Hi Rick- 20' apart may be OK as long as you have solid anchors so you can put good tension on the wires. My earlier trellis werenÂt made with 4x4s and simply rotted/bent/moved over time. Thus my desire to over-engineer something so I don't have to do it a 3rd, 4th, 5th time. Normally I say that it doesn't matter how far apart you plant raspberries, but 1 every 4 feet is a bit much. I usually do a plant every 15" or so. Yes, you're right, they will spread out, but that will take time, and it will probably be quite a few years before that bed fills. If it were me, IÂd double the number of plants. For bareroot plants, theyÂre probably only about $3-4 each, so it would probably cost you another $50. For me, IÂd rather spend the extra $ to get into better production sooner. Make sure you really investigate raspberry containment. Otherwise, all your berries will run together. You may want to burry a weed barrier between the plants that will go down 18 inches or so. (I would study up on this before you do though) Maybe for Caroline/Anne, IÂd back it down to 24" and 36", but an exact number is tough to come by considering that my berries may get slightly more shade than yours, and also our climates are bound to be slightly different. My Joan JÂs werenÂt too vigorous last year and would probably only get to the 24" mark, so I would only be able to answer that question on them after this year. Good luck! -Glenn

Sorry I was so unclear. I think faster than I can write, so at times, my statements make little sense. I see the black raspberry question was answered, no they do not sucker. The farther you space red raspberries, the longer it will take to fill the space to form a solid row, but no matter how far, they will eventually fill the row. The 12 to 24 inch is not the space between the row, but how wide your planting should be, how wide the row should be. They grow in 4 directions, left, right, forward, backward. If your row is too wide, they tend to stay moist, which invites disease. Yes, any trellis method works. You can modify to fit your needs if you need to. Eskota mentioned Autumn Bliss. that was developed by Victoria Knight in the UK. I heard it was great! She also developed Valentina, an orange colored highly disease resistant, excellent tasting raspberry. Only sold in the UK, I would kill for a cutting!! I'm trying a number of new cultivars this year Double Gold - (planted last fall) Blush pink in color, excellent flavor Crimson Night - (planted last fall) Deep, dark red, excellent flavor this spring I will be adding... Rosanna - (From Italy) sweet as candy Honey Queen - ( a yellow out of Canada, very hardy, excellent taste) Polka - (Developed in Poland, rated very high) Black raspberries Jewell - rich taste, 7 ft cains, productive and vigorous Allen - sweetest of the blacks Purple raspberries Royality - can harvest when red, or wait till it's purple. Summer bearing Prelude - excellent early season variety Encore - excellent late season variety Taylor - said to be the best tasting raspberry Blackberries Navaho - upright thornless, great tasting, some say the best. Apache - upright thornless, larger fruit than other Arkansas thornless, erect varieties. Since these are upright, they will be trellised into a fan shape. Hybrids Loganberry - just because it is so unusual, 10 ft cains, unique flavor. Makes excellent jam, deep red Tayberry - The Tayberry is a cane fruit cross between an Aurora Blackberry and an improved tetraploid Raspberry. It was developed by the Scottish Crop Research Institute and is grown for its sweeter, larger, aromatic fruits that have an excellent flavor. The Tayberry are a beautiful bright purple color This post was edited by Drew51 on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 0:30

Since you bumped and nobody replied yet... I'll give you my less than expert experience. I don't thin the canes at all. I nip the buds on them so they will branch, but no thinning. With the ones I have been growing for a few years (some mystery OSH variety which was labeled Bababerry but I suspect is more likely Heritage) they seem to do well this way. They start to get long and floppy enough to require more work around July, so that's when I scalp the longest vines and tie the rest together or to some convenient sage bushes so they won't look unattractive. Either way, they start to look pretty ragged and unattractive by November. (Remember, I'm in zone 10a, so my growing and fruiting season will be different from yours.) If you want to do any weeding, it's best to do it all in January-February, before the new growth, because once the new vines start coming in, it's a "prickly" business to get your hands deep in there. Well, it's prickly for me, because I let them grow as they please. One thing about everbearing raspberries is that the new canes don't sprout in the same place as last year's cane. In fact, I find new runners in strange places, like in cracks in the sidewalk and my lawn, yards from the bed. So they're not so well-behaved enough that you can count on them to stay organized the way you want. The USDA lists blackberries as an aggressive, invasive weed (!!), and having grown both blackberries and raspberries (their close cousin) I can see how they would reach that conclusion. They will easily take up a nomadic lifestyle and take over your backyard if you don't keep an eye on them.

Hi Dotty, I don't cut mine in spring, but in winter; in summer, after the spring crop, I cut the canes back by about half. Those then produce the fall crop, which I'm in the middle of right now. You might want to adjust the timing of your pruning. My spring crop was very late, but not the fall crop, so the two very nearly overlapped this year!