Raspberries are weeds!

When I planted my bare root canes over a month ago I found a small sprout connected to the roots under the soil on one of the canes.
It was so fragile I broke the root from the stem laying it down on the ground.
I planted the tiny root and the stem/leaf part separately thinking it was a total waste of time. I completely forgot about it and now I walked past the spot a week ago and see new growth!!
That is amazing to me. Still don't know if it was the stem without the root or just the root.
It was only a few inches long I honestly cant believe it grew.
Raspberries are tougher than weeds!
What a beautiful sight!!!
LOOK!

Yeah... Just wait a few years and you will have plenty. very easy to propogate.

ps: They send out runners and root at any point on the stem that touches soil as far as I know. Oh, and seedlings readily sprout!

I've filled a 20ft. row in 2 years from shoots from 1 plant! very prolific! i till under dozens of shoots in between the rows in the spring also. they will completely take over a garden if you let them.

Put some mulch and compost around that happy plant and watch it grow really fast! Mine seem to like grass clippings and compost

I inherited one clump with the property. In the spring, I dig up any strays and transplant them to the edge of one of my guilds. Eventually trellised, they'll make a nice little border. I think next year, I will finally have more than I can eat while browsing.

Yes raspberry can be very invasive, I have them too close to my asparagus. Now I have to plant raspberry in another area and kill off all the old ones in the asparagus patch. Don't let this happen to you😬

Rene Poulin wrote:Yes raspberry can be very invasive, I have them too close to my asparagus. Now I have to plant raspberry in another area and kill off all the old ones in the asparagus patch. Don't let this happen to you😬

Why is this a problem? I have asparagus and blackberries planted together and they seem to be fine companions. In the spring, I get asparagus shoots popping up in the middle of the brambles and a few weeks later, the blackberries are ready to pick. I would think it would work the same way for raspberries. Although it does seem that raspberries are not as prolific as blackberries in the hot Georgia sun.

I have problems with both raspberries and blackberries

I do not interplant backberries with anything
they have their own space - they are super aggressive (and thorny) here

I have as raspberries planted with asparagus with no problem
I think because the asparagus is early and done before the berries
and the asparagus is under the raspberries

I have problems in other beds with the berried inter acting with fruit trees and bushes
the berries will spread and start to grow next to and up into the limbs of the trees
causing a mess and work

I've heard that if you dig a trench around your trees and put in 12in stainless flashing down in so its flush with the top of the soil it will stop the runners invading your trees and other garden beds.

your thumb must be very green. you will be putting up preserves before you know it, give it a couple years and let them do what they do.

steve bossie wrote:I've heard that if you dig a trench around your trees and put in 12in stainless flashing down in so its flush with the top of the soil it will stop the runners invading your trees and other garden beds.

I bet this is true, berry bushes have very shallow growing roots so this is probably the case. They are so shallow too that if you let the sun get to their roots it will kill them.

We had some VERY old raspberries here that had been on the family farm for generations. It was a huge patch with berries as thick as your thumb. Then I got sheep. In one week they had grazed them out of existence. It has been 9 years now and they haven't grown back. I never thought the sheep would even go into the patch much less kill it off completely!

Travis Johnson wrote:

steve bossie wrote:I've heard that if you dig a trench around your trees and put in 12in stainless flashing down in so its flush with the top of the soil it will stop the runners invading your trees and other garden beds.

I bet this is true, berry bushes have very shallow growing roots so this is probably the case. They are so shallow too that if you let the sun get to their roots it will kill them.

We had some VERY old raspberries here that had been on the family farm for generations. It was a huge patch with berries as thick as your thumb. Then I got sheep. In one week they had grazed them out of existence. It has been 9 years now and they haven't grown back. I never thought the sheep would even go into the patch much less kill it off completely!

had a couple yearling moose defoliate my whole raspberry patch in 1 night! luckily it was late fall and the plants were going dormant already anyway. i find blackberries to be extremely aggressive. I've tried to get rid of a patch of them for years with no success. they just keep coming back! even with herbicide

Raspberries ARE weeds, most of the year.  But when you collect the best of the best.  I do this by placing the " branch" in a one gallon ziplock bag, shake and then move onto the next. And then follow the directions on the SIDE of the Bisquick box that says " The Ultimate Pancake". And add those " weed" fruits.
  Most folks will agree, Weeds Is Good Food.  They do have a shallow root system a quick bottom clip, dig or toto till so the roots " bake" in the July sun.  You can beat then back on a yearly basis. This worked for me years ago.  ( are there really people in the world that don't like raspberries).  They do spread , song birds are the culprit.  Ps. My brother in law is part of a sugar shack club.  The equipment they use is wood fired, so, you get a wonderful wood smoked maple syrup .  As close to palate heaven , and a man, woman, child can possibly get.  lol.    Larry

We had some VERY old raspberries here that had been on the family farm for generations. It was a huge patch with berries as thick as your thumb. Then I got sheep. In one week they had grazed them out of existence. It has been 9 years now and they haven't grown back. I never thought the sheep would even go into the patch much less kill it off completely!

 Sounds like a great short rotation (maybe 2 days) sheep grazing/browsing food source.  

I've tried to get rid of a patch of them for years with no success. they just keep coming back! even with herbicide

"No plant can grow for long without leaves" -Geoff Lawton.   Persistence is your best ally.  About once weekly.

When raspberries pop up as shoots in early spring, much like the sprout in the photo above, they are an excellent spring compost addition.

