I am growing four varieties of Raspberry which fruit at different times: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova. They're all a little different in terms of flavor and fruit characteristics. I'll try to get a bit more detail on each one this year. The Prelude seemed like the biggest producer for me last year.
I'll post monthly updates on the progress of the beds:
Raspberry Tasting Notes:
Raspberry Picking Tracker:
4/26/20 - Read about the 2020 crop and the completion of my landscaping project here. 4/19/21 - Read about the 2021 crop here. 5/1/22 - Read about the 2022 crop here
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| 1/25/20 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 11/3/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 10/13/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 9/30/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 9/2/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 8/11/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 7/13/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 6/21/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 6/2/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 5/18/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 4/22/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
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| 4/2/19 - R to L: Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova |
Raspberries are very expensive fruit. To buy the sorts of volumes I've gotten would be hundreds of dollars. Setting up the beds was probably close to $1000 so it will probably be several years before I've recouped my investment. Picking and maintenance of the beds is a lot of work so the time investment is another consideration.
I have a few projects I plan to work on this year:
- Planting some new bare root stock in the Joan J beds to replace plants lost in the first year. I've ordered 5 new plants which are scheduled to arrive in early April
- Taking out the lawn between and around the bed and replacing with gravel. I find mowing between the beds to be very unpleasant and all the weeds that grow next to the planter beds are a pain to deal with
- Putting in a hanging drip system. We get a lot of rain but I expect there will be quite a few weeks where some additional watering is necessary. This is a bit of a pain. The drip system will make watering the plants quite a bit easier I think.
Raspberry Tasting Notes:
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| L to R: Prelude, Joan J, Tula Magic, Nova |
- Prelude:
- Soft textured with a rich raspberry flavor. Light sweetness and light tartness
- Joan J:
- Soft textured and quite juicy. Rich raspberry flavor and kind of jammy. Pretty sweet with little tartness.
- TulaMagic:
- Slightly firm but fairly most. Tastes like a raspberry but also has an interesting flavor profile which kind of reminds me of almond or wood. Slightly sweet with little tartness
- Nova:
- Firm but juicy. Very tart raspberry with a nice rich flavor profile. Not very sweet
Raspberry Picking Tracker:
- 6/8 - 12 oz
- 6/9 - 1 lb 9 oz
- 6/10 - 2 lb
- 6/11 - 5 lb
- 6/12 - 2 lb 14 oz
- 6/13 - 2 lb 11 oz
- 6/14 - 5 lb 7 oz
- 6/15 - 2 lb 13 oz
- 6/16 - 2 lb 8 oz
- 6/17 - 4 lb
- 6/18 - 7 lb
- 6/19 - 5 lb 7 oz
- 6/20 - 4 lb 8 oz
- 6/21 - 5 lb 6 oz
- 6/22 - 4 lb 2 oz
- 6/23 - 5 lb 3 oz
- 6/24 - 4 lb 8 oz
- 6/25 - 5 lb 6 oz
- 6/26 - 4 lb 4 oz
- 6/27 - 4 lb
- 6/28 - 2 lb 10 oz
- 6/29 - 2 lb 1 oz
- 6/30 - 2 lb 11 oz
- 7/1 - 2 lb 2 oz
- 7/2 - 1 lb 5 oz
- 7/3 - 2 lb 14 oz
- 7/4 & 7/5 - 2 lb 15 oz
- 7/6 & 7/7 - 1 lb 13 oz
- 7/8 - 1 lb 5 oz
- 7/9 - 1 lb 4 oz
- 7/10 - 13 oz
- 7/11 - Did not pick
- 7/12 - 13 oz
- 7/13 - 11 oz
- 7/14 - 9 oz
- 7/16 - 8 oz
- 10/27 - 11 oz
- Current Total: 104 lb 7 oz
Raspberry Growing Log:
- 4/2/19 - Planted 5 new Joan J plants. Watered them to help them get established. It is starting to warm into the 60s in the day and the nights are above freezing now
- 4/22/19 - We've had a lot of rain and quite a few warm and sunny days. The plants are putting out a lot of growth from the second year canes and there is also quite a bit from the roots
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| Prelude |
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| Joan J |
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| TulaMagic |
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| Nova |
- 4/28/19 - Started work on a lawn divider about 3 feet around the perimeter of the raised beds. This involves digging a trench (about 6 inches deep and 1 foot wide) which I'm thinking I'll put stone or brick in. Once that is done I'll dig out all the lawn between the planter beds and fill it with gravel.
- 5/10/19 - I applied about a pound of blood meal across the four beds to give the plants a bit more to chew on.
