This will be my eighth season for my backyard Raspberry Beds (read about 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023). I have 4 varieties (Prelude, Joan J, TulaMagic, and Nova) each in a 2x30 foot bed. I'm coming off of a bit of a decline year for the raspberries where I got 25 lbs of fruit and not starting with that many canes from last year. I get busy on other projects and the beds end up getting overgrown with weeds which then stifle next year's growth. I'm going to work to keep the weeds a bit more contained this year. If this year doesn't help regain the strength then I may have to purchase some new stock for next year to replenish the beds.
Even so, 25 lbs of fruit is still a lot and I still have much of the fruit from previous years around to use in my brewing and cooking. I will track the status of the fruit over the year for the record
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| 7/14/24 |
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| 4/18/24 |
Growing Notes:
- 5/27/24 - This has been a weak growing year. I've decided to just eat the fruit rather than go through the effort of picking and logging what seems like will be less than 10 lbs even. The grass has become a major chore to deal with. I find that the first row I weed becomes overgrown before I've finished weeding the last one
- 7/14/24 - This has been a very disappointing year for the raspberry bed project. I've been unable to keep up with the weeding. Weeds have taken over the beds as well as the space between the beds. I think this is going to severely limit the amount of growth coming out of this year.. I'm considering digging up the beds and starting from scratch next year at this point.