Roberto pokachinni wrote:

I've tried to get rid of a patch of them for years with no success. they just keep coming back! even with herbicide

"No plant can grow for long without leaves" -Geoff Lawton.   Persistence is your best ally.  About once weekly.

i agree but the damn thorns are nasty so i get lazy. if i wanted them gone bad enough they would be. just not a big priority. the fruit on them is small but tasty so i just mow them back off the lawn and enjoy the fruit i can get to.

i love the wild rasberries the deer come to feed on some and some are even left for me i just avoid the thorns and let em grow do what they do. some of them provide the wild rabbits with a home

we have wild raspberries everywhere up here. as soon as you remove a tree, raspberries grow up. my family used to pick them when i was a kid. the deer and moose love the leaves and sprouts. they are THE weed in n. maine!

the deer and moose love the leaves and sprouts.

 At my place I wish they liked the raspberries more and my brassicas less.    

i love the wild rasberries the deer come to feed on some and some are even left for me

 I love them too, generally I eat a lot of them.  I have several patches in my meadow, but this year our cultivated raspberries produced so well that I hardly ate any wild ones.  We have 8 gallons of raspberries in the freezer!  De-lish !!

Roberto pokachinni wrote:

the deer and moose love the leaves and sprouts.

 At my place I wish they liked the raspberries more and my brassicas less.    

i love the wild rasberries the deer come to feed on some and some are even left for me

 I love them too, generally I eat a lot of them.  I have several patches in my meadow, but this year our cultivated raspberries produced so well that I hardly ate any wild ones.  We have 8 gallons of raspberries in the freezer!  De-lish !!

you guys must have wild thimbleberries out there? just planted 6 i got from harttmanns. sure have nice foliage. can't wait to try the berries!

you guys must have wild thimbleberries out there? just planted 6 i got from harttmanns. sure have nice foliage. can't wait to try the berries!

 We do have a plant called thimbleberry, but it is not the one sold by Hartmanns. The thimbleberry from Hartmanns is thimbleberry raspberry which is native to Michigan.  

The one from my neck of the woods is Rubus parviflorus .  While it has large maple like leaves like the Michigan plant, the berries are not as similar to true raspberries as the Michigan plant.  The berries are flatter, and the compound nature of the berry is made of much smaller 'bubbles' than raspberries or blackberries, and it is very soft and tender compared to a raspberry or blackberry.  It does not carry well or stack well in buckets, so it is not generally a commercial type fruit.  Some books say that this berry is neutral in flavor, but not on my taste buds, at least not in this area, or anywhere that I have lived.  It is both tart and sweet, and has a very unique flavor that is very distinct from raspberries.  This could be a gourmet favorite.  In fact I sold some to a high end chef in Jasper, for a sauce to put on Elk.  It is certainly one of my favorites.  

I've never tried to one from Michigan.    

One solution to too many raspberry planlts is to make tea out of the leaves/plants. Many naturopaths talk about how great it is for you.  I have the same "problem" with lemon balm, which is also great for cutting down excessive virus in the body.  I make a tea out of lemon balm and raspberry leaves. It doesn't have much/great flavor so I put in hibiscus tea (Flor de Jamaica) which most raspberry tea sold in stores contains as its "flavor".
John S
PDX OR

Roberto pokachinni wrote:

you guys must have wild thimbleberries out there? just planted 6 i got from harttmanns. sure have nice foliage. can't wait to try the berries!

 We do have a plant called thimbleberry, but it is not the one sold by Hartmanns. The thimbleberry from Hartmanns is thimbleberry raspberry which is native to Michigan.  

The one from my neck of the woods is Rubus parviflorus .  While it has large maple like leaves like the Michigan plant, the berries are not as similar to true raspberries as the Michigan plant.  The berries are flatter, and the compound nature of the berry is made of much smaller 'bubbles' than raspberries or blackberries, and it is very soft and tender compared to a raspberry or blackberry.  It does not carry well or stack well in buckets, so it is not generally a commercial type fruit.  Some books say that this berry is neutral in flavor, but not on my taste buds, at least not in this area, or anywhere that I have lived.  It is both tart and sweet, and has a very unique flavor that is very distinct from raspberries.  This could be a gourmet favorite.  In fact I sold some to a high end chef in Jasper, for a sauce to put on Elk.  It is certainly one of my favorites.  

I've never tried to one from Michigan.    

okios carries a thimbleberry from the northern sierra nevadas that supposedly is a good fruit producer. i may add several to my thimbleberry patch for comparison. would love a few shoots from BC but too much of a pain w/ customs. rolling river nurseries carries salmonberry bushes but i heard they are bland compared to raspberries. supposedly we have wild cloudberries here in n. Maine but all my years in these woods , I've never seen any. we have a native creeping dwarf raspberry here but they produce very little fruit. I'm also growing arctic raspberries, black raspberries, wild native blackberries as well as 4 cultivars of commercial raspberries.

would love a few shoots from BC but too much of a pain w/ customs.  

 Good news!---> the same thimbleberry variety is growing wild in Washington state.  So... you can contact some permies there.

 supposedly we have wild cloudberries here in n. Maine

 I have only had one, on Haida Gwaii, where the introduced deer have had a devastating effect on their population.  A friend from Newfoundland went hunting around a large bog and found two.  He ate one, I the other.  We felt bad afterwards, not because they weren't delicious, but because they are so rare.  

 I'm also growing arctic raspberries, black raspberries, wild native blackberries as well as 4 cultivars of commercial raspberries.

Sounds like you have a great thing going on!  

thanks! boy i wish i was with you guys when you found those cloudberries! i would have dug some and snuck then across the border! i will contact the permies in the northwest. someday ill get over to see your beautiful province!