Raspberries

[Dave2002]

Is the size of raspberries largely determined by the variety, or by the water taken up. I think we had one year - a few years back, when we had reasonable raspberries, though last year was hopeless due to lack of water.
This year there have been more raspberries, but most have been very small. Now it's started to rain a bit more, but if water makes a difference then it seems to have been at the wrong time for the plants.

[Serial_Apologist]

Is the size of raspberries largely determined by the variety, or by the water taken up. I think we had one year - a few years back, when we had reasonable raspberries, though last year was hopeless due to lack of water.
This year there have been more raspberries, but most have been very small. Now it's started to rain a bit more, but if water makes a difference then it seems to have been at the wrong time for the plants.

I've regularly been buying the raspberries labelled as British grown in Sainsbury's for the past month or so - strongly tasty they are, but also very sour, I have to say!

[Dave2002]

I've regularly been buying the raspberries labelled as British grown in Sainsbury's for the past month or so - strongly tasty they are, but also very sour, I have to say!

The rasberries we have bought in shops have been suitably large, but the ones from our garden, are microscopic (!! slight hyperbole) in comparison.

[oddoneout]

Raspberries are shallow rooted and do need water to produce decent size berries, they also benefit from feeding, again because they don't root down very far, going sideways instead as anyone who has encountered a neglected patch will know! In terms of flavour choice of variety plays a part. Catalogues will give some indication but recommendation from someone growing in your area may be more reliable. I always grew autumn fruiting kinds on my allotment as they were easier to manage, didn't get grubs in the fruit, did better on my sandy soil and cropped for longer. I had 3 varieties over the years and they did tend to be quite tart, so better for cooking than eating in hand. I did manage to solve that one, quite by accident, when I cut down some canes of a yellow fruited summer variety my in-laws had given me some years previously, as they had got sickly looking and I didn't want anything to spread to the others. They grew back and seemed healthy but because of the time of year I did it they became autumn cropping. They were a very sweet taste and were good for eating raw - in fact they were not good taste-wise when cooked. I later found out that Victorian gardeners would modify pruning regimes deliberately to alter fruiting times to extend the season. I also experimented with not pruning so that fruit formed on old and new canes which proved a good way of preventing gluts as it reduced the yield at any one time but extended the cropping period - useful when it was only me to eat them. On better soil - moisture and nutrient retentive - I don't think the yield would be so much affected.
I read a while ago that scientists are working on why sweet raw raspberries tend to become tart when cooked.