FLAVOURSOME FRUIT AUTUMN RASPBERRIES

September - is it late summer or the start of autumn? David Patch ponders the question and says whatever the season, it's time to harvest autumn raspberries

- David Patch

Well, the nights are starting to draw in, there can be a chill in the air in the early mornings and the soft fruit garden will start to look a little tired. But before we give up entirely and turn our attention to the orchard and its autumn bounty of apples and pears, there is still one star of the soft fruit world that comes into its own at this time of year- the autumn-fruiting raspberry.

At this point, we need to do a tiny bit of botany to fully understand the difference between summer-fruiting and autumn-fruiting raspberries. It's not essential, but you'll undoubtedly come across these terms in catalogues and a basic understanding will help you know how to look after each one.

All raspberries are classed as a perennial but really it is the root system which is the perennial bit, as we are looking for a continual supply of new basal shoots from the roots each spring. In the first year of growth, these new shoots are called primocanes (from the Latin word 'primus' meaning 'first'). That same cane, left unpruned, in its second year turns into a floricane. Summer-fruiting raspberries flower and fruit on two-year-old growth (so are also known as floricane-fruiting varieties), whereas autumn raspberries flower and fruit on the new, first-year growth (primocane-fruiting varieties).

MAINTENANCE

Raspberries need a moist, cool soil in order to thrive. If the soil dries out at all in spring or early summer, fewer new shoots will be produced- and fewer shoots means lower yields later down the line. Not only that, but underground roots will go looking for moisture further afield, so you may well get suckers appearing many metres from where you'd like them.