How to Care for Summer-Bearing Raspberries

Choose a full sun location in the spring. The area should receive at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. This area should also drain well and not frequently sit in standing water after heavy rains.

Dig a 1-foot-wide and deep trench in a straight line to form a row for planting your raspberries. The individual plants will be set 2 feet apart. Form additional rows, if needed, spaced 6 feet apart.

Pour 6 inches of compost or well-rotted manure into the trench. Cover over the compost and fill the trench completely with the removed soil. Turn the blade of the shovel inside the filled trench to mix the compost and soil together.

Place bareroot raspberry plants into the soil mixture only 3 inches deep with the roots spread out, set 2 feet apart. If your raspberries are potted, then dig a hole in the trench equal to the pot size every 2 feet. Remove the pots and set the roots into their holes as deeply as previously planted. Firm the soil around the roots.

Water the soil to dampen the entire trench area. Water the plants the same way every week during the first year of planting. Spread 3 inches of bark or leaf mulch around the base of each plant and over the exposed soil between plants.

Apply a 10-10-10 fertilizer each spring using about ½ cup of feed per plant. As you add the fertilizer, spread the granules around the plant without letting them touch the base.

Continue to water your raspberries as you watch for new, green canes to appear in the first year but not produce fruit. Check for raspberries on those canes (which have turned to a red or brown color) during the second year. Harvest any berries when they pull freely from the cane.

Prune away the old, red or brown canes at ground level once all of their raspberries have been harvested. Discard the old canes. The remaining first-year green canes will be your fruiting canes the following year. Cut back these canes to leave four to five green canes per foot in each row. Repeat the pattern of providing fertilizer and removing old canes every year.