I am wondering if anyone has had any luck stopping raspberries from spreading underground? I have a number of plants I wish to put into a bed together and can establish this out in a field, however, I would prefer to put them in a row in my garden/nursery and grow them there. I don’t want them to spread underground and pop up all over the garden area, so was wondering if a raised bed setup could assist with this. Does hindering the plant from spreading hinder its vigor/health?
Also, is there a downside to planting red yellow, purple and black raspberries together? Online sometimes indicates this isn’t wise due to disease transfer issues. What is your experience?
So the way raspberries spread is via underground rhizomes. Putting them in a raised bed with something under it would contain it. Thing is raspberry are biannual so the canes are supposed to be cut down. In ground they will pop up everywhere. In my experience a few canes will not build to much.
there are a lot of different rasphberry’s. And related species (like blackberry wineberry etc, and even hybrids like tayberry)
They are all in the genus Rubus.
Generally the floricane Rubus species/cultivars tend to spread by tip rooting. And are thus much easier in keeping from spreading all over the place. (just tie up the canes so the tip doesn’t touch ground)
They form canes from the same spot in the ground every year.
The primocane species/cultivars tend to spread from the roots. And spread quite fast and far.
I have thought about this, but I don’t mind them spreading because I just dig them up and pot them to give to friends. Gave away 3 likely double gold yesterday. But I was thinking if you took like that little plastic landscaping edging and circled your raspberry plantings if that would limit the rhizomes spreading or do nothing at all. They tend to spread very close to the surface so maybe if you got one 7” or so into the ground it could really be effective? Maybe someone has tried this
Raised bed will not stop them. You can somewhat contain them if you dig a deep trench around their bed (like 2 ft deep at least and put hard plastic sheets in it. Even then, they will eventually find the way out. Put different type of raspberries in same bed could be a problem, unless they spread same way. Not all raspberries spread underground, some like black spread by rooting branches, so maintenance will be tough
MUCH easier to grow black raspberries if you are worried about the spreading issue. Red raspberries sucker everywhere. Black spread primarily from the floricanes bending over and hitting the ground allowing the tips to root out. I find it easy to just cut the tips off to prevent rooting. Unless I purposely save a few for friends who ask me for some black raspberry plants ( those I dig up in the spring just as they leave out).
Actually, once I am done picking my black raspberries in July (floricanes), I cut them off to ground level.
No need to wait until the following spring as the canes are biennial and would be dead anyway. By harvest time, the mother plant has sent up lots of new shoots around the base that are bright green bark color. Leave those for the following years crop. Prune out the floricanes right after harvest. The floricanes will have purple bark color.
Raspberries are right up there with mint and dandelions when it comes to trying to control them once they’re in the ground and established. You can try, but it’s not worth the hassle. The good news is that raspberries make delicious fruit. I planted raspberries years back and since then they’ve been growing up randomly here and there 10-20 feet away from the original plant. I just remove the ones I don’t want and let the rest grow.
Raised beds might help a bit. I’ve got neighbours trying this and they seem fairly confined, but like others have pointed out they’ll escape eventually.
I don’t see any issue with planting different varieties together. If you have the space to plant them in separate locations then sure. I would only do that for aesthetic reasons though, not because I’m worried about disease.
this is what I did using root barrier from Home Depot, trenched around the bed and sun the barrier 18" deep. I’ll find out next year if it worked or not.
@Oscar, I don’t know about other species of Rubus; but all of the red raspberry varieties that I grow (Rubus idaeus), both floricane and primocane types, spread readily through their roots. Since some of the plants grow in a border along my vegetable garden, I’m constantly weeding out the suckers that pop up from the roots.
I have a very long borderless raised bed… mulched with wood chips. It is 4 ft wide x 90 ft long.
It includes fruit trees, goumi bushes, raspberries, strawberries… a few other misc things here and there… walking onions, chives, longevity spinach okinawan spinach.
The raspberries (reds mostly) were started in just a few places along that bed in 2020… but today have spread all along the length of it… i went from 3 herritage red canes to 100 or more in just a few years.
Sometimes canes pop up where I dont want them… north (shadey side)… i either whack them off, or transplant them. They can move as much as 6 ft in a year by root shoots up and down that bed. The whole bed has raspberries in it now… and i have transplanted HR raspberries two other beds in a diff location.
If they come up outside the bed in the grass… they get mowed.
Red raspberries are the ideal food forest bed understory cane fruits… they will fill in any bare spots you have.
I am getting loads of red raspberries right now…
In those other beds i have… i have some blacks, purples and HR mixed in.
I have 1 fall gold raspberry cane left… but it is pushing 2 nice pcanes now… i like them but they are not as vigorous at spreading as the reds.
I think the only way to easily keep reds from spreading in all directions… is to plant them in a bed (a defined space) and mow around that defined space weekly. We mow weekly here… but I am sure mowing less frequently would work too.
Let them spread anywhere they want in that defined space… but mow them outside it.
I’ve grown many varieties of floricane-fruiting red raspberries, but they all seemed to at least bear some flowers on the primocanes late in the season. I’ve always thought that all red raspberries have the potential to bear fruit on primocanes, given a long enough season; but that might not be true. However, all of the so-called primocane-fruiting varieties also bear fruit on the same canes (floricanes) the following season; so, I’m not sure how you would find a floricane-only variety.
The only fcane fruiting raspberries i have grown was a mystery black raspberry … that was ordered as fall gold… and purple royalty and bristol black…
None of those had blossoms the first fall… only bloomed on 2nd year fcanes.
I have not tried a fcane fruiting red yet.
My reds are Herritage and Joan J… both everbearing.
Here in the south… everbearing raspberries… especially reds… produce berries from August until first hard frost (normally early/mid November). A slow trickle in crop.
Then in the spring they produce a very abundant crop mid May to mid June. Jam making time.
Got my first ripe berries about a week ago… starting to get a lot daily now.
I tried building an underground wood box, as a barrier, around a patch of Glencoe and crimson night raspberries that I planted last year hoping to keep them contained. I used 1 foot deep wood and that didn’t do anything except waste my energy. They grew right underneath of them… the ever bearing are tough to contain by me. My double golds are out of control. I seriously can’t control them, just cut them down where I see them…that’s about all I can do. My June bearers (floricanes) behave well for the most part.