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Raspberries are one of the most delicate and delicious small fruits grown in Utah. Selected varieties of red and yellow raspberries (Rubus idaeus) may be successfully grown in Utah at elevations up to 8,500 feet. Utah's climate is not ideal for bramble fruit production.
Red and yellow raspberries are easiest to grow. Black and purple raspberries, dewberries blackberries, boysenberries, and loganberries, require special winter protection and are not recommended without a favorable microclimate or special winter protection.
The raspberry is an aggregate fruit composed of 75 to 125 drupelets. The fruit differ from the blackberry in that the core of the raspberry fruit remains on the plant when picked while the blackberry core is part of the edible fruit.
Red raspberries prefer cooler areas, black raspberries (blackcaps) prefer moderate winters and may need protection in colder areas. Raspberry cultivars are self-fruitful and can produce crops without cross-pollination.
Classification Raspberries are classified by color and/or fruiting habit; Red, Black, Purple, Yellow Types of red raspberries; Summer-Bearing, Fall-Bearing
Cultivars or Varieties The standard kinds are biennial summer-bearers that produce canes the first season and bear fruit on short lateral branches of these canes the next summer. Fall-bearing raspberries produce canes (suckers) from the roots but require no dormant period for fruiting.
Raspberry canes are primocanes or floricanes. Primocanes are first year canes while floricanes are second-year fruiting canes. These canes bear fruit in August and September of the first season. These canes over winter and produce a light summer crop, but this is at the expense of a reduced fall crop.
Red raspberries are more cold hardy than black raspberries; have larger berries and more erect canes and sucker prolifically. Most yellow raspberries are similar to red raspberries in growth.
Black raspberries are less cold hardy; have smaller, seedier and more aromatic berries and arching canes; and tend to form clumps of canes.
Purple raspberries are hybrids of red and black raspberries and tend to respond in growth habit similar to a black raspberry, although canes may be more vigorous with larger berries.
Standard varieties produce biennial canes on perennial root systems. Canes produced by standard raspberries in the first growing season will produce fruit during the following summer. The canes die back to ground level during the winter.
Written by:
Larry A. Sagers Extension Horticulture Specialist Utah State University Thanksgiving Point Office
