Raspberries to pick, raspberries to plant

If there are fruits to pick from the remontant varieties, this is also the time to install new raspberries. A good reason to adopt these small fruits? Their virtual absence in trade. And when there are, on the market stalls, it is often at exorbitant prices, which is explained by the cost required for the pickings.

You can plant them year-round from the time you buy them in a container, but from November through March they are offered bare-rooted, so you can buy a nice amount at a reduced cost.

In practice

Choose a place with mild sun. The ideal soil is good, non-calcareous, drained, humus-rich and supple garden soil.

If you buy them with bare roots, be careful: the roots dry out quickly. If you choose this technique, don’t skimp on the praline.

Space the plants 40 cm apart, aligning the roots in the direction of the row so that they have less tendency to escape. Add a handful of compost to each planting hole. Water abundantly. Cut back the stems to 20 cm from the ground, to promote rooting. Mulch.

Raspberries are more productive if wire led. Plant stakes every meter, stretch the wires, you will hang the branches as they grow. They can thus delimit the vegetable garden and hide the composter or the rainwater reserves, thus isolating an unsightly place in the garden. Install them on two lines: a line of remontants, a line of non-remontants. The remontants produce from June to October, sometimes with a break, while the non-remontants offer abundant and unique fruiting, in June-July, sometimes August.

Maintenance is reduced. If you renew the mulch regularly, weeds will be rare. Water in summer, during dry spells.

As for pruning, for non-remontants, in August, remove the fruiting stems. In February, for ascending varieties, remove the dried out 2-year-old branches and half those that produced in the fall.

Dividing raspberries keeps plants vigorous and productive. Act between November and March, every 2 or 3 years, keeping 10 stems per linear meter.

Kids love them

With a candy look, these fruits irresistibly attract children. Synonymous with long holidays and sunshine, they lend themselves to generous pickings. Associate your little ones with the harvests, but also with the culture. With their planting and watering help, surround their play area with raspberries. They will be able to pick without asking permission. Teach them very early not to touch the other berries in the garden, which are inedible and sometimes poisonous. A 3 or 4 year old child knows the difference from the moment you explain it to him.

A little history

Born in the mountains of Western Europe, the raspberry is one of the foods gleaned by hunter-gatherers millions of years ago… The Romans, in the first centuries of our era, began to domesticate the raspberry bush, for the ‘ improve, and in the Middle Ages, these shrubs were already cultivated and used in herb gardens for their medicinal properties.

The name “raspberry” only arrived in the French language in the 12th century. Its origin is a mixture between « brambasia », which means blackberry in Francique, that is to say the language of the Franks, and strawberry. During the Renaissance, the raspberry made a slightly more official entry into gardens. Over the centuries, it is more robust, more productive. In the 19th century, the raspberry became a real fruit, which was served at the table, what was then called “mouth fruit”! The commercial cultivation of raspberries is very recent: it developed from the 1950s.

Raspberries for the whole family

These delicate and fragrant little fruits are unanimous: children love them as much as their parents. With 20 raspberry plants, remontant and non-remontant, the yield is around 1 kg per week, in high season, which is perfect for a family of 4, both for snacking in the garden and for concocting jams and desserts. It’s time to complete your collection by ordering some new varieties.

Among the remontant varieties

Beauty of Malicorne. This very productive plant, strong in growth, offers large blood red fruits, very sweet and very tasty. It is in June that the production is the most important, therefore ideal to transform into jam.

Fallgold. Good big golden fruits, from July to frost, fragrant, firm and very sweet, with a fine flavor, without acidity: here is a raspberry tree that must be planted in order to concoct delicious jams with an exceptional color. It is especially in the second half of the season that production is at its peak.

September. Incomparable in taste and color, blood red! It is to eat alone, or to give flavor and shine to a fruit salad that this raspberry gives the best of itself!

sumo. For cooks in a hurry, here is a raspberry so big that the picking is done quickly! From July to frost, the fruits follow one another, very fragrant, firm and very sweet, matte red. It is in August that there is the most fruit: take the opportunity to make jams.

Among the non-remontant varieties

Malahat. This pretty early fruit, very red, very well formed and of good size, is very sweet. In baking, use it to make good raspberries and excellent tiramisus.

Magnificent Delbard. This vigorous raspberry tree, very productive, resists drought well. The fruits, exceptionally large, dark red, very tasty, keep their beautiful presentation.

Mailing Promise. This raspberry bush produces abundant and very large red fruits, well scented, in June and July, delicious in jelly. It supports dry terrain perfectly and adapts to all situations.