How to Grow Raspberries:
Planting, Pruning, and Picking
★ SaveLearning how to grow raspberries is one of the sweetest things you can do in your garden. Raspberries are among the most productive fruits for a home garden, and a well-kept row bears for 8 to 10 years or more.
Homegrown is the only way to taste raspberries at their best. The soft berries bruise so easily that store-bought berries are picked early and shipped. Ripe from your own canes, they're a different fruit.
From My Garden
Raspberry freezer jam is our absolute family favorite. Nothing beats the sweet, perfume-like flavor of fresh raspberries! We always have a few raspberry plants on our farm and enjoy eating them right off the plants. Very few of them actually make it into the house to be made into some kind of raspberry dish.
Growing up, our next-door neighbor raised strawberries and green beans commercially. I spent my summers in his fields helping harvest the beans and strawberries, and I sometimes helped other neighbors pick raspberries, loganberries, and black raspberries.
I was so excited when I finally turned 16 and could get a work permit for a "real" job. But where did I end up? My first real summer job was at our local cannery, cleaning and sorting strawberries moving by on a conveyor belt, on their way into huge vats of a commercial brand of strawberry jam!
Charlotte
More berries to grow
Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and gooseberries: see all our fruit and berry growing guides.
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Free Raspberry Growing Chart
Click the chart to download the full-size PDF, then print it or save it to Pinterest.
Summer-Bearing or Everbearing?
Raspberry roots live for years, but each cane lives only two seasons. How a variety fruits on those canes decides how you grow and prune it. Knowing which kind you have is the first step in how to grow raspberries.
| Summer-bearing | Everbearing (fall-bearing) | |
|---|---|---|
| When it fruits | Once, in early to midsummer, for about a month | Late summer into fall; can also give a small early summer crop |
| Which canes fruit | Second-year (brown) canes | First-year canes, at the tips |
| Support | Needs a trellis or wires | Usually none needed |
| Pruning | Remove fruited canes after harvest | Easiest: mow all canes to the ground in late winter |
| Good for | A big crop for jam and freezing | Beginners; a long picking season |
Taste local berries before you buy plants so you know which flavor you like best. U-pick farms and farmers markets are a good place to try them.
Red, Black, Purple, and Yellow Raspberries
- Red raspberries are the most widely grown, and spread by suckers into a wide row.
- Black raspberries (blackcaps) grow in clumps; their arching canes root where the tips touch the ground.
- Purple raspberries are a cross of red and black, with big, tart berries great for jam.
- Yellow (golden) raspberries are a red raspberry without the red color, mild and sweet.
Best Raspberry Varieties
| Variety | Type | Zones | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canby | Red, summer | 5-8 | Thornless; extra large, bright red berries; heavy yields |
| Heritage | Red, everbearing | 4-8 | Upright canes; two crops a year; very popular |
| Durham | Red, everbearing | 4-8 | Fall crop plus a summer crop the next year |
| Amber | Yellow, summer | 4-8 | Large, firm, sweet yellow berries |
| Brandywine | Purple, summer | 3-8 | Big wine-purple berries; keep their flavor frozen or canned |
| Logan | Black, summer | 3-8 | Extra large black raspberries; grows in most soils |
Where to Plant Raspberries
Choose full sun and well-drained soil. Raspberries tolerate a few hours of shade but bear less. Soggy soil leads to root rot. Good drainage is a big part of how to grow raspberries that last for years.
- Soil pH: about 6.0 is ideal; they tolerate 5.5 to 7.0. Work in plenty of compost or well-aged manure before planting.
- Avoid old potato, tomato, and eggplant beds. They share verticillium wilt, which can kill raspberries.
- Keep away from wild brambles, which can carry diseases into your patch.
Raspberries make a great edible border around a vegetable garden. Thorny varieties even help keep out intruders! Or plant them in a perennial fruit and vegetable bed with blueberries, asparagus, perennial onions, and strawberries, setting the tallest plants at the back.
How to Plant Raspberries
Plant raspberries in late winter or early spring; in Zone 6 and warmer you can also plant in fall. Buy certified virus-free plants from a nursery.
- Bare-root plants: if you can't plant right away, "heel them in": lay them on the ground and cover the roots with about 4 inches of damp soil or compost so they don't dry out or freeze.
