Thornless Raspberries

Everything You Need to Know About Growing Red Raspberries

Introduction

Hello, everyone. Today, I thought I would share some information about our red raspberry shrubs. These particular shrubs are from Norse Farms, and we bought them as tiny specimens. The variety we have is called Joan J. They are prolific producers, bearing fruit over a very long season. Here we are in October, the weather has cooled down a bit, and our shrubs are packed with raspberries.

Harvesting and Freezing

If we don't make it out to the garden every day, we end up collecting bowls and bowls of these delicious berries. We're freezing them now for the wintertime, and they make the best little natural popsicles when you pop them in the freezer. Our shrubs are thriving, thanks to the landscape fabric we use and our single line of drip tape for irrigation. Raspberries love water, and we've planted them between two tunnels to take advantage of any runoff.

Growing Conditions

For us, raspberries are an easy crop to grow. I've tried growing other flowers in this row before, but these are a breeze to navigate around, especially since they are thornless. We're currently using electric fence posts stakes and baling twine to corral the branches, and although it looks a bit wild, the plants are doing well. They've been here for about two years, and we previously had them growing along a weedy fence line before they were overtaken by weeds. A brave soul here dug them up and replanted them in this row, using a piece of cardboard under the landscape fabric to prevent weeds from taking over.

Berry Qualities and Usage

These shrubs produce fruit over a really long season. The thornless branches and great foliage make them perfect for floral arrangements. We love the beautiful clustered berry branches; they are stunning to design with. This variety is a real winner. As you can see, there's still a bunch more berries to come. They are one of the earliest foliages we can use in the springtime, and these bushes are just loaded. Amazing!

Additional Products

Let me know if you have any questions. These shrubs come from Nourse Farms. We've worked with them for other products too, like asparagus, gooseberry, and red currant. Being able to come out and harvest these berries by the handful is just such an amazing perk of this job. These big, beautiful, juicy raspberries are different from wild ones and much more like the fancy supermarket varieties. If you're interested in a pick-your-own setup, you might want to consider this variety. I really love it.

Pest Control

It's also important to note that we did encounter a pest this year—some sort of cane borer that would cut a ring around the top of a cane, causing everything above it to die back and fall off. We were on the lookout for these worms and removed them whenever we found them to prevent further damage.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you haven’t tried growing raspberries yet, give it a shot! Let us know if there are other thornless varieties you recommend. They are so easy to work with and yield beautiful, delicious fruit. Hope you have a great day, and I'll talk to you again soon. I think we have some more raspberries on the way. What do you think?

Thank you for reading, and happy gardening!