How Many Raspberry Plants Do I Need? A Complete Guide

How different raspberry varieties grow

Red and yellow raspberries produce many new canes from the base of the floricanes and from buds produced on the roots that become underground stems or stolons. The plants can spread in any direction. Thus “raspberry patch” is an apt name if the canes are not controlled through pruning.

Black and most purple raspberries produce primocanes only from the buds at the base of the floricanes. These clumps or “hills” stay where you originally plant them.

Everbearing red raspberries, also called “fall-bearing” or “primocane-fruiting” raspberries, are able to grow flowers during the first year. These varieties produce fruit at the tips of the primocanes. During the second year, they can produce a summer crop on the lower part of the same canes.

One problem with this kind of raspberry in Minnesota is that many of the berries may not make it because of early fall freezes. Pruning of fall-bearers may be adjusted to allow for both a fall and following summer crop, or to take just the fall crop.

The University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station has been testing varieties for many years to find those best suited to our climate. This list is based on that research. Most of the varieties on the list are hardy throughout Minnesota; those with hardiness described as “fair” or “poor” will perform best in protected sites and in the southern part of the state.

There are a lot more types, and every year more are released that might grow well in some parts of Minnesota. If winter injury is a concern in your garden, primocane-fruiting varieties may be the best choice.

Variety	Fruiting type	Hardiness (zone 4 to zone 3)	Description
Autumn Bliss	Primocane	Good to fair	Large clusters of bright red, mildly sweet berries. Early ripening. Very good for freezing.
Autumn Britten	Primocane	Very good to good	Very large, firm, flavorful berries. Early ripening. Very good for freezing.
Boyne	Floricane	Very good to good	Very hardy. Produces deer red, medium size, tender, sweet berries. Very good for freezing.
Caroline	Primocane	Good to fair	Very large, rich, sweet berries. Good for freezing.
Encore	Floricane	Very good to fair	Sturdy, vigorous, nearly thornless upright plants produce a late season crop of large, sweet, firm berries.
Festival	Floricane	Very good to good	Nearly thornless, productive plants. Less vigorous. Medium bright red berries.
Heritage	Primocane	Very good to good	Large, bright red, super-sweet berries on vigorous, upright canes.
Killarney	Floricane	Very good to good	So productive it will weigh down the upright canes. Firm, sweet fruit. Disease resistant.
Latham (1920-UMN variety)	Floricane	Very good to good	Vigorous plants produce lots of large, sweet, firm, bright red berries. Very good for freezing. Disease resistant.
Nova	Floricane	Very good to good	Very hardy plant with fewer thorns. Medium size, firm, bright red berries with a good, slightly tart flavor. Very good for freezing.
Polana	Primocane	Good	Large, firm berries with good flavor. Early ripening.

Variety	Color	Fruiting type	Hardiness (zone 4 to zone 3)	Description
Anne	Yellow	Primocane	Good to fair	Widely adapted plants produce pale, yellow, very sweet, mild berries. Heat tolerant.
Black Hawk	Black	Floricane	Fair to poor	Vigorous plants produce lots of rich, sweet, firm black raspberries. Disease resistant and heat tolerant.
Bristol	Black	Floricane	Fair to poor	Vigorous, upright canes produce large clusters of firm black raspberries. Excellent flavor.
Fallgold	Yellow	Primocane	Very good to good	Produces large, golden, firm, sweet berries. Very hardy.
Honeyqueen	Yellow	Floricane	Good to fair	Honey-sweet, peach colored soft berries are produced on arched, spiny canes.
Royalty	Purple	Floricane	Fair to poor	Vigorous plants are heavy producers. Pick red for bright raspberry flavor, or purple for sweet, rich flavor.

Early spring is the best time to plant raspberries. Choose a planting site that is in full sun. The plants will grow in part shade, but will not produce as much fruit.

Raspberries prefer rich, well-drained soil. A few inches of compost mixed into the soil prior to planting will create a high-quality planting site. A good rate is about 3 1/2 cubic feet of compost per 100 square feet.

Till the soil well before planting.

This video describes how to plant a row of raspberries and build a simple wire trellis.

