Defeating Bugs in the Raspberries?

How I achieved an epic raspberry harvest, and why the neighbors are asking what my secret is for successful raspberry growing. 

Early Ripening. .

Selecting an early-ripening variety of raspberry will ensure at least half the berries will be ready before the fruit flies arrive. 

I happened to get lucky with a random cold hardy red raspberry bush that ripens a little earlier than other red raspberries. I don't remember what specific variety these raspberries are, but I got them at Menards about 4 or 5 years ago.

Beat the Fruit Flies!

The best way I've found to beat the bugs to the berries is to pick them before they are completely ripe. The only way to do this and have them still ripen is to leave the stems in. 

Be sure to also remove any overripe or fallen fruit so the fruit flies don't have anywhere to lay their eggs. 

Pick your raspberries early:

1. Look for berries that are mostly pink, you want to get them just before they start to get soft. If they are picked too early they won't get big but they will still get ripe.
2. Snip the raspberries off at the stem, do not pull the stem out!
3. Wash with cool water.
4. Lay them out on a towel to dry and discard any mushy or damaged berries.
5. Allow the raspberries to ripen for 1-2 days, discard any that become mushy.
6. Refrigerate or freeze after they are ripe. The raspberries will not ripen if they are kept in the cold. 

After a day or two the raspberries will be ripe and the stem will pull out easily. Put them in the fridge or right in the freezer. Maybe next year I'll remember to photograph my raspberry process. .

Another benefit of picking raspberries early is they are still firm and easier to wash. Ripe berries can get mushy after being washed 😝. 

Control Raspberry Beetles!

These guys will lay eggs inside your flower buds and you won't even know it until the larvae eats your raspberries from the inside out. Controlling them without using chemical pesticides is possible, and preferrable. 

Expose the beetles hiding under your plants:

1. Remove all the fruiting canes after the harvest has ended, just cut them down to the soil.
2. Cultivate the soil around your raspberry plants in the fall, right before the first frost. Use a small handrake to pull the mulch away and mix up the top layer of soil.
3. Leave the soil uncovered for a day or two so the pests can freeze.
4. Add some compost and generous layer of mulch around the raspberry plants. 

I use a mixture of straw and wood mulch on my plants. We have lots of fast growing trees and a small electric mulcher, it works good as long as the leaves on the branches have been allowed to dry out. Straw bales can be found in the animal bedding section at Tractor Supply, or you can get the chopped seeding straw at Menards. The chopped straw won't cover as much space, but it's easier to work with.

Removing the fruiting canes also makes room for new canes, which will grow raspberries next summer. Some varieties can be completely mowed down, but not the red variety that I have. 

Adding beneficial nematodes to the soil in the fall and in spring can help reduce pest pressure. 

The nematodes attack the beetles while the are still in the soil, preventing them from ever reaching your plants. The triple blend from Nature's Good Guys is the one I use, but there are others out there. 

If any raspberry beetles do lay their mystery eggs, getting the raspberries into the fridge or freezer will kill the eggs and prevent them from hatching. The best way to do this is to pick the raspberries early and let them ripen with the stems still attached (see fruit fly steps above).

What About Caterpillars?

Honestly, I don't worry about them. I did in the beginning, but the bushes get so big and the caterpillars eat so little. 

Using trichogramma wasps can help alleviate caterpillar pressure. They are a tiny parasitic wasp that lays eggs in various small larvae. Timing is key - if they are released too early the wasps won't have any target hosts.

The trichogramma instructions say to release them at the first sign of moth flight, so that's what I've been doing. I place an order for the trichogramma as soon as I see moths outside then hang the little cards on my most important crops. It seems to be working, far less caterpillar damage than before.

Almost all my beneficial bugs come from Nature's Good Guys. Trichogramma may also infect fruit fly larvae, but there isn't much research on that. 

I also use lady bugs and minute pirate bugs. The beneficial bugs probably need their own dedicated blog post. . I have lots to share about how effective they've been, but only if you release them at the right time. 

That's the end of my notes for now. 

the overwhelm

The links in this post are to help people find the things I'm talking about, I don't get paid to promote any products, and I am not an affiliate for any company. 

things to do

I have to pick the tomatoes, pull the carrots, and get rid of weeds. At least carrots taste sweeter in the cold. 

Beneficial nematodes have been ordered for fall application, they will kill most of the grubs in the ground before spring. I also apply them late spring  and early summer to get ahead of flea beetles, thrips, and other pests. I try to apply nematodes when it rains, they require moisture for activation and survival. Letting the rain water them in leads to a more effective application. 

Was going to make wild plum jam, plums are in the fridge, but probably won't have time before they go bad. I don't think it's worth it to freeze them. 

After the first killing frost, everything gets covered in straw. I would also like to add some mushroom compost mixed with garden soil because most of the perennials benefit from adding nutrients in fall and spring. 

