How to Look After a Raspberry Bush

General Care

• 1

  Irrigate raspberry bushes to the root zone, which extends no more than 2 feet below the surface, to keep the ground from drying up. Give the plants 1 to 1 ½ inches of water weekly as soon as they begin to flower. Reduce irrigation whenever it rains.

• 2

  Broadcast ¼ cup ammonium nitrate, a form of nitrogen, after the bush begins to produce new canes following transplanting. Apply the granules uniformly around the base of the plant, but a few inches away. Keep the fertilizer from touching the wood to prevent burn. Irrigate the raspberry shrub to water the nutrient sin.

• 3

  Feed established raspberry plants 1/5 cup ammonium nitrate by mid-spring once a year. Spread the product evenly around the base of each plant without letting it touch the wood and foliage. Water the fertilizer in.

• 4

  Distribute 3 ½ cubic feet of composted manure every 100 square feet around the base of the plants. The manure provides nutrients that the raspberry shrubs need besides the nitrogen they get from the ammonium nitrate.

• 5

  Build a 2-inch-deep mulch pile with dead leaves, grass clippings or wood chips around the base of each raspberry bush. Mulch slows water evaporation and suppresses weeds. Avoid using wood shavings as mulch because they deplete the soil's nitrogen.

• 6

  Tie raspberry canes loosely to a trellis with twine. The practice prevents soil-borne diseases and wind damage.

Pruning Red and Yellow Raspberries

• 7

  Prune canes that are thinner than a pencil at the base of the shrub to take them out completely in early spring. Do the same to broken and diseased wood. Thin the remaining canes to maintain 6 inches of space between each.

• 8

  Trim cane tips that died in the winter as soon as the new season begins. Cut into live wood at a 45-degree angle, 1/4 inch above a bud.

• 9

  Prune fruiting canes at the base of the plant after harvest.

Pruning Black and Purple Raspberries

• 10

  Thin black and purple raspberry bushes, retaining five of the thickest canes in early spring. Prune lateral branches on those canes to 1 foot for black raspberries and 1 ½ feet for purple varieties.

• 11

  Trim 4 inches off the tips of black and purple raspberry canes as they reach 3 feet in length. This process starts in late spring and is ongoing, as the individual canes grow at different speeds. Stop performing this step in late July.

• 12

  Remove all fruiting canes at the base of the bushes after harvest.