carry young green shoots alongside older stems. New suckers may appear nearby, gradually extending the patch beyond the original cluster of canes.

The leaves are compound, with several toothed leaflets. Their undersides are often paler than their upper surfaces. Depending on the selection, the canes may have prickles or be almost spineless. The small flowers, usually white, attract visiting pollinating insects. Their understated appearance contrasts with the colour and shape of the fruits that follow, making the changes through the season easy to recognise.

A raspberry consists of many little drupelets, each containing a seed, gathered around a central receptacle. When ripe, the fruit separates from this receptacle, which stays on the plant, leaving the characteristic hollow centre. This structure explains the delicate texture and the many tiny seeds noticeable when eating the fruit. Botanically it is an aggregate fruit rather than a simple berry, despite the everyday use of that term.

Summer-fruiting varieties mainly crop on canes formed the previous year. Autumn-fruiting varieties can produce on first-year canes from late summer into autumn, with a further summer crop possible on part of those same canes the following year. These differences reflect the plants’ growth patterns, while the exact seasons also depend on climate. An autumn-fruiting or everbearing label does not mean uninterrupted fruiting throughout the year.

In the kitchen, raspberries pair with yoghurt, cream, chocolate and other fruits. They appear in tarts, fruit sauces, sorbets and preserves, while their fragrance also makes them popular eaten plain. In a fruit garden, the raspberry combines a lasting underground framework with visibly renewed canes. Its flowers and fruits offer a chance to observe this seasonal sequence within a planting of soft fruit.

Raspberry
Raspberry
Characteristics
  • Exposure : Partial Shade
  • Frost Hardiness : Frost Resistant
  • Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
  • Mature height : 150 cm
Sowing & Planting
  • Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
  • Plant Spacing : 80 cm
Maintenance
  • Maintenance : Moderate
  • Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
  • Soil Type : Humus-rich
  • Soil pH Preference : Neutral
  • Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Pollination : Insect-pollinated
  • Propagation : Cutting