LOGANBERRY AND RASPBERRY SURPRISE
Because the weather has been so bad this year, with week upon week of spring and summer rain, cloud, and wind, I thought the Polka raspberries would be non-existent. So, I am pleasantly surprised to keep finding fat and healthy fruit ripening, hidden among the canes.
What surprises me so much about the raspberry canes is that only a few weeks ago I thought I was going to have to dig them all out and burn them because the leaves started to get covered in rust. Now, I don't like the idea of spraying fruit and vegetables. If I'm going to do that well I might as well just go and buy them at the store, save a load of trouble. So, I just cut off every single leaf that had rust on it and chucked them in a waste bin. I made sure that I didn't miss a single leaf. Now they have no sign of disease at all. Wonderful.
Another thing about my Polka raspberries is that I became confused as to when to prune them. Polka are primocanes which means that they make canes and fruit on them in one year, as opposed to summer fruiting Floricanes which fruit on last year's canes. Primocanes are supposed to be cut down in winter or very early spring so that they make new canes to fruit in autumn; the last year's canes were supposed to be woody, brown, and dead. However, the canes overwintered and started throwing out loads of green shoots and leaves just at the time I was going to chop them down, very early spring. So, what I did was a bit of an experiment. I cut down most of the old canes so that new ones would grow to provide fruit in the autumn and left about 3 old canes. I am now picking fruit off the old canes from last year - see photo above - and there are many new canes which are yet to flower. It will be interesting to see whether or not I get a decent crop in autumn.
Another point, my raspberry canes grown in a very limited area of soil about 8 inches in width which runs along my fence. They don't seem to mind at all. I just make sure they don't go thirsty. Raspberries are also shade tolerant which is another good thing as my raspberries get deprived of sun when I sit on the hammock/swing with the canopy overhead.
The loganberries are doing well despite my thinking they would all go mouldy and rot off in this weather. They just get on with it. What more can I ask? I even managed to make some jam from them a few days ago and I also made a mixed kind of jam to have with cream, made with rather too mature strawberries, raspberries and loganberries.
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| Polka - a thornless variety of autumn fruiting raspberry |
What surprises me so much about the raspberry canes is that only a few weeks ago I thought I was going to have to dig them all out and burn them because the leaves started to get covered in rust. Now, I don't like the idea of spraying fruit and vegetables. If I'm going to do that well I might as well just go and buy them at the store, save a load of trouble. So, I just cut off every single leaf that had rust on it and chucked them in a waste bin. I made sure that I didn't miss a single leaf. Now they have no sign of disease at all. Wonderful.
Another thing about my Polka raspberries is that I became confused as to when to prune them. Polka are primocanes which means that they make canes and fruit on them in one year, as opposed to summer fruiting Floricanes which fruit on last year's canes. Primocanes are supposed to be cut down in winter or very early spring so that they make new canes to fruit in autumn; the last year's canes were supposed to be woody, brown, and dead. However, the canes overwintered and started throwing out loads of green shoots and leaves just at the time I was going to chop them down, very early spring. So, what I did was a bit of an experiment. I cut down most of the old canes so that new ones would grow to provide fruit in the autumn and left about 3 old canes. I am now picking fruit off the old canes from last year - see photo above - and there are many new canes which are yet to flower. It will be interesting to see whether or not I get a decent crop in autumn.
Another point, my raspberry canes grown in a very limited area of soil about 8 inches in width which runs along my fence. They don't seem to mind at all. I just make sure they don't go thirsty. Raspberries are also shade tolerant which is another good thing as my raspberries get deprived of sun when I sit on the hammock/swing with the canopy overhead.
The loganberries are doing well despite my thinking they would all go mouldy and rot off in this weather. They just get on with it. What more can I ask? I even managed to make some jam from them a few days ago and I also made a mixed kind of jam to have with cream, made with rather too mature strawberries, raspberries and loganberries.