Freezer full of red raspberries, they work well in jams and baked goods, which means I should probably make some jams and baked goods. 

thoughts

The wild strawberries are doing very well late into the season. I like that they produce berries long after the domesticated strawberries have finished. 

One volunteer pumpkin came up this year, hope it lasts through the fall. 

I feel like I didn't get much produce this season, and the garden is a mess. The produce I did get needs to be processed or preserved, work is never ending. Most of my time has been spent earning money to support myself and the garden, which leaves little time for actual garden work. 🧑‍🌾

making an attempt

I don't know if I'll ever actually grow an entire food forest. Maybe I can at the very least get a small patch of forest type growth started somewhere.

For now, the goal is to establish several cold-hardy perennial edibles. Currently living in a zone 3 or 4 climate. Extreme winters with long days in the summer. 

Wild Strawberries

Difficult to sprout, but rewarding to grow. 

For the past three to four years I've been staring different varieties of wild strawberries from seed. The Alpine Barron seems to get bigger berries than other varieties. At first, I was growing them in pots, but last year I put them in the ground and they all survived. They are the most delicious strawberries I've ever tasted. Tiny compared to commercial varieties, but they produce berries from mid-summer into the fall, which is a longer harvest season than the large varieties. 

Asparagus

Easy to sprout and very hardy, mulch heavily in the fall. 

I've also started asparagus, both from bare roots and seeds. The seed sprouting went much better than expected, and I didn't have enough space for all the new asparagus plants. I wound up tucking some away in random corners of the garden, and they've all survived, even after being forgotten! A few had to be excavated from weeds this summer because I forgot they were there. 

Rhubarb

Also easy to sprout but difficult to harden off, hardy once established. 

The newest addition to the perennials is the Rhubarb. Started from seed last year, it will be ready to pick next year. Both asparagus and rhubarb need two full seasons to establish their roots before being harvested, which means you can start pick in them in the third year. Slugs seem to like the leaves, but the plants are already too big to be bothered much.

Apples

Old trees require a different approach to pruning than new trees. 

An apple tree was already here, it hadn't been pruned in a long time. The first time I went to work on it, I realized it was actually two apple trees twisted together! Which is a good thing because they usually need more than one tree for pollination. I still don't know what type of apple it is. Turns yellow in the fall but still a bit tart. There are loads of giant apples on the tree this year, I cut one-third of the top of because it was getting too tall. This made the branches grow out instead of the center of the tree growing up. In the spring the plan is to prune a little more off the top and then it should be good for awhile.

Wild Cherry and Native Plum

Sweet smelling blossoms and good stock for grafting other fruits. 

Siberian bird cherry trees and wild plums were also growing here already. The blossoms of the cherry trees have a wonderful sweet smell in the spring. The wild plums are pretty tart, but they make a good jam. Siberian bird cherries are traditionally used to make a cake, but drying out the berries and grinding them into a flour, seed and all. I actually made this cake a few years ago and the flavor was unbelievable, real wild cherry taste!

Red Raspberries

Grows vigorously once established, favorite of birds and bugs!

I almost forgot to mention the raspberries - I bought a bareroot plant for $5 three years ago, the most cold hardy variety I could find (at Menards, this one is hardy to Zone 3 but I don't remember what it's called). It started growing leaves soon after I planted it, but rabbits ate it down to the ground that year. The next year it grew back and sent out more canes. It had a good number of red raspberries, but a gang of yellowjacket wasps started munching on them and I didn't get many for myself. This year I had so many raspberries that my neighbors came over to ask how I grew them so well! I'll write another article all about my raspberry plants, maybe share some recipes. 

Wine Cap Mushrooms

Has been tricky with the extreme heat and extreme cold. 

Every year I try to grow these, and every year something digs them up. It might be a squirrel or maybe a rabbit. I've also noticed that they don't like to get too hot, and not many will come back after the winter, even with heavy mulching. The trees around the yard need pruning every year, some varieties grow like weeds. I got a little mulcher from Home Depot a few years ago, and it's been great for mulching up the branches and adding to the garden. The wine cap mycelium really loves when fresh mulch is added, and it will produce mushrooms after heavy rain. Unfortunately, we don't get much heavy rain out here and it's difficult to emulate with the garden hose. They do pop up in unexpected places though, so I've been trying to add extra mulch in those spots. Some came up in my peppermint because mulch had been moved from the mushroom bed to the potato garden (which has peppermint as a border).

Herbs

These will need their own section, not all of them come back every year. 

Peppermint has been coming back in a specific spot in the garden. Thyme was growing for a few years, but this year it did not come back. I brought a cinnamon basil indoors over the winter and it is doing great this summer, I keep cutting the flowers off and it gets bushier and bushier. I also put a rosemary in the raised garden bed in hopes that it will come back next year, but I'm pretty sure it gets too cold. I will mulch it really well and see how it goes. 

Ultimately, the plan for this blog is to document my experience, and share what I learn about cold climate gardening.