• Strawberry plants should be grown in a garden area that gets full sun, good air flow, and good drainage.
• Good air flow helps leaves dry out faster, which lowers the risk of disease. Standing water will make it more likely for plants to get diseases and die because their roots won’t get enough oxygen.
• Any well-drained soil is good for growing raspberries. If the soil is sandy, or even if it holds water well, it will need to be watered during dry spells.
• Raspberry canes don’t like it when they get dry, so don’t plant them where it gets very windy.
• Raspberries begin to bloom in late May or early June. Wild bees like bumblebees, honeybees, and other types are great at pollinating brambles. You will get more fruit from your plants if there are more bees working on them.

Planting raspberries in a row along a fence or wall makes them easy to manage and, best of all, easy to pick. Or you can grow your raspberries in more of a rounded patch. Either way, space red or yellow raspberry plants every 2 to 3 feet.

It doesn’t matter if you plant plants bare-root or in pots; the crown should be 1 or 2 inches above the ground.

• Spread the roots out when you put the plant in the hole.
• Try not to wrap the roots around in the hole.
• You can cut off any roots that are too long or won’t stay in place.
• If you’re planting a plant in a pot, make sure to loosen the root ball and cut any roots that are too tight. When you plant it, this will help the roots spread out better.

Allow new primocanes of red and yellow raspberries to spread along the row or in between plants but not wider than 12 inches. Wider than that and the plants will be difficult to manage and harvest, and more prone to fungal diseases because of slow drying conditions.

Because these types do not produce root suckers, they will create what is commonly called a hill. The “hill” is not made by mounding the soil; it refers to the cluster of canes that develops from a single plant.

Although black and purple raspberries do not send up new primocanes outside the hill, they can spread. The long, vigorous canes often arch down to the soil surface, where they may take root. Its important to keep the canes controlled and supported to prevent this.

Try growing raspberries in a narrow raised bed with a decorative fence for support. It will keep them contained to a small area and make pruning easier.

Raspberries need lots of water from spring until after harvest. Because the root system is in the top two feet of soil, watering regularly is better than an occasional deep soaking.

Raspberries need 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week from flowering until harvest. Use a rain gauge or check reported rainfall, and irrigate accordingly.

All types of raspberries require support to prevent the canes from wind damage, bending over, cracking, and getting out of control.

A trellis can be as simple as a couple of posts and twine for a row of plants, or a decorative obelisk, teepee or arbor for individual or mass plantings.

Supporting the plants will not only keep them healthier and more productive, but it will also keep them looking nice.

Plant sturdy ornamentals like yarrow, echinacea or rudbeckia, or perhaps herbs or other edibles like kale alongside your raspberries to create a beautiful mixed garden. These will help support the raspberries and invite beneficial insects into the garden.

No matter what kind of trellis you design for your raspberries, the goal is simple: Keep the canes and fruit off the ground and leave enough walking space on each side for harvest. Raspberries trellised with metal and wire on a small farm. The metal trellis used in this home garden is similar to the larger scale construction. Use a rototiller or hand tools to till the soil 8-12 inches deep before planting.

A raspberry trellis should include sturdy support posts and several levels of wire or twine strung between the posts on either side of the plants.

If you use wire you will need a couple of other supplies: Earth anchors behind the end posts, and gripples or strainers. Both serve to secure the wire and keep it tight.

The advantage of using wire is that it will not loosen or wear out over time in the way that twine does. Twine takes less time and supplies to install, but it does not work as well as wire.

• You will plant the berries in a 2-foot strip that you measure out and till the ground.
• The tilled area should be two feet longer than the row length so that the plants at the ends don’t have to grow against squished soil and grass.
• If the area used to be grass, this step is especially important because the soil will be too hard for gardening.

• Plant them 18 to 24 inches apart in moist soil.
• Water thoroughly after planting.
• Mulch with straw or wood chips will help keep water in and weeds out.

