Increasing raspberries

My raspberry plant

At the end of winter, my raspberry looks like a set of dead twigs in a jar. I always find myself worrying at this stage. The first jets of sunshine are hitting my garden, the birds are singing, and my precious plants look dead. All but the grass between the tiles as you can see....

Now we have been holding a massive clean up party these last few weeks. As the sun makes our ears pink and our moods happy, we are attacking the fields of tile grass like they have offended our forefathers. 

In the middle of this well justified violence, I decided to tackle my raspberry plant. At the end of summer last year, he seemed to be getting too big for his pot. Since raspberries are a well loved fruit, I decided to increase my raspberry production by dividing my plant in two. 

Now if you try this, don't worry too much. Raspberries are like a weed and will come back even after you have tried to actively kill them, so a little rough handling when repotting them will not hurt much.

Dividing

Ideally you divide raspberries either in the fall or in early/mid spring. You want the plant to be at rest so you don't disturb the production, but as I said, even if you divide in full summer, it probably will not die on you. 

First, get your raspberry out of its pot or dig it up from the ground. As you can see, mine was really jam packed in its pot!

Now get a shovel, or use your hands and divide the clod into two, or three, whatever you like. I did two. 

Planting

Now if you are so lucky to be planting in full soil, put the clods back into the ground, about 40-50 cm apart. 

If you are a container gardener like me, get your (clean) pots out, put a little compost on the bottom, put the clods in and fill up with soil. 

In either case, make sure to water thoroughly.  

Caring for raspberries

There are two different kinds of raspberries. Summer raspberries (like I have) and fall raspberries. 
Summer raspberries give fruit in early summer on the branches that grew the year before.
The branches that are two years old and give fruit this year, need to be cut down after harvest. The branches that will grow this year can be strung up (mine keep up by them selves so I don't bother) but make sure you have no more than 5 branches per meter. Cut down the extra. 

Fall raspberries are easier, they grow fruit on new branches. This is why they give fruit later in the season. In winter, cut down all the branches to the ground. Easy peasy. 

Do you have raspberries in your garden?