Berry Beautiful

The Age

Saturday September 20, 2008

Jennifer Wilkinson

Don't let the prickles put you off, writes Jennifer Wilkinson.

OF THE MANY DIFFERENT berries available, raspberries are, for me, the easiest to grow and the most delicious to eat. While untangling and pruning our raspberry patch, I pondered their virtues. True, pruning is a scratchy, prickly affair but there the annual maintenance ends because, unlike deciduous fruit trees, no pest sprays are necessary.

There are two types of raspberries, and by growing both you can pick berries from December to May. There is little difference in flavour but the two types require different pruning in winter.

Summer raspberries, such as 'Willamette', flower and fruit on second-year canes, so you prune out the old canes and tie the new ones up to the trellis. Autumn raspberries, such as 'Heritage', fruit on new canes, so all the old ones are cut off at ground level. An area of slight confusion is that summer raspberries tend to have a second spasmodic autumn crop on the tips of the new canes.

When this occurs, simply trim the tops off the new canes before tying them to the trellis. The plants are then fertilised with compost and blood and bone, and the job is done.

Vine berries have a weedy reputation, and with good reason. Our raspberry trellis is free-standing so the mower controls canes that spring up away from the main patch.

Like all berries, raspberries prefer neutral to slightly acid soil, so poultry manure and high-pH fertilisers should be avoided. The limitation for water-restricted gardeners is that berries are thirsty in summer. In fact, I am amazed just how moist raspberries like their roots. One would think that soggy soil would result in root rot, but not in my experience.

Our trellis has drip irrigation, however, one end is much wetter than the other because of run-off from the vegetable garden, yet this is where I pick the plumpest and most prolific berries. Generally, an hour of drip irrigation twice a week is enough in dry weather.

Of course, berries are attractive to our feathered friends too, so a bird net is essential.

The most popular berry crops are prickle-free types such as strawberries and blueberries. Strawberries crop best when new or divided plants are set into manure-enriched soil each winter. On the other hand, blueberries are deciduous shrubs, and while they are a long-term investment, they need little maintenance. Simply mulch annually and prune the old wood in later years.

Thornless blackberries are another prickle-free berry yet gardeners who tough out a few prickles will be rewarded because the prickly vine berries, including raspberries, youngberries, boysenberries and brambleberries, produce loads of delicious fruit.

Berry plants are available from garden centres and specialist mail-order nurseries. See Diggers (diggers.com.au) and New Gippsland Seeds and Bulbs (newgipps.com.au).

© 2008 The Age

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