• At the end of each row, pound in two strong metal or wooden posts. If you use metal posts, they should have holes all the way through them so you can string the wire through them.
• Five to six feet long, with one to two feet below ground and four to five feet above it, the posts should be.
• One earth anchor should be on each end of the row, about two to three feet behind the end posts. They should go all the way into the ground, leaving only the top loop loose.
• To twist it in, you can use a metal pole or shovel handle.

• Using 12. 5 gauge high tensile wire (or something similar) and roll it out along the row.
• It should be cut two to three feet longer than the row.
• Cut two more pieces that are just over twice as long as the distance between the earth anchor and the top of the post. You will use these pieces to make a loop that will connect the anchor to the post.
• Use safety glasses and leather work gloves. The wire is under a lot of stress and may bounce back after being cut.

• Start at one end and loop a shorter piece of wire around the earth anchor and one of the end posts.
• There is a hole near the top of the metal end post where the wire should loop through.
• To connect and tighten the loop, use a gripple and a gripple tool. You can find gripples and instructions online.

• String the long wires along the row’s length and into holes in the end posts on both ends.
• With gripples, wrap the wire around the post in small loops.
• Make the wires tighter with the gripple tool so that they don’t move much when you shake them.

The final levels should be approximately 2, 3, and 4 feet above the ground.

Managing pests and diseases

Keeping plants healthy and well-cared-for is the best strategy for preventing a host of issues. When issues do arise, it is important to look closely at what you are seeing. Where is the damage located: leaves or fruit, primocanes or floricanes? Correct diagnosis is key in taking the right steps to address problems as they arise.

Find help identifying common pest problems:

• Spotted wing drosophila are invasive fruit flies that can lay their eggs in ripening and ripe fruit, which makes the berries mushy.
• Small beetles called sap beetles are drawn to the smell of ripe fruit.
• The multicolored Asian lady beetle is an invasive species of lady beetle that likes to eat fruit in the fall, especially if the garden is close to a soybean field. They are attracted to sweet fruit. Beetles can have one or many spots, but a black “M” shape on the white band between their head and body makes them easy to spot. The best management strategy is picking fruit regularly.
• These thin beetles are about a quarter of an inch long and come in yellow, tan, and green. They are called corn rootworms. Beetles eat both fully ripe and underripe fruit by digging into them. During the late summer, beetles often feed in groups. They can do a lot of damage. Insecticides can be a helpful tool. Pay close attention to the label and see how long you need to wait between applying the product and harvesting it.
• Yellowjackets Wasps are brightly colored, with yellow and black stripes. Wasps like overripe fruit, especially in the fall, so picking the patch often will make it less appealing to them.

• In the middle of summer, you can see Japanese beetles that are bronze and bright green eating and gathering on leaves.
• Flat-headed cane borers, like the red-necked cane borer and the bronze cane borer, can sometimes leave scars on raspberry canes and kill them. The adults are small, metallic, and thin. The larvae feed inside the canes and look like pale maggots. As they lay their eggs, adults damage the outside of canes and leave scars. They can also eat leaves. Most of the damage is done by larvae feeding inside the cane, which results in tip dieback, galls, and dead canes. Check plants for tip dieback, galls, and scarring. If you see any of these things, prune the plants to get rid of the larvae.
• During hot weather, spider mites can be a problem. They can turn the underside of leaves bronze.
• Flaws in fruit can be caused by tarnished plant bugs eating it.
• Potato leafhoppers eat young leaves, which makes them curl, turn yellow, and grow shorter. These jumping, moving bugs can be a problem when it’s hot and dry outside. Adults are elongated, small (1/8 inch), and wedge-shaped. Natural enemies can help keep populations in check.

Rabbits are partial to raspberry canes in winter and will eat them, thorns and all, right down to the ground or the snow line. This is particularly damaging for summer-bearing raspberries, while fall-bearing raspberries are typically mowed down every spring anyway.

A simple chicken wire fence around your raspberry plants should protect them from rabbits throughout the winter. A cane blight lesion on a raspberry primocane

To properly diagnose pest problems on raspberry plants, it is important to understand the normal growth pattern of these plants.

When trying to identify what is killing leaves or canes, always check to see if the symptoms are on the primocanes or floricanes. Since floricanes die in the middle of summer, yellow and dying leaves on floricanes after June is considered normal, but yellow leaves on primocanes may indicate a problem.