- 5/18/19:
- Prelude have put out a lot of flowers in the last couple weeks. These are starting for form fruit now. The plant have a lot of second year growth. Not a whole lot of new growth from the beds so far (although they have put quite a bit of new growth from the lawn which I've been mowing over.
- Joan J are forming fruit from the 2nd year growth which has been pretty vigorous. The five new plants that I put in the ground in April all have new growth as well
- TulaMagic are a bit slow getting started. Many of the second year plants don't have any growth at all. I have been cutting some of the taller plants off at a few inches above the top line in hopes that this somehow stimulates growth
- Nova are growing very vigorously on second year canes. So much so that any new growth is going to have difficulty getting light. I may have left too many 2nd year canes. These have started putting out flowers in the last week which are beginning to open
- 6/2/19 - I've been continuing with my lawn border project but it is slow going (almost finished with the trench around the beds). I'm going to start digging out the middle next which may take me most of the summer. May had a very nice amount of rain so I only had to water once - may not get to the planned irrigation system this year - could regret that in July and August though.
- Prelude are starting to ripen - we a have a lot of fruit from these this year. These have put up quite a bit of new growth in the lawn outside of the beds but not too much inside the beds. I am cutting down the growth from the lawn
- Joan J have a bit of fruit forming and it's starting to ripen as well - maybe a bit behind the Prelude. All my new canes are growing but little growth from the roots so far
- TulaMagic are still pretty weak. Many of the second year canes have no growth - I've given up on them. The lack of old growth has cleared the way for a fair amount of first year growth from the roots at least.
- Nova are the most vigorous growers still. They have a ton of fruit that hasn't ripened just yet. Quite a bit of growth from the lawn on these but not much from the beds - hopefully I haven't killed next year's crop by letting these grow so densely.
- 7/13/19 - Status:
- General:
- I have finished a trench around the outside of the beds and am now proceeding to dig out the grass next to the beds. There is a lot of root growth that gets ripped out as I go which is probably damaging the plants a bit. I've decided to take this digging part slow to try to let the plants recover as I go
- I've been picking a lot of grass out of the beds this last several weeks. I've been having to root around a bit to get the grass to come out. I may have damaged some raspberry roots in the process
- I gave the plants some bone meal a few weeks back to help them along.
- We've had a lot of rain in Early July. I haven't had to water the plants for a couple weeks :)
- Fruit:
- Prelude - Fruit is basically finished. These produced a lot of berries for me. I'm cutting out all the old fruiting growth now. There are some bare patches which I'm filling with the volunteers that have come up in the lawn.
- Joan J - Old growth is still producing some ripe fruit although it's petering out. Have quite a bit of new growth which is starting to put out flowers. 4/5 of my new plants have put up fairly strong growth. I'll try to relocate some plants from the grass into the bed
- TulaMagic - These are putting out a fair amount of ripe fruit still. Didn't get a lot off this plant this year. New growth is coming in pretty vigorously
- Nova - Pretty close to done. I'm getting started cutting out the old canes on this one. New growth is looking pretty spindly. My decision last year to leave this one so densely populated is to blame. It will be interesting to see if the next 2-3 months allow this plant to recover.
- 8/11/19:
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| Prelude |
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| Joan J |
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| TulaMagic |
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| Nova |
- 9/2/19 - I've been doing a lot of work on my project to gravel between the beds. I'm pretty close to being done digging out the grass. I've attempted to re-locate plants from the grass into the beds with minimal success so far. My next step will be to dig down several inches around all the bed to make room for the gravel bed. I haven't decided how thick to make the bed yet but my hope is that it will be enough to discourage grass from growing through. All the plants are doing pretty well and the fall crop is beginning to come in.
- 10/31/19 - I finished digging out the grass and I've spent the last two weeks digging down 6 inches around all the beds and moving the dirt to a 15 cubic yard dumpster. Finished that work today
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| Empty Dumpster - 10/18 |
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| Mostly full - 10/26 |
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| Ramp to fill all the way |
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| Full Dumpster - 10/30 |
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| The results |
- 11/9/19 - It's gotten down to freezing this week and was 20 F this morning. The plants are going to start dropping their leaves most likely. I've started trussing them up - have quite a bit more work to do on this. Hoping that my work around the beds wont harm the plants too badly going into the winter - I guess we won't really know the impact until next spring though.
- 1/25/20 - I've started putting a lawn boarder - I pour concrete into some forms and then sink paving stones into them
- 3/15/20 - I finished pouring and placing my ring of paving stones. I have a pipe underneath to allow for sprinkler pluming to be run
- 3/22/20 - Put grout between the stones for both looks and to prevent grass from growing in
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| Pipe for sprinkler |
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| Grout |
- 3/27/20 - Back filled dirt to fill the gap between the outside of the blocks and the lawn. Would expect by early summer the grass will have grow in again.
