Gardening Question for Ann

[Cathrin]

Hi Ann,

I remember that you grow Raspberries, but what I can't remember is how you grow them, Mark swears that you grow them in pots but I wasn't sure.
You see Mark saw one for the cut down price or £2 (and it is growing) but not much as it is a bit late in the season, the trouble is we don't have that much spare ground, my question is can you grow Raspberries just as well in big pots like Mark says or do they need to go in the ground?
I would be surprised if we got any fruit from it this year but he knows that, so that is not the problem just want to make sure it is possible before we stick it in a frost proof expensive terracotta pot.
Cat

[Ann]

What a good memory Mark has! He's right, I grow them in a big pot in the front patio. Here they are as of 5 minutes ago.



The pot's about 17/18" in diameter. In the spring I give them some bonemeal or manure and then when I begin feeding the tomatoes, I give the rasps some of the same feed too. I don't get a huge crop, but always enough to stash pots of puree in the freezer.

[Cathrin]

Thanks for the quick reply, Mark has now put them in a very big pot, but seeing yours we know we will not get any fruit this year from them
They are now where nearly that well grown .... or grown at all come to think of it LOL, the shoots are about 8 inches high *sigh* lots of food may help a bit.

[Ann]

I think it took a couple of years for mine to settle in and start producing properly. This years canes will die back later on and new growth should appear that will fruit next year. One year, when we must have had a very mild winter, they grew to about 9'. I had to stand on a chair to pick the fruit at the top!

[Cathrin]

Just to let you know Ann that they are growing, not fast but they are moving on up with a few extra leaves.
Thanks for that info Mark is quite chuffed that they are growing, we only got 2 canes out of the original pot alive (the others hadn't made it) but at a £1 a cane I think that is pretty good seeing as he is the only one that likes Raspberries

[Ann]

Raspberries are tough! They also don't care what the weather does, they still keep on producing fruit. I'm harvesting at the moment, I've already had 3 pots full and there's plenty more to come.

[Ann]

Thought you might like to see what I've picked over just the last 3 days. I'd already picked 2 more sievefuls over the past week or two and there's still more to come, so you can get a pretty decent crop from growing them in a pot.

[Cathrin]

Mark will be impressed
How may canes do you have in that pot Ann?

[Ann]

I think there were only about 4. It's hard to tell now as the new canes are shooting up. I know every year I think there don't look many and I'll not get a good crop, but then when I come to pick them, there are loads.

I always puree and freeze them as I love the flavour and hate all the pips and the puree freezes beautifully. I already have 8 single portion sized pots in the freezer (including the ones in the pic) and anticipate about another 3 portions before they're finished. I love the puree poured on top of rice pudding.

Remind me when you visit and we'll have pancakes with home grown raspberry puree and whipped cream one day!

[Cathrin]

Now that sounds yummy, and yes we are still coming, we just need to find a cat sitter

[Ann]

How are your raspberry canes doing this year?

I see it was mid July that I was harvesting last year, everything's much earlier this year. For the first time ever I've been able to eat my own strawberries whilst Wimbledon is on.

This is what I'm about to puree.

[Cathrin]

I think you are going to have to post some to us Ann, we have just 3, yes I did say 3 Raspberries coming on 1 cane .... but at least they are still growing
They also have new canes coming from the base so I am hoping for better things next year.

The Fig has gone mad and we have a crop of apples on our Cox tree at last so Mark will not have to do a Washington and chop it down LOL (ok it's an apple and not a cherry tree, but we do have 2 of those as well)
All our fruiting plants seem to get better year on year so I can't complain.

[Ann]

I think takes the canes a couple of years to get established, but once they get going you should get a decent crop every year. My crop isn't as good as last years, but it's enough to stock the freezer up again.