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Owen Pidgeon: How to grow the best raspberries in Canberra

Owen Pidgeon

Sweet: Raspberries can help make the perfect pancakes.
Sweet: Raspberries can help make the perfect pancakes.Supplied

Sometimes I wonder what are the most delicious, highly priced and highly prized berries to grow. Raspberries would be up there in the top tier. We can now procure a very good selection of top-quality varieties to enjoy both an early-summer and an autumn harvest.

The raspberry plant has long grown wild in northern Europe, even up into the Scandinavian hinterland. However, in the past 150 years, the North Americans (West Coast) have been very active in breeding new varieties with better flavours and higher yields.

I believe that many home gardeners have never planted out a row or two of these wonderful berries. That is somewhat surprising when you know how easy it is to grow them and how much shops charge for a little 125gm punnet.

Raspberries are always a welcome addition to the kitchen.
Raspberries are always a welcome addition to the kitchen.Getty Images
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You will need to be around for the two to three week harvest period. The quality of all raspberries fades very quickly after picking, so there is even more reason to grow your own and enjoy the freshest, sweetest berries in the district.

Now is the time to plant out all berry canes. Make sure to select those canes with a good thick mop of fibrous roots because the section of the plant under the ground is the powerhouse for any berry. Once established the plant will keep fruiting for many years.

Raspberries grow best in the cooler temperate regions. They grow well where it is suitable to grow cherries and apples, so the Canberra region gets a big tick.

Plant into a rich bed with plenty of compost dug in before planting. Set up small hill rows and plant the dormant canes well into the soil, leaving 50-60 cm between canes. If you have enough canes to make two rows then set the rows 1.5-2 metres apart. Mulch very generously in mid spring to keep the moisture levels up.

Spring-producing raspberries are produced on one-year-old wood, so prune back only the canes that have carried a crop and have begun to die back. Tie up the new season canes to your support wires. One of the best ways to support this strong-growing berry is to run pairs of wires each 800mm up the steel posts stationed at each end of the row.

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Quite a number of very good summer raspberry varieties are available. Chilcotin and Chilliwack are two good early-summer varieties that originated in British Columbia, east of Vancouver. The Golden raspberry is true to its name but the size is quite small.

Nootka is a high-yielding variety first produced in 1964 at the Vancouver Research Station. It produces medium-sized berries in mid summer and then will produce a reasonable autumn flush. It is well suited to cooler climates. Williamette is very good raspberry developed in Oregon in the mid 1940s and crops in both summer and autumn.

Autumn-fruiting varieties, including Heritage and Autumn Bliss, are even easier to care for as they produce their autumn crop on current season's wood. So for this variety, cut back all canes to near ground level in winter. Smoothy is a newer, thornless variety which produces flavoursome fruit also in early autumn.

You will know when it is time to harvest raspberries because the fruit will have good colour and will slip away easily from the plug. Harvest in the early morning to get the best result. Avoid picking when rain has just fallen or when the sun is hot because they will not hold up well. The best option is to plan a dinner or bake a sponge cake for the day of the harvest.

Supreme raspberry pancakes

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¾ cup plain flour
½ cup wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1¼ cups full-cream milk
3 egg whites
300g raspberries

Sift the flours along with the baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the brown sugar.

Gently melt the butter and pour into a small bowl. Add in the sifted flour mix and milk. Stir to make a smooth batter. Beat the egg whites until stiff and then gently fold it into the pancake batter. Finally fold in 200 grams of raspberries.

Heat a non-stick frypan over medium heat. Drop 3 or 4 full tablespoons of the mixture into the pan to form individual pancakes. Cook for 2 minutes or until bubbles form on the tops of the pancakes. Flip and cook the other side of the pancakes until golden. Serve with cream and the remaining raspberries.

This week in the garden

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* Plant out new asparagus and rhubarb crowns in mid July, to provide the sets plenty of time to become established before the hot weather arrives. Dig over the beds and mix in generous supplies of compost, as the root systems will fare best in rich soil.

* Broadbeans are one of the best green manure crops that can be planted now. They will take longer than usual to germinate but will help significantly to lifting nitrogen levels in your soil and added humus when dug in at a later stage.

* Sort through your packets of vegetable seeds and discard out of date ones. Buy replacement packets well before the coming of spring. Consider including some untried varieties and different vegetables.

* Keep your secateurs clean by wire wool and wiping with a cloth dipped in methylated spirits to prevent infections being carried to other trees and berry canes.

* Aim to complete any required pruning of stone fruit trees over the coming week, before there is movement towards bud burst. Be prepared to trim off quite a number of branches which are overlapping or crowding the centre of the tree – you will still get a very good crop from the remainder of the fruit-bearing branches.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard near Hall.

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