- Depth: set plants 1 to 2 inches deeper than they grew in the nursery, with the crown just below the soil.
- Spacing: 2 to 3 feet apart, in rows 6 to 8 feet apart. Red raspberry rows fill in to 2 to 3 feet wide.
- Cut back: trim new red raspberry canes to about 8 inches; cut black raspberries to just above the ground.
- Water well until the roots are established.
Expect only a handful of berries the first year. After that, a healthy patch rewards you for many seasons.
How to Grow Raspberries: Season-Long Care
- Mulch: keep 3 to 4 inches of compost, aged manure, or straw around the plants. It holds moisture, keeps roots cool, and stops soil splashing on the berries.
- Water: about an inch a week, more while berries are ripening. A soaker hose keeps the leaves dry and helps prevent disease.
- Feed: once in early spring, with compost or a balanced fertilizer (about 1 pound of 10-10-10 per 10 feet of row). Many gardeners also give raspberries compost tea every few weeks.
- Control suckers: pull up suckers that wander outside the row and thin out weak stems so you can reach the berries.
- Support: run a wire or stout cord along each side of summer-bearing rows to hold the canes up.
How to Prune Raspberries
Pruning raspberries is simple once you know which canes fruit. Until then, it's the part of how to grow raspberries that puzzles most beginners.
Summer-bearing raspberries
- Right after harvest, cut the canes that fruited (brown, woody) down to the ground.
- Leave the green new canes; they bear next summer.
- In late winter, thin to the 4 to 6 strongest canes per foot of row, and shorten tall canes by about a third.
Everbearing raspberries
- For one big fall crop, the easiest way: mow or cut all canes to the ground in late winter.
- For two crops, prune like summer-bearing: after the fall crop, leave the canes to bear again early next summer, then remove them.
Keeping the Birds Away
Birds love raspberries as much as we do. To keep them out, netting must surround the plants completely; birds will find any opening.
- Drape netting over a frame or tepee of poles, so it stays off the canes and birds can't reach through.
- Leave a way in for yourself!
- Shiny streamers or scare-eye balloons help for a while, but move them often.
Raspberry Problems
| Problem | Signs | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Mosaic virus | Slow, weak plants; mottled, curled leaves; crumbly berries | Remove the patch; replant certified virus-free plants in a new spot |
| Anthracnose | Purple-edged spots on canes | Prune out infected canes; thin for air flow; remove nearby wild brambles |
| Verticillium wilt | Canes wilt and die in summer | Don't plant after potatoes, tomatoes, or eggplant |
| Root rot | Canes wilt and yellow; roots brown | Plant in well-drained soil or raised rows |
| Birds | Missing berries | Net the whole patch |
Source: University of Minnesota Extension.
Harvesting Raspberries
Ripe raspberries slide easily off their white core. If you have to tug, they aren't ripe yet. Picking every day or two is the sweet reward for learning how to grow raspberries.
- Pick every 2 to 3 days in the cool of the morning.
- Use small, shallow containers so the berries on the bottom aren't crushed.
- Don't wash them until you're ready to eat; refrigerate and use within a couple of days.
- Freeze extras in a single layer on a baking sheet, then bag them. See how to freeze vegetables and berries.
More Raspberries for Free
Raspberries are easy to multiply.
- Red and yellow raspberries send up suckers. Dig rooted suckers in spring and replant them at the same depth.
- Black and purple raspberries root at the cane tips. In late summer, bury a tip a few inches deep; dig up the new plant the next spring.
Only move plants from a healthy patch, so you don't spread disease.
Raspberry Questions
- How long do raspberries take to bear?
- A few berries the first year, and a full crop from the second year on. A healthy patch bears for 8 to 10 years or more.
- Do raspberries need a trellis?
- Summer-bearing raspberries do best with wires or a trellis. Everbearing types are shorter and usually stand on their own.
- When should I prune raspberries?
- Summer-bearing: remove fruited canes right after harvest, and thin and shorten in late winter. Everbearing: cut all canes to the ground in late winter for one fall crop.
- Can I grow raspberries in containers?
- Yes, compact varieties grow well in a pot at least 18 inches wide with good drainage. Water often.
- Why are my raspberries crumbly?
- Often raspberry mosaic virus, or poor pollination in cold, wet weather. Start new patches with certified virus-free plants.
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