Raspberries, Blackberries and Brambles

How to choose a raspberry or bramble

Raspberry Heritage fruits in autumn on canes that grew the same season, which makes it the simplest to prune. The Tulameen Raspberry fruits in summer on last year's canes. Planting both spreads the harvest from early summer into autumn.

Boysenberry and Youngberry are trailing brambles with long, flexible canes that must be tied to a trellis or wires. They carry large dark berries in early summer. The Chester Thornless Blackberry is a named garden variety with smooth canes that crops in late summer. The Native Raspberry is an Australian scrambling shrub with small red fruit, and it tolerates a wider range of climates than the European raspberry.

Where raspberries grow

Raspberries need winter chill and suit cool and mild temperate districts: Tasmania, Victoria, the tablelands, the Adelaide Hills and the cooler south west of Western Australia. In warm temperate gardens give them morning sun and afternoon shade, and expect a lighter crop. They are not reliable in the subtropics or tropics. The native raspberry, which grows wild from Tasmania to Queensland, is the one to try where winters are mild. All are frost hardy when dormant.

Wild blackberry is a declared weed across much of Australia, so grow only the named thornless garden variety, keep it on a trellis and never let canes root into bushland or a creek line. Raspberries sucker from the roots and the brambles root wherever a cane tip touches soil, so give every plant here a contained bed. They pair well with blueberry plants and our other fruit trees.

Planting and spacing

Choose a sunny, sheltered spot with rich, moist, well drained soil that is slightly acid. Dig in compost first. Plant raspberries 40 to 50 centimetres apart in a row, with two or three horizontal wires strung between posts to about 1.5 metres high. Plant trailing brambles 1.5 to 2 metres apart along the same kind of trellis. A raised bed with solid edges, or a mown strip on each side of the row, stops suckers travelling.

Care basics

Keep the soil evenly moist from flowering to harvest and mulch thickly, because the roots are shallow. Feed in late winter with compost and a balanced fertiliser. Net the canes as the fruit colours or birds will take the crop, and pick every couple of days.

Pruning depends on the type. Cut every cane of an autumn raspberry such as Heritage to the ground in winter. On summer raspberries and the brambles, cut out the canes that have just fruited as soon as the harvest ends, then tie in the strongest new canes to fruit next year. Lift any bramble tip that reaches the ground before it roots.

Common questions

When do raspberries fruit?

Summer types fruit from about December to January, and autumn types from about February to April, depending on the district.

Can I grow raspberries in a warm climate?

They need a cold winter to crop well. In mild winter areas the native raspberry is the more dependable choice.

Do raspberries need a trellis?

A simple post and wire support keeps the canes upright, the fruit clean and the picking easy. Trailing brambles cannot be managed without one.

Is a thornless blackberry a weed?

The wild blackberry is the declared weed. Keep the garden variety tied to its trellis and do not let cane tips root.