I don't trellis mine, is that what you should be doing? Mine are approaching 4ft tall and are full of berries. My biggest varmint, the rabbit, loves to mow them down in winter.

Frank: I expect mine to be considerably taller next year requiring a second row of wire on each side. This year I wasn't sure if they would even make it to a first wire and only installed the bottom pair. None of this year's canes can support themselves even at their short height so in answer to your question, yes, they should be supported.

I too have had the rabbits gnaw many canes off my summer bearer canes over the winter, the answer was to put 2' tall chicken wire around the bed in the fall leaving it until the fall bearer shoots in spring are at least 6" tall as the bunnies like eating thier new shoots too.

Did you get many fruiting canes your first year after spring planting?

Michael

I had quite a few raspberries last year and i **think** i put them in in spring of 2007... I need to protect them better this winter. The rabbit traps have been working well (2 this year) and i'll have them out all fall/winter. They also did a number to my blackberries and blueberries when i was gone for a week in Jan. Here are mine. I think i put in 5 or 6 plants...one on the end didn't make it, but i'm sure it will fill in...

{{gwi:123212}}

My son carries my wifes blow dryer around the yard.

Frank: I'm guessing your plants are 2 - 3' tall from the picture. How much sun do yours get? Mine are in direct sun for 8-10 hrs.. If mine are getting what they need next year I expect, but don't really know, that they will be upwards of 4' tall. Maybe not. This year's fruit are double or more the size of my Latham and Heritage berries, a pleasant suprise indeed.

The Purple Royalty I planted in Spring/08 did very little and of course no fruit in 08. This year, the plant put out 5 or 6 small tasty fruit on the 2 measly floricanes and about a dozen beautiful primocanes for next year, can't wait. I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow as it is dusk right now.

Hope the hair dryer isn't plugged in.

Michael

They get NO sun until about noonish or so... That wall faces directly west. They get sun then all day...it really scorches that west wall and the siding on that side of the house is very faded. It was the only place i had left to go. So maybe max 9 hrs of direct sun in Jun?jul...less now.

I take the lazy mans approach to fall red raspberries, no trellis. Well, I did put in a trellis but usually do not bother to tie up the canes since I have about a million other things I should be doing. Some of them will fall over on to the ground and you need to pick them up to harvest the fruit and some may get ruined, but overall it works good enough for me.

I am getting a great harvest off of my Carolines now. The biggest problem is all the mosquitos in the yard these days, its hard to stay out there for long if I don't drench myself in deet. I can't wait for the coming cool weather.

Scott