Fruit · Rosaceae
When to plant autumn raspberries
Fruits on the current season's canes, so the entire bed is cut to the ground each winter and there is nothing to get wrong. Crops in its first year.
First worthwhile crop
Year 1
After planting, not after sowing.
Hardy in USDA zones
3a to 8a
Winter cold sets the limit here, not the calendar.
Frost tolerance
Very hardy
How much cold the plant itself will take.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Nothing about a standing crop is sown to a calendar. Once planted, autumn raspberries stay in the ground for years, so the question is not when to sow but whether your winter is survivable and your planting window is open. Both answers come from your frost dates.
- Expect a first worthwhile crop in year 1 after planting.
- Needs roughly 700 chill hours below 7.2°C (45°F)45°F (7.2°C) over winter to set fruit, which rules out the warmest climates.
- Hardy in USDA zones 3a–8a.
Getting the timing right
Plant dormant. Cut every cane to ground level in late winter; the fruit comes on the new growth. This is the easier of the two raspberry types by a wide margin.
Frost tolerance
The first autumn frost ends the picking, so in a short-season climate an autumn raspberry may only deliver part of its crop before the weather closes it down.
Classified as very-hardy.