raspberry?

[barbara beardsley]

I have some raspberry vines(can't be absolutely certain it's a raspberry, it was here when I moved in- the berries turn red first and change to black when ripe, the taste is mildly tart) Anyway, this year I broke my leg so I couldn't do any gardening chores, the vines are just growing"au natural". We live in a very woodsy area, so the vines are getting little sun. Amazingly, they are doing better than ever, I can't figure it out. Last year I cleared the area around the vines and they got full sun and were watered well , but the berries were nowhere near as tasty or plentiful as this year! I thought raspberries liked sun?

Barbara

[EvelynMcH]

The bushes are probably blackberries. Raspberries are purplish medium red when ripe.

The reason you have a good harvest this year is the work you did last year. Fruit comes from sprouts off of two-year old canes (branches), so the old stuff you cleared out last year left room for this year's crop. In the fall, after the leaves are off, cut off all the canes that had fruit on them THIS year, and leave the rest. You can cut them shorter, but the more you leave of this year's growth from the ground, the more fruit next year.

Do a Google search and you'll find abundant information on how to prune raspberries and blackberries. -=>epm

[Pat Kiewicz]

I think the vines liked what you did for them last year. (They fruit on the canes that grew the previous year.) Brambles are happy in partial sun, but for maximum production full sun is usually better.

Are the berries shaped like caps and when the berries come off do they leave a white stump behind? If so you have black raspberries.

If the berry comes off with no central hollow and leave no significant stump when picked, you have blackberries.

To my taste, wild black raspberries were always a bit tart; wild blackberries are decidedly sweet.

[David Efflandt]

I always thought black raspberries were sweeter than red raspberries, unless you pick them too soon. I have all 3 types of berries wild on my WI hunting property. When looking for black raspberries to plant at home last year, the ones marked as raspberries had a picture of blackberries (different if you know what to look for), so I passed those. I did find some to plant this year.