Wanting to know whether it is best to order red raspberry canes from a mail order vendor or is it reccomended that you get them locally? Any suggestions for mail order suppliers that you have had success with will be appreciated. What varieties do you like? In your experience what does it take in terms of soil and care to sucessfully grow them? Has anyone tried the golden variety and if so were they worth it? Thanks, Linda

-- Linda Foster (rcfam@csinet.net), April 23, 2001

Answers

I don't have experience with lots of varieties, but I have been reading a lot about them lately.

The varieties I have grown have been generic, or scoring some plants from neighbors.

My reading suggests that the red varieties have the best flavor.

My personal experience is that really good flavor comes from lots of sun, lots of compost mulch and not too much water.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), April 23, 2001.

Hi Linda. I grew up in northern Ontario, Canada in a zone 4 climate. We had some amber raspberries that I think may have been called Ambrosia? They were larger than the native reds, and a lot less tangy. They were just wonderful. I don't know where my mother got them from, but they required no care in our sunny yard, which was former grazing land, not sandy, but well drained. Hope this helps some.

-- Rheba (rbeall@etown.net), April 23, 2001.

If you can get good starts from someone for free, that's the best way. If you order some, Latham and Heritage are 2 red varieties I have had in the past and they were very good. Most any good nursery has plants available. Places like Gurneys, Mellingers or Jungs are all reliable and about the same price. Wally World may even have them.

Good black raspberrys can usually be found just by keeping your eyes open when you drive the back roads. I have gotten several good starts and pick a lot from along wooded railroad beds. The local wildlife refuge here is a good place to pick. I will probably get all my raspberrys that way this year as the transplants I moved here aren't going to have much this year. If you go and pick wild berrys, keep your eyes out for golden berrys. They are naturally occuring variants of the norms called "sports". Some are excellant, some are not so good. I'm planning on tagging a few for transplant, if I find any good ones. Some folks are leery of taking starts from friends or the wilds because of virus contamination. I personally don't worry about it. If you do worry, order virus free types.

No matter how you get your starts it's most important to have a well prepped hole for them. You can't just dig a hunk of sod out and slap them in. I tried that once. Once they get established they will tolerate a lot and multiply like crazy. Nice worked hole w/ a little compost is good. They like mulch. Lots of info on berrys at Cornell U, Ohio State, U of Kentucky, Co-op extension areas.

-- John in S. IN (jsmengel@hotmail.com), April 23, 2001.