Raspberries are a pretty easy crop to grow in my opinion. Last year I transplanted a whole bunch of raspberry canes from my parents’ garden to ours. The canes have grown and spread like crazy.
This year, the object of the game is to contain the canes–a little bit. Raspberry canes don’t bear fruit until their second year, so the first year is all about letting the canes grow… and grow… and grow.
The taller the canes grow, the more likely they are to fall over. A trellis can help to keep them upright and also keep the row a manageable width.
Here’s how Matt and I made the trellis for our berries.
We started with metal T-posts. We happened to have a large quantity courtesy of past owners–free materials, yay! And I liked that the metal won’t rot like wood.
The posts were about 7 feet long. Matt hammered them into the ground leaving about 5 feet sticking up. We used six posts, three on each side, for our rows, which are about 18 feet long. The width of the rows is 2 feet.
Then I strung wire through the holes on the T-posts. There are three rows of wires, each about 16 inches apart.
At the final corner I doubled the wires back and twisted them around themselves.
The raspberries grow between the wires staying nice and straight. About once a week, I walk along the row and make sure all of the growing canes are tucked inside the wires.
Any canes that sprout outside the row can be transplanted to inside the boundaries.
So far, we’ve had just a handful of berries, as we only started our canes last year. Our plants, though, have become thick and lush. With our trellis in place, we’re set to have a great crop of raspberries next year.
Have you picked any raspberries this year? Do you grow raspberries? Have you ever built a raspberry trellis?
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