Need Raspberry Advice

Looks like you have others growing in tho! Those might be better. Does that plant just have one cane coming up or more? How about the other rasps, and how tall are they now?

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Yes this plant only had a single shoot. But my other rasps have sent up several new shoots. No berries have developed on those. I guess the berry I picked is considered a flourocane berry or part of the summer crop which apparently is not as good as the primocane fall crop. Maybe I’m wrong though

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If that’s a Fall Gold, it’s an everbearer, or fall bearer, meaning it fruits on this year’s canes, called primocanes. They will fruit thru the year, I believe, until the first frost. Next year, if those canes aren’t cut to the ground, they become the floricanes and fruit in late summer, and the new primocanes fruit in the fall.

I think that’s how it works. Some folks just cut down all the canes at the end of year, so the plant will fruit the next year in late summer/early fall on the primocanes. I think all yellow/gold rasps are fall bearers.

Summer bearers, fruit in summer on second year canes only, called floricanes. Those get pruned down to the ground, and that year’s primocanes are left for the next year’s crop.

Primocanes look greenish, while the floricanes look brownish.

Of course, I could be wrong about all of it, but I think that’s basically how it works. I remember you mentioning not wanting to deal with one and two year canes, so that’s why you went with everbearers, and just mow them all down in the winter.

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I grow Kiwi Gold, a sport of Heritage, that doesn’t look like it, looks like Anne a bit from what I remember when I grew that variety.

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Fall Gold is everbearing from what I understand. I thought everbearing raspberries fruited on this years primocane and last years flourovane. Technically what I planted was last years flourocane and that is what fruited. This plant hasn’t sent up any primocane yet.

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I’ve had Fall Gold for 5 years now, here’s my experience in Minnesota; the floricane crop (last years canes) starts about the last week of June. Most of the harvest comes in a 2-3 week window, as you’re picking the last of the berries the canes are visibly dying. Most years, once I’ve harvested 80-90% of the berries (usually the last few berries are quite small and poor quality) I then use a pruner to completely remove the cane’s at ground level and BURN them, here’s what my floricane crop looks like right now. . .


Actually had my first ripe one yesterday, but most of the crop is 1 and a half to 2 weeks away.
The primocanes are about 3 feet tall now and growing fast. They generally start producing ripe fruit the last week of August and keep going for several weeks or until a hard frost shuts them down.
Picking the fall raspberries is my favorite berry picking, all the fruit is generally on the top 18 inches of the canes, no stooping, bending. . . its right there.
IMO the term “everbearing” is a bit of a misnomer. When I bought my “everbearing” raspberries I was expecting a steady stream of berries all summer. But the reality is, you get a nice crop for 2-3 weeks in June and July, then a good month or more with nothing, and then another nice crop in late summer/fall.

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Yes, fall bearers can fruit on both this and last year’s canes.If that was a new cane that sprouted and fruited, it would be a primocane. I think you said that you didn’t prune down the original cane on any of your rasps? If that came off that cane, I guess it could be a floricane. No matter, sounds like your plants are doing well.

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Thanks, Mike, that’s helpful to see a real world example. How does the flavor, quantity and size of the fruit compare in regards to the this year’s and last year’s canes? What kind of flavor in general is FG, and would you recommend it? Do you have any other black or raspberries?

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Every cane is a little different, some get a huge crop in the fall and not as much the next summer, while others make a smaller fall crop and a bigger summer crop the next year. I think it depends on when they emerge, some are popping up in April while others don’t get going until late May even early June.
As far as the difference in the crops I would say the fall ones are slightly bigger/better probably because the canes are so much more healthy/vigorous when producing as opposed to the summer crop which is produced on canes that are about to die or even dying as they fruit. The summer ones are still great though. Like with most fruits the first ones are best and then the size/quality gradually declines, and thats true of the fall crop as well. Both crops taste the same to me.[quote=“subdood_ky_z6b, post:108, topic:9755”]
What kind of flavor in general is FG, and would you recommend it?
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They are very sweet with little of the tartness most raspberries are known for, a very fruity almost tropical flavor to me. My wife tells people they are sweet like a strawberry. When we have people over to pick it’s always a favorite with the kids. The down side is the size is generally smaller than many other raspberries and they have zero shelf life- they often fall apart in the bowl, you would never see these in the grocery store. That said, for our needs, eating out of hand and freezing the rest for smoothies , they’re great. I highly recommend it. Also, our winters are so severe that I often lose many raspberry canes to the severe cold and dry, desicating winds, sometimes 50% or more. I’ve never lost a Fall Gold, its the toughest, most cold hardy of them all.

I have some wild blacks that I’ve been letting encroach in my patches and Prelude, Anne, Heritage, Purple Royalty, Red Latham, Double Gold, Joan J, and Crimson Night

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Thanks. Wow, that’s some bad attrition on your rasps. I’ve read that Killarney, Nova and Boyne are more cold hardy, those might work out better for you. So, the extreme cold kills the floricanes, but not the whole plant?

