While kayaking several years ago, I found red raspberry plants growing wild= on the rock cliffs along the river. They were in the most marginal growing= conditions, with their roots growing into shallow dirt in cracks and groov= es in the rock face. They were partly shaded by the trees and shrubs around= them. In spite of all this, they had an abundance of juicy red berries.=20
I brought some home to plant in their own garden, giving them compost and k= eeping the pH to the proper level. The garden has trees on the east side so= the light is partly shaded in the morning but full in the afternoon. Havin= g given them all the advantages, I figured they'd take over the propery and= produce berries the size of basketballs. I cover them with bird netting wh= en the berries start to form otherwise the birds would eat them all.=20
After all this, they never produced as many berries as the wild bushes seem= to do. They did produce a few new plants by growning roots at the end of t= he canes. I let those grow on their own for a year, then cut the cane to se= parate the plants.
Anything else I can do that might help produce more berries and more plants= ? I'm in northern Maryland, fairly close to the Chesapeake Bay.
Paul