I've been continuing my experiments with rooting fruit cuttings in water and this time it's the turn of the raspberries. I pulled one up just over two weeks ago from between the big raspberries and I stuck it in the water along with some more alpine strawberry cuttings. I've never read of propagating raspberries or strawberries this way but I thought, well it works for other plants...So I just waited. I had almost given up on it when I suddenly noticed two little roots coming out that were about 3 mm long.
That was yesterday and today they are even longer. The photo on the right is an enlarged view of the little raspberry. I'll leave it in the water for at least another week to make sure it develops a good set of roots before planting it up.
Since trying this on the alpine strawberrie sI have read that you should change the water regularly to make sure there is a plentiful supply of dissolved oxygen.
After the success of this cutting I went out to search for more prospective cuttings. Tucked in under some of the raspberries that are planted in the ground I found two contenders. The reason I'm trying this method of propagation is that I've found it tricky to get the cuttings out without disturbing the parent plant's roots too much. I'vedug down up to six inches and still found it hard to get the little fellas out so I have moved onto this idea for now. Apparently it is also better to pull out the little suckers rather than to cut them out if you are trying to discourage too many new suckers coming up in the future. Cutting them seems to stimulate new growth of suckers where as pulling them out mustn't.
So I tugged at these two guys but they broke quite high up the stems rather than below ground as I had hoped. But I'll still put them in water and see what happens. I found a tiny little one hidden under another section of canes and this time it came out cleanly with a long white section of stalk that had been below ground. I'll have to see which ones do better and see if it makes any difference if this bit comes out.
You can see all three suckers here to see what I mean. The two on the left were broken on the green stem whereas the little one on the right has some white stem on it.
I pulled up some suckers of a different variety of raspberry at my Mums house and they were much easier to pull up. All of them came up with at least a little bit of root and I could plant them straight away. This could be because the soil around hers was nice and loose where as I have had to walk along the front of our raspberries, thus compacting the soil over time.
This method of propagating seems quite easy and I'm going to keep trying with other fruits to see if it works with them. I'm presuming that this will work best with soft wood cuttings, where the wood is still green. I'm thinking of trying it on the fig next....

How is this method going for you for raspberry plants. I'm about to try it myself and could use some tips. Thanks,
Brent
Posted by: Brent | 19 June 2008 at 20:20
Hi, well the raspberry that I started rooting a couple of weeks ago has grown little roots. They took a while but once they appear they grow reasonably quickly. I'm going to plant them when the roots are a couple of inches long each. Combined with what I wrote in this post that's all I know about doing this really as I'm just trying it out for the first time myself. Remember to change the water regularly. I use rain water which I think would be better, just cos it's more natural and doesn't have disinfectant stuff in it.
If you need to know more I'll do my best to answer :)
All the best
Posted by: Maria | 19 June 2008 at 22:02
Hi there.
I just noticed two suckers from the neighbours raspberry plants that have come up from under the fence. I'd like to try this and wonder how this is going for you now a month later.
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Posted by: any | 04 July 2009 at 04:01
I have just gotten a cutting from a wild raspberry plant I found whilst out walking. It's not a sucker, but I am hoping it will grow. I can't find the rooting powder, so I'm going to put it in a glass of water and hope it works!
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