This Bushel & Berry Raspberry shortcake is in the pot since mid April, its growing but putting our less vertical growth but filling the pot. I am wondering if I should thin the plant and make it less crowded to get some stalks grow taller and flower. Inputs appreciated.
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In my location you’d want all those canes.
It probably looks more crowded than it really is because the leaves are very close together. I’ve never bothered to thin the stalks of my “Raspberry Shortcake” and it has been fine.
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I am in PNW 8b, which location is yours and why all the canes?
Thanks, is yours in the ground or pot, does this variety produces good harvest?
It is in ground. It produces well, but I wish it was only a floricane producer since the primocane crop is too late to ripen well in my location. I’m actually a few years into growing out seedlings from it in hopes of finding a new dwarf which puts all is energy into the floricane crop and wastes no energy on a primocane crop. Interestingly every seedling I grew from it is/was dwarf and the vast majority were also thornless.
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Good to know, I was considering to put them in a raised bed - space is premium in my small yard and wasn’t sure if they are good to give them a permanent location. Do you think both crops will ripen in Oregon zone 8B. Also, is it possible to post a couple of pictures I am interested to see how it will spread when put in a deep raised bed.
I don’t have pictures handy, but most of the canes will emerge very close together. However it will on occasion send up a cane that travels away from the clump.
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I might have to give this variety a second chance. The one I had in a large container didn’t make it last year and I hadn’t replaced it yet.
@JohannsGarden circling back on this thread. The Shortcake variety I grew this year produced tasty berries but each plant even in a 20" container and ample berry fertilizer could only produce half a pint throughout the season. I don’t know if this is because the plants were young or something else. I also want to know how do you prune this? do you cut back to the ground every fall?
No, I don’t prune back in the fall. My biggest crop from them is the floricane crop with very minimal primocane ripening before the weather gets cool here so trimming back anything beyond the dead tips of new canes or dead second year canes would destroy my crop for the following year.
ok thanks. How to tell if a cane will fruit in summer?
If it’s a newly emerging cane from “Raspberry Shortcake” it will produce fruit on side branches the following year as well as a bit of primocane fruit at the tip in its first year. If it is a second year cane it will be very obviously covered with fruiting side branches. After that the canes die which is pretty easy to see when visually inspecting. All you need to do is remove the older dead canes or if you want you can remove them as they are declining after the fruit is harvested.