Crop 101: Raspberries

Summer-bearing raspberries (also known as floricane-fruiting) produce fruit on one year old canes (the fruiting branches or wood) that are overwintered from the previous year.  Our harvest season for summer-bearing red raspberries is typically from mid-June to the end of July.

Fall-bearing raspberries (also known as primocane-fruiting) produce fruit on the new canes that start growing in the spring of each year.  Each fall we cut down the primocanes and the new canes will push out of the ground in the spring.  The fall-bearing red raspberries begin to fruit in August and continue producing berries until the first fall killing frost.

By growing both floricane and primocane red raspberries, we are able to extend our growing season, and have a continuous supply of raspberries for multiple moths of the farmers market season.

We also grow black raspberries and fall-bearing yellow raspberries – which were actually developed as a mutation from a red raspberry. Black Raspberries are a summer-bearing raspberry with a very short harvest season – typically lasting only 2 weeks. Black raspberries are smaller than other raspberries, and have a more tart and earthy flavor. Black raspberries are a native North American fruit, and you can often find them growing wild on woodland edges. They have a much lower yield than red raspberries, which is why they aren’t more commonly grown. We recently planted a new fall-bearing Black Raspberry variety, and are looking forward to an extended season this year!

The canes of all of our raspberry varieties are trained to a trellis system for ease of harvest, to improve fruit quality and reduce disease problems. The yellow and red raspberry varieties are thornless, but there are plenty of thorns to be found on the black raspberry canes!

In the pictures below, Dave is training the raspberries to the trellis.  By spending time training the raspberries, they are easier to take care of throughout the season and facilitates in harvest as well.