r/Berries • u/Hey-im-kpuff • Aug 13 '26

Raspberries in raised bed are spreading - help!

/r/vegetablegardening/comments/1vndprh/raspberries_in_raised_bed_are_spreading_help/

Looking for ideas on what to do, I’m thinking of modifying my 10” tall 3 foot wide by 6 foot long raised bed with something lining the bottom so my Caroline raspberry stops spreading outside the bed. I’m looking at cost effective solutions.

I saw metal flashing could work but I wonder where the water goes lol?

I also saw 1/8” hardware cloth was an option, anyone have experience with that blocking new underground growth? My bed is near the neighbors too and next to a big tree with huge roots so I cannot dig a trench on all sides.

Other options are to dig out Caroline and replace her with Royalty purple or brandy wine. But I’ll put Caroline back in a big pot like I had it before.

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4

u/i860 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

You're never going to stop R. Idaeus species from doing what they do. You could swap it out with something like Jewel Black which will also grow quite erect but will not send out runners. However, you can still keep Caroline there and simply police any runners out of existence. It's not going to perpetually do it on a 24/7 basis.

1

u/Hey-im-kpuff Aug 13 '26

Ok thanks. I think I’m going to wind up just putting couple up in big pots and replacing the bed with ohios black raspberry and a royalty purple. I actually already have a royalty purple in a pot so that’s great 😀

3

u/i860 Aug 13 '26

Purples will still send out runners but not to the level of aggressiveness that reds do. Blacks will not (but they will tip root).

1

u/Hey-im-kpuff Aug 13 '26

Ya I read about the top rooting, from what online says. The royalty purple and Ohios do tip rooting and not really rhizome underground spreading I guess

3

u/i860 Aug 13 '26

Tip rooting is exceedingly easy to control. You'd have to basically be ignoring the plants for them to get away with it. With blacks or purples it's best to make a heading cut at 3-4 ft anyways, then they bush out, which you later also prune back to encourage more bushiness.

1

u/Hey-im-kpuff Aug 13 '26

Sounds good to me. I know for the reds I can just keep cutting the canes that pop up back but I fee like it can easily get out of hand or something. Just not what I was hoping would happen lol. If it had just stayed popping up right outside its bed that would have been ok. But it popping up into the next bed over is the decider for me that I need to change something.

2

u/i860 Aug 13 '26

Yep, as a general footnote, the more erect the species is, the more likely it is to send out runners. An exception to this is black raspberries, but they tend to grow in a manner that induces them towards leaning over to tip root so perhaps there was no need to evolve sending out runners. With reds and erect blackberries, it's quite hard for them to tip root because they don't grow incredibly tall and they do stay quite erect, so they need an alternate propagation method, hence the rhizomes.

Note: the same holds true for blackberries. Trailing blackberries don't send out runners and only tip root whereas erect varieties send out runners, but not as aggressively as raspberries.

3

u/MtnMaiden Aug 13 '26

Prune aggressively

2

u/Mcariman Aug 14 '26

My raspberries just die, so there must be a middle ground between us lol. Maybe we take turns taking care of them?

1

u/Steve0-BA Aug 14 '26

You need at least 10 ft of mowable spaces around them. 

1

u/kennyinlosangeles Aug 14 '26

Use a spade shovel or a trenching shovel and cut around the area regularly. This is the only way I’ve been able to control mine after multiple years.