Production of high-yielding raspberry long canes: The way to 3 kg of fruit per cane

Abstract

SummaryExperiments were conducted on-Station and in growers’ nurseries with the aim of developing cheap techniques for the production of pot-grown raspberry long canes with high yield potential. In an earlier paper, we reported the feasibility of producing raspberry long canes with a yield potential of > 3 kg fruit per cane.The experiments presented here confirm that such high yields can be achieved on a regular basis, even when applying intensified and cheaper production techniques.Thus, the pot size could be reduced from the previous 3.5 l, to 2.5 l and the plant spacing could be decreased from 200 cm20 cm, to 100 cm×20 cm without loss of cane yield potential. Even at a plant spacing of 55 cm×20 cm, canes with a yield potential close to 3 kg per cane were produced. It was also shown that, during the cropping year, an additional one or two new canes with the same high yield potential could be raised concurrently with flowering and fruiting of the old cane, without a significant loss of yield on the old fruiting cane.When two canes were produced and cropped in each pot, either as two separate canes or as forked single shoots with two canes, yields of almost 4 kg per pot were achieved. However, as in our earlier experiments, long canes with such high yield potentials could only be produced under greenhouse conditions in the cool Norwegian environment.These experiments confirm the feasibility of producing raspberry long canes with yield potentials of ≥ 3 kg fruit per cane on a regular basis, even with intensified and cheaper production techniques.