How do you start raspberries from canes? Question from Deborah of Los Lunas, New Mexico
Answer: Raspberries are one of the easiest fruits to propagate from canes or cuttings because they readily root, even without the help of rooting hormone. In fact, if you let canes naturally weep to the ground in your garden, they will root as they touch the ground. In time a single plant can become a brambly thicket of rooted canes, which is why these plants need to be pruned and maintained each season.
If you have rooted canes, all you need to do is cut at least a foot of top growth from the rooted segment, dig up the root ball, and replant the berry wherever you wish. If you want to root cane cuttings, here’s what you need to do:
Rooting Raspberry Cuttings
Materials
- Sharp bypass pruners
- 1-gallon pots
- Rooting hormone with added fungicide
- Quality potting soil, such as Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Mix
- Raspberry cane cuttings (these can be dormant or actively growing)
Method
Use your pruners to take tip cuttings from your raspberries. Make sure they are about 1-foot long and cut from fresh, healthy stem tips. If you like, you can hasten rooting and protect the cuttings from rot by dipping them in rooting hormone with added fungicide. Place the cuttings about 3 inches down in 1-gallon pots filled with OMRI Listed potting mix formulated for organic growing. You can add up to three cuttings per pot. Water the pots in, keep them moist, place them in a cool spot with filtered light, and the cuttings will root in a matter of weeks.
I usually wait for two weeks, and then give the cuttings a small tug to see if they are rooted. If they resist being pulled out, they have set roots. Once new leaves start to appear on your cuttings, and they have clearly rooted, you can separate the rooted cuttings from the pot and plant them where you like.
To learn more about growing happy raspberries and other brambles, click here to read an article about growing them. Be sure to amend the soil where you plant them. I suggest OMRI Listed Black Gold Garden Compost Blend as the best all-around garden amendment.
Happy raspberry growing!
Jessie Keith
Black Gold horticulturist