I thought that I wasn’t getting any raspberries this year, then a couple of weeks ago they decided to flower. At the rate they are ripening, I’ll be lucky to pick them before it snows. I swear that last year I harvested by the end of August, but I’m not too sure. Is there anything that I could do for next year to speed them up, or is it just the luck of the draw?
by System-id
1 Comment
Your raspberries are everbearing, whereas normal raspberries are summer bearing.
Summer bearing raspberries flower immediately in the spring and bear fruit early summer
Everbearers will flower mid to late summer and begin ripening in the fall and continue until it freezes and goes dormant. This occurs from the tip of the cane once it has reached maturity and works its way down the cane.
Any part of the cane that has not produced flowers that fall will produce the flowers come spring and they will ripen just like the summer bearing raspberries while the next flush of new canes grow and begin to develop their own fruit.
If you want fruit early in the year then prune/plan so that your second year canes (the ones that grew this year) aren’t cut to the ground this winter when you clean up the fruit patch. Once they finish fruiting next year you can cut the rest of the canes down and by then you should be getting more flowers out of the tip of your new canes.
I still have some time before first frost and my raspberries will be ripening starting this next week it looks likr.