🍓 Raspberry
Rubus idaeus
Delicious, delicate, and deeply suspicious of Florida summers.
Sun
Full sun; afternoon shade where summers are brutal
Days to harvest
Primocane (everbearing) types can fruit the first year
Spacing
2–3 ft apart in rows
Soil pH
5.5–6.5
How to grow
Plant dormant canes in late winter and trellis them — floppy canes make sad berries. Know your type: summer-bearers fruit on last year's canes (don't cut those), everbearers fruit on new canes (mow them down in winter). In Florida, try low-chill varieties in raised beds; wet feet kill raspberries faster than heat does.
Water & feeding
Consistent moisture, excellent drainage — they want a drink, not a bath.
Common problems
- Root rot in soggy soil — raised beds are raspberry insurance in Florida
- Cane borers and fungal diseases love humidity
- Heat stress shuts down fruiting in true summer
Harvest
Pick when the berry slides off the core with a gentle tug, leaving the little white receptacle behind — that's the hollow center. If you have to yank, wait.
Nerdy fact: That hollow center is the giveaway: raspberries and blackberries are both aggregates of drupelets, but the raspberry leaves its receptacle (the core) on the plant while the blackberry takes it along. Same family, different exit strategy.