Diseases can be limited by planting certified disease-free plants, destroying wild or abandoned brambles near the garden, and removing weak and diseased plants in established plantings.

After harvest, remove and destroy canes that have fruited or are weak.

One of the most effective measures is to improve air circulation by proper thinning and pruning and by controlling weeds.

Keep an eye out for spots, discoloration, parts of the plants dying, or moldy growth on leaves or fruit.

Cane blight is a common reason for the dieback of canes on raspberries. Disease lesions near the base of the cane cutoff water and nutrient transport to the rest of the cane, causing it to die.

Gray mold is the most common fruit rot disease of raspberries in Minnesota.

• This sickness likes it when it’s cool and wet during flowering and harvest.
• Raspberries that are still on the plants rot and get moldy because of gray mold.
• Gray mold may not show up on ripe fruit until after it has been picked, and it spreads quickly in a pack.
• Pick places to plant that get full sun, good drainage, and air flow.
• To keep this disease under control, plant in close rows, pull weeds out often, and thin plants that are getting too big.
• In early spring, get rid of all the straw in strawberry patches that have had gray mold in the past. Replace with fresh straw or other organic mulch.
• Fungicides can be used to manage gray mold fruit rot.

In raspberries, phytophthora crown and root rot causes canes to die back, due to an infection at the crown, or base, of the canes. The crown is located at or just beneath the soil surface.

Phytophthora infection causes brown discoloration on the outside and inside of the crown. It thrives in wet soils.

Positive confirmation of phytophthora infection is necessary before diagnosing and treating it. Dig up and submit an infected crown to the Plant Disease Clinic for diagnosis.

Prevent this disease with good site selection and cultural practices:

• Plant on well-drained soils, avoiding heavy, water-logged soils.
• To help water drain better when planting in heavy soils, make raised rows or raised bed gardens first.
• Do not overwater your raspberry patch.
• To plant raspberries there again after removing an infected patch, you must wait a few years. Choose a better area for your next planting if possible.

Hot days with strong sunlight may cause sunscald on berries forming white or colorless drupelets (the small, individual, seed-containing parts of each berry). The white drupelets will be flavorless, but there is no harm in eating them.

Once the weather cools, plants will produce normal berries. Heat can also cause berries to ripen faster than you can pick them, which can attract insects. Pick ripe fruit immediately.

Very few raspberry varieties are completely hardy in Minnesota. Even hardy varieties can exhibit symptoms of winter injury following severe winters. Winter injury can also occur after winters when the temperature fluctuates between mild and extremely cold.

Winter injury is often confused with cane blight, but it has symptoms that are different from other diseases.

• The winter cold comes in through the tips of the canes the most.
• The first few inches of a cane will die from mild winter damage.
• If the canes get hurt badly in the winter, the top few feet will die.
• Most of the time, there will be healthy leaves at the base of the cane after winter damage.
• If the winter damage happened with a few inches of snow on top, the canes will die at snow level and the lower canes will grow healthy leaves and fruit.

Raspberries that produce flowers and fruit on first year canes (primocanes) will always show some dieback in the spring. Dieback in fall-bearing raspberries is normal and is not considered winter injury.

Flowering in primocanes always starts at the tips of the canes and later flowers sprout lower in the cane. Any part of the cane that produces flowers will die in the winter. Always choose varieties that are suitable for your zone in Minnesota.

Leaf spot, spur blight, cane blight and anthracnose can make raspberries more susceptible to winter injury. Healthy plants will survive the Minnesota winters better.

Raspberry Planting Guide | Soil, Sun, pH, Fertilizing, Growing & Caring

FAQ

How many raspberry plants should I grow?

If you want 20 lbs of fresh raspberries per season, plant 4-10 raspberry plants. If you plan to freeze or make jam, aim for 15-25 plants per person.

How long does it take a raspberry plant to bear fruit?

Raspberries will start producing fruit a year after planting. Rabbits love to eat the canes in winter. A chicken wire fence will help prevent rabbit damage.