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BuildingGardening

Raspberries

By March 2, 201413 Comments

When I stumbled across raspberry canes for sale at my local Lowe’s store, I was intrigued because everyone kept telling me that raspberries don’t grow here. So, I defiantly bought three canes. I then did a bunch of reading and research and discovered that there are raspberries that will grow here. Now, these three canes I purchased might not be the right variety for my zone, but it set into motion the need to build a trellis for the raspberry canes to grow. This was my prototype, discovered on Pinterest.

Prototype and model I made my supply list and my sons helped me get all the lumber and concrete home from Lowe’s. Yesterday, in about four hours I built my own raspberry trellis. You first need to select an area that stays shaded. Raspberries aren’t great fans of intense full day sunshine, especially this far south. I selected the flatest area of my lot so as to not have to make that much adjustment for slope. I had bought 8ft pressure treated 4×4 beams. I dug 24 in, 22 in and 18in deep holes, respectively.

Posts in holesI needed only two bags of concrete mix to anchor each hole. I took care to level the posts.

Check for levelVerify level

 

 

 

 

I learned that anchoring the 5/8 x 6in x 8ft planks was difficult as a single person job. I had to improvise a second set of “hands”.

Improvise for 1 personDrilling pilot holes made an easier job of getting the 1st screw anchored.

Pilot holesI then used heavy gauge wire cutters to cut out sections of the coated wire fencing to set down over the 4×4 beams and onto the cross planks. I anchored that with U nails.

U nails I then added wrought iron hooks and two bird feeders to better mark the corners of the unit so that when the yard man is mowing he doesn’t run into the green coated wire that protrudes from the sides.

100_0229I amended the soil with compost from my own bin and plants the raspberry canes. I MIGHT get berries in the fall. If not, I will order new canes next fall for planting.

 

 

13 Comments

  • Sharon says:

    I love your website.. I was wondering if you have any simple instructions/photos of building a grapevine arbor. I have a very old vine that desperately needs a new arbor. Also, it was pruned incorrectly and now has far too many shoots. I am trying to save it but I am not an arborist nor do I know much about concord grape vines. If you have any suggestions, I would be greatly appreciative. Thank you.

  • J. Mason says:

    Just ran across your post. How did your raspberries do with this trellis system?

    • Lisa says:

      The trellis works great! My problem has been finding varieties of raspberries that tolerate zone 9. The summers are just so harsh in my area.

  • Kate Bullock says:

    love the design. Am wondering/concerned about using pressure treated lumber with edible landscaping…? I’m planning to use untreated locust posts and untreated mulch for raspberry plants that we hope to harvest and eat berries from, but sincerely wondering if you’ve got additional info to share? Thanks!

    • Lisa says:

      Kate, The lumber I used is pressure treated but planted into concrete, so I figured whatever they treat the wood with, it would have to leech through the concrete in the post hole first. There is maybe 3-4 inches above the post hole that is in contact with the soil. I figure the amount of potential contamination is low in comparison to the rest of the world. And home grown raspberries will have far fewer chemicals than the pushed artificially augmented berries in the store.

      • Veronica says:

        I saw a post where they use the cement blocks and leveled and poured the concrete into the blocks held up good then you don’t have to worry about treated posts. But you could always use untreated they last quite awhile. Or even fence post.

    • Jamie says:

      You are correct to worry. The area of treated wood that the canes, leaves, and berries will touch can all be points where chemicals are leached into the food. Pressure treated wood should not be used for growing food.

      • Bo says:

        And what exactly is the toxin of concern? Since 2006 pressure treated lumber no longer contains arsenic. Active ingredient now is copper and copper is what’s made out of those copper water pipes we all have. And I’m sorry, but the canes being in contact with the wood does NOT mean toxins are transferred. Way too many things to worry about these days and this is not one of them.

  • Amanda says:

    Where did you get the wire? Any specifications!?

  • Pam says:

    How many raspberry plants did you plant? I just did your set up but was wondering how many plants would work best

  • Tammy says:

    I was in zone 9b… I think I planted ‘heritage’ raspberries and they did amazing. Only thing I would suggest is to put a border around your bed and make it at least 10 inches deep – I had about 50+ runners after the first year. I needed to keep them contained in one area.

  • jim thomas says:

    Consider wrapping the posts in black plastic bags. I used them to wrap posts for a split rail fence and the unground wood of the posts held up great. No leaching of water onto the post after 20+ years.

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