North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

I guess I'm going to agree with most of what other people have said.

I grow red raspberries in zone 6, eastern MA.  I have an established  
bed of "Fall Red" (probably from Miller, although I got them from a  
friend) and I just planted some "Caroline" last year.  The friend also  
grew "Heritage", and I think that "Fall Red" has superior flavor.  I'm  
looking forward to "Caroline", which is supposed to be even better.  I  
bought my "Caroline" from Nourse, and I love their catalog.  It's  
aimed at commercial as well as home growers, and it's the only catalog  
I've ever seen that gives a comparison chart of key characteristics of  
cultivars and says that some of the varieties have mediocre flavor, or  
whatever.  The raspberries I bought from them last year didn't thrive,  
but they cheerfully asked if I'd prefer replacements last year or this  
coming spring, and all the other stuff I've bought from them has been  
quite healthy.

I have birds and squirrels and deer and other critters.  One year the  
squirrels got into the raspberries, but then I got a cat who liked to  
chase squirrels, and now even though the only outdoor cat I have  
doesn't bother with prey that large, they leave them alone.  If birds  
take the raspberries, they leave plenty for me.  They are the only  
fruit I DON'T actively protect from wildlife, and I get decent crops  
from my 4 plants.  (If I had room, I'd have a lot more plants.)

I manage my raspberries for two crops.  The first crop comes in July,  
and the second in early September.  This is perfect for me, as I tend  
to be out of town for a lot of August, and I like that I don't have  
unpicked berries tempting the critters.  The berries continue to fruit  
until we have a hard frost, although the crop gets smaller and less  
sweet as the season wanes.  I mulch the raspberries heavily with  
shredded oak leaves (I mow them off my lawn) and add a lot of nitrogen  
(corn gluten) when I feed my lawn in the spring.  I have been  
irrigating them during fruiting season since I noticed that I tended  
to get fruit a couple days after each rainstorm.  The extra water  
makes a big difference in my crop.  Other than picking, pruning (twice  
yearly), mulching, and watering, I give them no special care.  I  
consider them my most successful crop.

You should definitely taste some yellow and purple raspberries before  
planting them.  They taste different from the red ones.  I like the  
purple raspberries, and find the yellow raspberries bland.  I prefer  
red to either purple or yellow, though.  Also, yellow raspberries  
attract bees and yellow jackets.  I have bees all over the flowers as  
I pick the red raspberries, but they are never on the fruit.  When  
I've picked yellow raspberries there were bees everywhere, and I had  
to be careful to avoid grabbing a fruit with a bee on it.

Ginda

On Feb 16, 2009, at 11:26 AM, Diane Porter wrote:

> I'm in zone 5. We're looking at a red raspberry and a purple one, and
> maybe a golden one. We haven't decided exactly which yet. Maybe
> Heritage  and Royalty, and possibly Anne.
>
> I'm open to suggestions as to what to order and where to order them
> from.
>
> Diane Porter
> dporter@birdwatching.com
> Birdwatching Dot Com
> http://www.birdwatching.com
> Birdwatching is your lifetime ticket to the theater of nature.
>
>
>
> On Feb 16, 2009, at 10:33 AM, Ernest Plutko wrote:
>
> > What kind of raspberries are you buying and what zone are you in?
> >
> > ---- Original Message ----
> > From: dporter@lisco.com
> > To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: RE: [NAFEX] How many berries
> > Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:44:25 -0600
> >
> > > My husband and I are planning to plant some raspberries this spring.
> > >
> > > We were so merrily laying out the bed for 50 plants, and then my
> > > husband asked me, "How many berries is this going to produce?"
> > >
> > > And I realized I had no idea. We are only two people, but we love
> > > raspberry jam and could easily consume 50 pints of it in a year. But
> > >
> > > will 50 bushes yield way too much?
> > >
> > > Diane Porter
> > > dporter@birdwatching.com
> > > Birdwatching Dot Com
> > > http://www.birdwatching.com
> > > Birdwatching is your lifetime ticket to the theater of nature.
> > >
> > >
> > >
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