Plant Care Upon Arrival

Your plants have been in cold storage and proper care is necessary to insure good growth. ideally they should be planted immediately, but can be held for a short time. Care should be taken to avoid allowing the plants to dry out or overheat. Store them is a cool dry place until ready to plant.

Site

Choose a sunny location with a deep loamy soil. Heavy silts and clay soils should be avoided because of poor growth and lower yields. Good drainage is essential. Soil should be prepared before planting and receiving your plants. Thoroughly till the soil and eliminate perennial weed problems. Home gardeners should incorporate a 10-10-10 type fertilizer at a rate of ½ to ¾ pounds per 100 square feet. Do not plant raspberries where there have been planted potatoes, tomatoes, peppers or bulbs without prior fumigation of the soil.

Planting

Do not trim roots prior to planting. Plant as early in the spring as possible. Space the plants 30 inches apart in the row and allow 8 to 10 feet between rows. Plants may be set: 1. By a mechanical transplanter; 2. In a plowed furrow; 3. In holes dug with a shovel; 4. In holes made by pushing a shovel to make a wedge-shaped hole. Plant the roots in a "T" formation, covering with soil 1-112 to 2 inches of dirt over roots. Irrigating the field or watering individual plants after planting is recommended if good moisture is not present at time of planting.

Note: The fine root system should not be allowed to dry during the planting process. This can happen very quickly on a warm, windy spring day.

Fertilization

Raspberries need good soil fertility for optimum growth and production. For established beds, home gardeners should apply 10-10-10 at a rate of 1-1/4 pounds per acre per 100 square feet. This should be applied early in the season with additional amounts according to the weather and leaching conditions.

Training And Pruning

Floricane (summer bearing) varieties carry one crop of fruit on two-year-old canes during the summer months. Trellis can be installed during the fall of the first year. The trellis wire support consists of two, three or four No. 10 or 12 galvanized wires stretched along wooden peels 25 to 30 feet apart in the row. Time end posts are anchored of braced since they get most of the pull. You may in place of the wooden posts use steel posts at 20-foot intervals. After the first season's growth, tie to the first wire those canes that are long enough. In the following seasons, canes that have produced fruit should be cut out any

time from the end of harvest through late winter. Canes should be cut off as close to the soil as possible. The number of canes each plant or hill can support is decided by soil fertility, moisture and planting distance. Leave all good, strong canes each plant will produce. This may mean 8, 10 or with exceptionally good growing conditions as many as 12 canes per hill. Tie the canes to the top trellis wire. Postpone cutting canes back or tipping them until late winter or early spring after the danger of hard freezes has passed. Canes are usually cut back to 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 feet.

Primocane (Everbearing) varieties fruit on canes that come up each year. You can establish a trellis, or let the canes be free standing. We recommend that all raspberries be supported by a trellis. This keeps fruit off the ground and maintains good aeration of the planting for good disease control. Primocane varieties fruit in the fall and will produce until the first hard frost. When the crop is over and the canes have dropped their leaves, cut or mow all canes to the ground. Cut as close to the soil surface as possible, leaving no stubs.