i want to plant a bed of raspberries this spring .......what is your favorite variety? When is the best time to plant? what kind of soil should i reach for?


Tanks.

Make sure it will grow in your zone . I got mine from a guy here on Tman and he lives in MN . they are blacks

I would go for a variety called 'Jacklyn'. It is a very early fall raspberry with good size and wonderful flavor. You mow them down every winter and the suckers produce in the fall. No worries about winter kill.

If you can overwinter summer types (floricane producers) then I would look at varieties out of British Columbia's breeding program such as 'Tulameen' or 'Chilliwack'. Out of Washington states program there are also some dandies including 'Cascade Delight' which is one I've been growing commercially for many years now.

Cascade Delight:

Black raspberries grow wild all over around here. I have no idea the variety but they make awesome jelly!

Wild raspberries have better flavor. The domestic raspberries are larger and most varieties have 2 crops of berries a year.

I have thousands of black raspberry bushes on my farm that grow wild. The berries taste great, but it gets to dry here most years and the previous years canes that the berries grow on die before most of the berries ripen. I am going to dig some up this Fall and plant them where I can water them and keep them from having to compete with weeds. Raspberries have shallow roots and dry out easily in hot dry weather, if not watered.

I have red and yellowish orange domestic raspberries. They taste decent, but not as good as the wild raspberries. The berries are around 4 times as large as the wild berries.

The yellows had a decent crop a few weeks ago. The reds have berries now. Both will most likely have a second crop around September.

I don't know what cultivars the domestic raspberries are. A friend gave me starts from Bloomington, Indiana last year.

I had 12 other domestic red raspberry bushes a few years ago that had huge problems with fungus on the leaves and berries.

Keith

My patch at home is summer bearing Latham. The patch I started over by my son's place last year are fall bearing. Right in the middle of picking the summer patch right now. Have not had enough experience with the fall bearing for me to know flavor, yield and winter hardiness.

The nice advantage of the fall bearing is you can mow the whole patch off. The summer ones you need to cane out the patch and take out those canes that produced berries this year.

Bryce

They will spread. Pick a site with plenty of room.