Hi Everyone! It is finally warm enough to start doing gardening work. My mulch is coming next week and so I thought about putting up a raspberry trellis. I thought I would start a picture thread where we all can show off our raspberry trellis systems and discuss their benefits and drawbacks.
I chose the I-Trellis system because it is easy to make and compact. I found some cheap 6 foot cedar posts and buried them 1 foot into the ground and screwed them into the plantar box from the inside. Then drilled at 2 and 4 feet above the planter box and put a loop of heavy duty clothesline and tightener. Overall a straightforward project for a not too handy person such as myself and keeps the aesthetics of my yard that I am looking for. I was able to complete it in a few hours. I had hoped to get the posts in a bit deeper but I hit rocky subsoil past that. My beds are 2x12 feet.
The pictured setup looks fine for raspberries. If the endposts are unstable side2side (due to the shallow bury), consider putting a brace from the raised bed corner to the height on the lower wire for each endpost.
I took inspiration from this post and some other resources to put up my raspberry trellis system this past weekend. I used some old T-posts, 3/32" stainless steel cable, and stainless wire rope clamps. I ran two cables and eyeballed the heights, I think the lower one is ~18" and the upper one is ~48". I probably could have done with a third height but I wanted to see how I fared with 2 first.
A “V” trellis like above allows you to tie your fcanes to either side of the V. This separates them some giving more light… and allows a open space in the center for your new primocanes to come up thru.
Your primocanes come up in the middle… and your fruiting fcanes are on the outside edge for easy fruit picking.
Once your fcanes are finished fruiting… you can cut and remove them… then separate and tie your new primocanes to the outside wires.
Just having support wires in the middle and a single post on each end… can get a bit crazy when you have floricanes fruiting and primocanes coming up in the midst of all that… and only one wire in the middle to tie all that too.
I have done it both ways… but prefer the V trellis now for both blackberries and raspberries.
Hello, I’m looking to build a similar trellis for my erect and semi-erect blackberries. What gauge wire did you use and how did you tie it off? Any tips for placing t-posts in the ground at an angle?
I used best I remember 5 ft u-post… and 17 ga wire… purchased at local TSC store to make it.
For a small bed like that it worked well.
Of course you could beef that up quite a bit by changing to t-post and a heavier Gauge wire or steel cable. If you were making longer beds you might want to do that.
When I drove those post in I tried to keep the bottom of the posts 1.5 ft apart and the top 3 ft apart. Got pretty close on that.
Photo of the basic t-post trellis I built yesterday below. Used chain-link fence galvanized tension wire and it seems to be doing well. Enlisted my teenager to help me cut the wire to the required lengths. Blackberry varieties from closest to furthest away from the camera are Arapaho (2nd year), Navaho (3rd year), Sweetie Pie (4th year), Osage (3rd year), Ouachita (2nd year), Caddo (1st year) and Triple Crown (1st year). Not shown I also have Snowbank (2nd year), Prime-Ark Freedom (2nd year) and five Baby Cakes (2nd and 3rd year) blackberries in containers.
This is the wire i use… 1/4 mile for under $30. I also use baling twine on my bottom wire for the floppy stuff. I started out and still have some rows with barbed wire on the bottom wire due to my pups…but they learned really fast how to jump over it and crawl under them…so that was foolish of me and a waste of time. 17 gauge for me is perfect… you can pull it really tight with a pair of pliers and it bends really easily by fingers… the spool isnt that heavy either so running a long length isnt super cumbersome.
I have one test row that is about 100 feet and i pulled it tight with a tensioner about 3 years ago. It is still working well…but i probably wont do that again…waste of time and money for me… Tying them off every 25 feet is fine for what im doing.
20000 feet of baling twine for under $20 would be all that a person would really need. Im going on 3 years on some rows and it still looks new… Really handy with my black raspberries as i can just cut the twine if i need and restring it very fast. Some people say it harbors disease etc but idk… hasnt bothered anything of mine yet. Maybe with tomatoes? Regardless you can pull this super tight and its very easy to work with. YMMV.
Putting out a call for everyone to keep showing off their raspberry trellises. I’m trying to figure out the easiest way to trellis mine, and would love to see yours.
I have a 3’ wide bed that is about 15’ long and against the property line where I’ll be putting up a 6’ wire fence in a few weeks. I don’t love the idea of tacking them up against the fencing because then I’ll loose a bunch of berries to the deer/animals on the other side. But, I can’t walk between the fence and the plants. Trying to decide on just T posts and wires (do you tie them to the wires or just make them grow sandwiched between? Or, each year, keep wrapping jute around the posts and berries the way tomatoes can be trellised up?) or T posts with cross bars and wires or I have no idea what. Cattle panels are a little complicated for me to acquire, and I don’t have enough left to use right now. If I go through renting a trailer again and getting more, that requires attaching each cane or weaving them through?
I like this kind of trellis myself. I use wire and baling twine. The top wire is all that really matters… baling twine on bottom for boundaries and training works for me
This is the 2nd year with the setup below. Works great with the Caroline raspberries I’ve got. That trellis is about 70’ long and the bed is between 1.5’ - 2’ wide. Just installed drip irrigation on the bottom wire that’s 6” off the ground. The two other wires are at 2’ and 5’.
This is the setup I’m using this year for Prime-Ark Freedom blackberries and Joan J raspberries. Same setup except the drip line is ground level. These are about 35’-40’ long.
I like the “V” setup @TNHunter uses. You could also instal a cross bar to achieve a similar situation with just one Tpost. You can purchase them from a vineyard supplier at different lengths up to 3’ or make something similar with 2x4’s and a U bolt from your local big box store. See video below.
Similar t-post method for me. 8’ posts, 12.5ga wire, klipon tree ties. Constructed just a week ago, so I can’t yet comment on overall effectiveness or yearly ease of use. Black and red raspberries.
Yep, that’s the gist of it. There are a myriad of different ways to prune, all of which depend on when you want to harvest and what types of canes you have.
You can have summer cropping, fall cropping, or double bearing. I personally focus on fall bearing, pruning is easier (chop all the canes down in late winter) and I feel like you I get a higher yield and a higher quality of fruit. This is also highly dependent on personal preference, variety, and location.
When the canes hit the 2’ wire I prune out all the spindly canes at the ground and tie in the remaining canes with jute twine. Then tie them in again at the 5’ wire. Harvest in fall and cut them back to the ground in late winter.
You can get an extra crop if you let them over winter. Pruning then gets a little complicated and vines tend to get messy crowded and potentially more at risk from disease because of lack of airflow and sunlight. Just my opinion.
I drive a rebar or metal EMT conduit stake into the ground about 3’ and run a tension wire to it, then tighten it using a big turnbuckle. See pic below.
You could also use this . It’s called an “earth anchor.” You use a drill to drive it into the ground. I use it as an auger to plant bulbs too. The longer the better.
