How Tall Do Raspberry Bushes Grow?

Raspberry Plants

• A healthy raspberry plant will produce fruit for 10 years or more. Raspberries increase in size because of a vigorous rhizome system underground that produces new growth. A little vigilance on your part is enough to keep them from getting invasive. The canes are hairy to thorny and are a green to gray-green color. They begin to grow in the spring and usually form fruits in the summer. However, there are fall-bearing and ever-bearing fruits.

Pruning Canes

• One of the most crucial activities associated with raspberry growing is pruning. The plants need training at planting to ensure that there are canes of the right age for bearing. Raspberries usually need staking or a wire support structure to keep the heavy canes upright. Every year, cut out the canes that bore fruit. New canes will grow and replace them for the following season. Keep suckers cut out of your pathways, and reduce the canes that are not removed annually by one-third in height.

Varieties

• There are white raspberries, orange or coral-colored, black and yellow varieties. Raspberries vary in their cane size, but two of the shortest red raspberries are Boyne and Killarney. Fall Gold is an ever-bearing plant with medium-sized canes. Most raspberries are classified by the time of year they bear fruit. Cane size is not a consideration, since they are ideally suited to outdoor growing and are rarely grown inside in greenhouses. Hardiness zones provide another measure of raspberry varieties. Most are hardy in United States Department of Agriculture Zone 4 to Zone 6, but some can grow in Zone 3 and others up to Zone 8.

Managing Raspberry Bushes

• Raspberries benefit from high-nitrogen fertilizer in the spring and consistently moist but not soggy soils. They are often planted in raised beds to ensure adequate drainage and also because soils warm up faster in raised beds. Raspberries are easier to harvest and receive better sun when grown on trellises. The support structure can be as simple as two posts at the ends of the plants with several levels of wire strung between them. Keep the canes tied onto the wire as they grow.