I wanted a Royalty this year, but places ran out of them. Fall Gold sounds like another to consider. I did buy one from Tractor Supply, along with a Brandywine and heritage, but we know what happened there. If the ones we have do well next year, I’d like to add Royalty, Nova, Fall Gold, and maybe Encore or Josephine.

Since we’re growing Anne, Double Gold and Prelude, I’d like to hear how they’ve done for you. Sorry to keep pestering you with questions!

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Yeah the magic is in the roots and even if the floricanes winterkill new canes just shoot up for the fall crop. What stinks is when I lose Purple Royalty or Red Latham cane’s, no fall crop with those.

We love Anne, HUGE berries and great flavor. Not quite as vigorous as others, it doesn’t spread as readily. I try to give it prime spots sun wise and work to keep other canes from encroaching on its territory. Double Gold we just got last year so I don’t have much experience with it yet. I would say it taste’s similar to Fall Gold with a bit bigger berries.
If I had to pick only one raspberry to grow it would be Prelude, huge berry size, great yields, and great flavor. Probably my second most winter hardy after Fall Gold.
I’ll have to try some of those varieties you mentioned, the nice thing now is we have so many we always have enough for our use, the amount of winterkill just dictates how much sharing we get to do.
Glad to answer your ?'s Bob, I’ve learned a ton lurking for years here and on garden web, and I’ve learned a ton from your great questions of others and their responses. Its nice to share some of the little bit of the experience I’ve gained so far. . . and its nice to take a break from sanding my deck.

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Good to hear about the three varieties we both have, sounds like they should be great. We’ll see about the others, they may end up being better. The cool thing about berries is you don’t have to wait three or more years to see if they’re any good, like fruit trees.

I think we’ll be OK as far as winter hardiness goes. We had a bad winter (for us) two years ago, with temps down around -6 and -14 on consecutive nights. But this winter our lowest temps were about 10 a couple nights. That seems to be the norm for this area. I believe it was our mildest winter. Some evidence of that is lots of bugs, namely mosquitoes, and we seem to have a lot more wild black and raspberries, which means there wasn’t a lot of winterkill, maybe.

Thanks for the responses I’ve been in and out today, spent a lot of time planting the last of our indoor grown veggies. Just got done putting up a fishing line fence around the cuke/leafy veggie plot. Deer will shred a plot like that. I still need to run a fenceline around the tater/peas/okra/zuke plot, and that will do it for all the plots.

I also spent time at Garden Web, and somehow found this place last year and joined up. It’s been an invaluable resource for me, plus it’s nice to chat with folks from all over and share our experiences. It’s my version of Facebook, my wife has an account on there, but I don’t. I just glom on her account, which irritates her.

You mentioned working on the deck, I’ve been in the process over the last three years of slowly changing the deck boards. I’ve done maybe a third of them, and my wife would really like me to finish it. But, we have so much other chores to do, I just keep putting it off!

Alright, better get out there and put that last fence up. Have a good evening.

BTW, did you watch the Stanley Cup finals? I was rooting for Nashville, I thought it’d be cool if Tenn had the Cup. Too bad they lost game 6, and title, the way they did there at the end. It was a good finals, regardless.

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Sorry, I only watch tennis

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sun scald might be a issue if its in full sun all day but heritage is a very prolific plant. keep well watered and mulched and they should do ok.

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if you want blackberries try the baby cakes dwarf blackberries. they only get 3ft.and are thornless. I’m in zone 3 so i struggle to grow blackberries here too. these produce in summer and fall but your growing season probably would be too short with out a greenhouse

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As a die hard Penguins fan I must say I was very happy with the way the finals turned out :smiley:

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my favorite berry is autumn britten here in zone 3b. not as vigorous but has good sized slightly tart berries. liked the heritages but our frosts killed them before i got even half the fruit off of them and the horntail wasp raised havoc with them. just ripped them out. . polka and jaclyn are my second / third pick for ever bearers. just planted anne, joan j and caroline. also planted ohio treasure black raspberry, arctic raspberry, and thimbleberries. looking forward to some fruit from them next summer! crossed fingers! what is SWD? never heard of it. what does its damage look like? don think we have it here yet.

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SWD is spotted wing drosophila. Its a tiny fly that ruins berry fruits in many areas. It damages fruit and causes them to taste like vinegar.

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OK, I did watch the women’s French Open final, or most of it. That girl from Latvia surprised a lot of folks by winning it. I didn’t see the men’s final, it’s Nadal’s home court it seems, he hardly ever loses there. They prob need to rename the court after him…

I do like Wimbledon, prob my favorite tournament. I love watching tennis on grass.

Heh…

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Is SWD not a problem with summer bearers? Conversely, are they an issue with fall bearers?

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