Raspberries: An Affordable Luxury in Tough Times

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Ruth Dobsevage, Web producer

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Photo by Marko_K under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

The raspberry patch is to the west of my kitchen garden.

Ruth Dobsevage

Photo by Marko_K under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

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Your 401k is tanking? Join the club. With prospects for a quick economic turnaround looking dim, now might be the time to consider a different kind of investment, one that offers reliable returns in the second year and thereafter without much risk. Think raspberries.

Raspberries are pricey at the store because they have a very short shelf life. Fortunately they are not hard to grow. My patch has an interesting history. One year I bought a few plants for my parents. About five years later, I decided it would be nice to have some too, so I dug up some canes and brought them home, where they thrived and spread.

Here in southwestern Connecticut, we enjoy fresh-picked raspbberries in the first half of July. They're yummy on granola or as a simple dessert, and sometimes they even find their way into jam.

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Comments (5)

zrdailey writes: pearlyshells, I also have had that problem. I don't remember if my canes had white streaks last year (they haven't started growing again yet since its still winter). But they were big, healthy, and had very few to no berries. It was about a 10 x 3 foot patch of raspberry canes. I'm also wondering what I need to do to improve the crop output this year...

I tried a net last year hoping that I would save what few berries grew from the birds, but it just seemed to trap the grasshoppers instead and didn't let the birds eat the grasshoppers so they took over. I won't do that again.

Help! I would love to have a successful raspberry crop this year. Is there any amendment I need to put into the soil? The raspberries are 3 years old in this location this summer, but were transplanted from a mature garden.
Posted: 12:37 pm on March 11th

pearlyshells writes: I have big healthy looking raspberrie plants, but no berries(or very few). also, now the top leaves of my canes are getting white streaks on them.. what can I do? is there some nutrient missing that I need to add to the soil?
Posted: 10:44 am on August 18th

Ruth writes: My raspberries are pretty close to the house. The deer seem happier chomping on the black raspberries (berries and canes) that are out in the back field. Actually, it's my dog that likes to grab a raspberry or two as we pass through the patch on our frequent walks. I used to net the raspberries to protect them from birds, but that was cumbersome and not essential. We now just share the crop, and we get most of it.
Posted: 2:04 pm on July 8th

rabbieag writes: Don't the deer eat the raspberries?
Posted: 1:11 pm on July 8th

ShirleyBovshow writes: I've got my raspberries growing on a beautiful dead tree! The structure of the tree is nice and the tree did not die of a disease, so I am using it to support my berries. I will post a photo soon. The vine is growing up the trunk and around the branches, creating a "fountain" and cascading effect!
Shirley
Posted: 4:00 am on March 31st

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