Raspberry Varieties for Hot & Humid Climates

Managing Everbearing Raspberries

• Delicate raspberries generally grow best in areas with cool summers; mild temperatures support sweet, juicy spring and early summer berries. Better for hot-summer climates are newer everbearing raspberry varieties that produce only fall berry crops, after sending up primocanes in spring and summer. Then in winter these first-year canes, no longer needed, are mowed to the ground, and the cycle begins again the next year. In addition to pushing berry maturity into late summer and fall -- when temperatures are much lower, supporting sweeter berries -- this management approach is simple and labor saving. It also reduces disease and pest damage, and eliminates worry over winter freeze damage.

Experimenting with Everbearing Red Raspberries

• Because in 2011 this primocane-only approach to growing raspberries is fairly new among bramble growers -- and still being adapted to areas where raspberries have rarely been grown -- it's too soon for agriculture researchers to have amassed specific detailed information about which new primocane raspberries grow best where. But a number of varieties are been successfully grown. Growing likely cultivars on a small scale is the best way to discover which will grow best for you.

Best Everbearing Red Raspberries for Hot Climates

• University of California Extension recommends two similar everbearing red raspberry varieties for growing even in full sun in the blistering hot temperatures of the state's central valley -- Bababerry and Oregon 1030. Bababerry is one of the largest red raspberries -- firm, sweet and flavorful. Manage both cultivars by winter mowing, to shift berry development into cooler fall months. As UC Extension, points out, other primocane varieties may do fairly well in valley heat if provided with some afternoon shade. Josephine, a late season primocane variety, might be worth trying. Josephine's very vigorous plants produce excellent fruit and area adapted to the West Coast's extended growing season.

Other Good Everbearing Red Raspberries

• There are more than a dozen new primocane red raspberry varieties -- many also disease resistant -- with more being introduced all the time thanks to cooperative university breeding programs. Of these, cultivars that mature somewhat later in the fall berry season are the best choices for most hot-summer climates. Good varieties worth trying out include Heritage, long the primocane red raspberry standard; the somewhat earlier Autumn Britten; very vigorous Himbo Top, and Jaclyn.