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I’m kinda half regretting the plant to be honest, it’s spreading vicariously, maybe giving it my cannabis nutrient runoff wasn’t the best idea…
Most of it is maintained with constant mowing of the grass/clover mix, rest I try to cut the sprouts as they appear. Gonna give it one more try this year with a little effort and see if the payoff is worth it.
So how should this be properly dealt with in the spring?
So a couple things.
Rasberries, blackberries, etc are biennial fruiters on a single cane.
Last years new canes will fruit this year and die off after fruiting. Probably only half or so of those canes are actually alive (coming out of winter, they'll fruit this year). New canes will come up from below and those canes won't fruit this year. They'll be the fruiting canes for next year. Once a cane has fruited, that's that and it dies off.
First maintenance step is to remove the dead canes from last year. They ain't doing shit. Clip them out at the base and mulch them.
Second step is more editorial, but I highly recommend this. You don't need to allow all of this years canes to grow/ go into fruiting. These put out so many canes that it can actually get in the way of accessing the fruit/ putting out quality fruit. I would recommend picking and choosing which of the fruiting canes you want to keep for this year. Make the decision based on how easily the cane will be to access for harvest (you don't want a crap ton of fruit in a place that's a PITA to get to)/ the health or size of the cane. Reducing the number of canes will allow the remaining canes to produce larger clusters of healthier fruit. I'd cut out almost half or so of the canes that will be fruiting this year, most just to improve access.
Looking at that patch, I would estimate maybe 1-2 hrs or less of actual maintenance required. Very small price to pay for fruit.
Fan fucking tastic write up growmie, that made all of the guides and stuff I was trying wade through make total sense.
Yeah the fruiting canes last year were so dense it was hard to even find the fruit and pick it.
I’ll get rid of all the tall ones and remove a good portion of the canes, I need to get in there to pull out the mulch to replace anyways, it’s 5 years old and was getting pretty rotted.
Don't be afraid to yeet some cannabis nutrient in there too, especially around flower/ fruit set.
Oh I usually do. I would use my soil runoff, but now when I vacuum out my reservoirs I’ll spread it around between the flowers trees and gardens. So it’s not as often, but it’s gonna be stroooong
I had a bunch of outdoor garden nutrients I bought before starting cannabis, so once that’s gone if it needs a pick me up I can whip up a batch of something.
Dealt with as in removal or care? For care, raspberries don't take much, they grow like weeds. A little food and mulch and they'll be happy as clams. Just remove the dead canes after they fruit.
For removal, dig them up and make sure you get as much root as you can. They like to grow horizontally underground and pop back up some distance away.
Gonna give it one more year before removing, unless it works out better this year.
Just remove the dead canes after they fruit.
So the tall ones that fruited last year can be removed? I thought it was the established second year plus that fruited continually?
I personally just wait until the leaves are starting to bud so I can tell what's alive and what's dead, then clear out the dead ones. Make sure your gloves are good as it's all prickly sticks you'll be dealing with.