Raspberries - help please!

[chookmike]

OH bought 4 canes last Autumn - Rasp, golden rasp, tay, and one other - can't remember - anyway she planted them in a very small area and I then noticed the labels said that they can get to 15 feet!

The old growth is doing quite well but the fruitless growth of this year is already out of control and attacks me every day as I feed the chooks.

My question is whether we have to move them, or what harm it will do to simply clip this years growth to the size we want? I suspect the former but know very little about soft fruit other than liking them with my cornflakes in the morning.

Thanks

Mike

Mike

[Mo]

Just 4?
I thought raspberries were usually planted in rows on about a dozen. They grow as tall as the supporting wires, then you either tip them or loop them over and tie them in.
Isn't a Tay berry a cross with a bramble (like a loganberry). You plant them singly and train them like a fan.

This years growth will have next years fruit unless they are the Autumn fruiting variety.

[chookmike]

Thanks Mo, I think we'll just cut them to the size we want and accept the consequences.

Mike

[lancashire lass]

I found the tayberries and loganberries didn't fruit for the first couple of years anyway so don't think this year's no-fruit appearance is because of their current growing conditions. When they do fruit, you'll be amazed by the intense flavour - raspberries will taste very bland afterwards.

With regards trimming - you might find they grow more like a blackberry than a raspberry so you might get away with it, but you won't get much fruit (they are not heavy producers anyway, and cutting back will reduce it further) Fifteen feet is perhaps the largest length but more like 8-10 feet so you could try tying to a trellis?

[Mo]

Loganberries taste SO good if left to go dark red, almost black. Trouble is the birds are happy with them raspberry red.