Wild Raspberry cultivation

[Ditch Monkey]

Has anyone tried cutting back wild raspberry at the end of the fruit cycle? This is what you do with cultivated raspberries and it encourages a larger harvest next time, I would be interested to learn if it works with wild ones.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Our raspberry canes seem to be on a two year cycle. New cane growth in the first year and fruit in the second. I'm not sure whether its the species we have or the fact that we seem to have longer winters/shorter summers and so they can't fruit in the same year as they grow.

As to your exact question, give it a go and see what happens.



Ogri the trog

 

[Ditch Monkey]

Give it a go and see what happens?

If I had a pound for every injury that started with someone saying that

I'll give it a go but suspect in two years time I will have forgotten all about it.

 

[Moonraker]

Has anyone tried cutting back wild raspberry at the end of the fruit cycle? This is what you do with cultivated raspberries and it encourages a larger harvest next time, I would be interested to learn if it works with wild ones.

You need to bear in mind there are two typical types of raspberry, summer and autumn cropping.

Summer-fruiting raspberries (i.e. wild) behave like blackberries, fruiting on one-year-old canes that are cut out after harvest and then replaced by the young canes. The old fruiting canes, once they have borne the fruit, die back naturally. Cutting the canes just tidies them up in a garden.

Autumn-fruiting varieties, however, are cut to the ground in late winter to make way for new canes that will grow from the base and fruit the same year.

Often in the wild the canes become pretty crowded and some thinning may encourage more decent cropping. You could always transplant some canes in the dormant season to help them spread but only if there are plenty of existing plants.

Don't be tempted to plant garden varieties into wild woods as they will cross breed with the native species. You often find garden escapes though, close to dwellings or ruins.

 

[locum76]

if you cultivate them, will they still be wild? dig up some canes in autumn - stick them in an available garden, cut them right back and wait for a year.

 

[Moonraker]

if you cultivate them, will they still be wild? dig up some canes in autumn - stick them in an available garden, cut them right back and wait for a year.

They will have the same characteristics as they had in the wild. Garden cultivars are selected and bred for specific qualities from the original stock, such as bigger drupes (berries), sweeter flavour etc. It is possible that the wild ones could cross-breed with garden varieties and the subsequent seeds grow into new plants.

I would suggest not cutting back as the next years fruit will be borne on this years new growth. See above. Just cut out the old canes.

 

[Mikey P]

if you cultivate them, will they still be wild? dig up some canes in autumn - stick them in an available garden, cut them right back and wait for a year.

Yeah - isn't 'wild rasberry cultivation' an oxymoron?

 

[locum76]

we planted 1000 tulameen and 100 glen ample this year at the farm... can't wait til next year!