Gardening: Razzle dazzle with fresh raspberries: Patience required for first crop

My favorite summer fruits are raspberries still warm from the garden covered with thick, sweet cream. Sometimes we take our bowls and the cream into the garden when we pick. If this sounds tantalizing, bareroot canes will soon be available in the nurseries.

Raspberries are sold as certified disease-free, bareroot canes in the spring only. In the box stores they will be packaged in damp sawdust. In the independent garden centers , they are likely to be set in a mulch bed where you can choose which ones you want. I prefer these types because I can tell if I am getting a good root system.

Raspberries are a perennial crop so they will need a space in the garden where they can grow undisturbed. A space 3 feet wide and as long as you want it will give them enough room. Our 12-foot row produced over 10 pounds of raspberries last year.

The plants like a sandy loam mixed with plenty of compost. They like a slightly acidic soil so add granular sulfur to the soil when you plant. Sulfur will be available at independent garden centers.

Once grown, the plants will need support so set 4-inch by 4-inch posts at each end of the row and run two strands of old-fashioned clothesline between them to tie the canes to. Raspberries will need to be kept evenly moist especially when there is fruit ripening. As word of caution, once a raspberry patch establishes itself, it will send runners off into other parts of the garden so keep the shovel handy.

It will be at least two years before you can harvest any fruit. The first year, the canes will look like they are just sitting there but they are growing roots underground. The second year, they will send up a few canes that will bear fruit either at the end of the summer or in the following July. After that, the plants will produce numerous canes. As the canes finish fruiting, they need to be cut to the ground.

There are two types of raspberries: those that ripen a single crop in July or the everbearing varieties that ripen from July into the early fall. July ripening plants produce a heavy crop perfect for jam or freezing. The everbearing varieties produce a lighter crop over a long period making it hard to get enough at one time to make jam.

For those of you who have limited space or can only garden in pots, try growing Raspberry Shortcake in a large pot. This variety gets about 2 feet tall and bears a single crop in July.

I grow Raspberry Shortcake in a 20-inch pot right next to our deck chairs making it easy to snack on the berries as we enjoy the sunset. The container is filled with potting mix and watered automatically with a drip system. All I do to it is fertilize in the spring and prune out the fruited canes. You will have to look online for this one.

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Pat Munts can be reached at pat@inlandnwgardening.com