18 Raspberry Canes of Autumn Bliss Tied to a Post-and-Wire Fruit Support

Autumn-fruiting raspberries such as Autumn Bliss, Polka and Joan J fruit on primocanes, the canes produced in the same calendar year. That growth habit decides the support. Winter pruning takes all fruiting wood down to ground level, so one open post-and-wire run can carry the crop without sorting old and new canes as a summer-fruiting Malling Jewel row would. The spacing of the wires is built around a single flush of tall, current-year growth.

Building the raspberry support

Use two treated softwood posts, each 75 mm square and 2.4 m long. Sink them 60 cm into the soil so 1.8 m remains above ground. For 18 canes set 40 cm apart, the row comes to roughly 3.6 m between posts.

That span is short enough for two firm posts in decent soil. In loose ground, a single intermediate post can stiffen the run without changing the basic layout.

Pack the excavated soil back around each post in 15 cm layers. Ram each layer hard, then check plumb with a spirit level on two faces before the last layer is firmed.

Run three lengths of 3.15 mm galvanised wire along the posts. Set them at 60 cm, 105 cm and 150 cm, using vine eyes screwed into the timber as the fixing points.

Tension each wire from one end with a straining bolt or a Gripple tensioner. Autumn canes on good ground commonly reach 1.4 m to 1.7 m by the time they fruit, and the 150 cm wire catches the tops before they arch over and drop berries into the mud.

Tie the canes with soft twine or 12 mm garden clips. Keep the ties loose and spread the canes evenly along the wires so light gets down to the lower fruit trusses. In late winter, cut every cane to ground level with sharp secateurs; the frame then stays bare until the new primocanes rise past the bottom wire in May.

Curing onion sets for storage

Onions lifted in late summer need dry necks before storage. Sets such as Sturon and Stuttgarter Riesen usually take two to three weeks to cure once the foliage has yellowed and toppled. Lift them on a dry day, place them on a wire rack or spare pallet raised from the ground, and give the bulbs moving air on every side.

A dry spell outdoors can do the job, although a greenhouse bench or ventilated shed is steadier in a wet region. A cured neck feels papery and closed. A soft neck gives Botrytis allii an entry point, and that fungus causes neck rot, which may appear weeks later as a grey collapse at the shoulder.

After curing, rub away loose skin and soil. Trim the roots, then cut the foliage back to about 2.5 cm or plait it into a string. Store bulbs cool, dry and dark at 1 to 5 degrees C with airflow, either in net bags or in single layers in trays. Any bulb that feels soft at the neck should be discarded before storage, because rot spreads from one bulb to its neighbours.

Keeping carrot root fly outside the bed

Carrot root fly, Psila rosae, lays eggs at the soil surface close to the crown. The larvae then tunnel through the roots and leave brown damage. The adult insect flies low, rarely above 60 cm, which is why a vertical barrier works.

Make the fence from fine mesh or clear polythene and stand it 75 cm to 90 cm high around the carrot bed. It has to ring the crop tightly. Bury the lower edge or peg it down so there is no gap at soil level.

The fence needs no roof if the sides are high enough and the base is sealed. The flies do not climb over the barrier and do not readily cross the open top. For complete exclusion of both the spring and late-summer generations, use Enviromesh over hoops, with every edge weighted down by soil or timber, and sow into ground that carried no carrots the previous year.

Sowing thinly helps as much as the barrier allows. Thinning bruises carrot foliage and releases the scent that attracts egg-laying females, so a sparse, undisturbed row draws less attention. Resistant varieties such as Flyaway and Resistafly reduce damage, though they do not eliminate it; on infested plots, the physical barrier remains the main control.

Overwintering broad beans

Aquadulce Claudia appears on many autumn-sowing packets because it tolerates cold better than spring types. Sow in late October or November, 5 cm deep and 20 cm apart in double rows. The seedlings sit small through the coldest months, then grow hard in early spring.

The gain is timing. Autumn-sown beans can crop in late May or June, three to four weeks ahead of a February sowing, and the plants are often finished before the worst blackfly pressure builds.

Drainage decides survival. On heavy clay that stays wet all winter, seed can rot before it germinates, so a raised bed or free-draining patch matters more than fleece. In an exposed garden, support the young plants early with canes and string around the double row; that keeps January winds from rocking stems loose.

Chocolate spot is the main disease risk in autumn-sown broad beans. The fungal blotching is caused by Botrytis fabae and becomes worse in still, damp, crowded stands, so the wider spacing helps twice. Once the lowest pods have set, pinch out the growing tips to hasten filling and remove the tender shoots that blackfly colonise first.

Companion planting near the fruit row

Garlic and chives at the foot of a fruit row are the traditional companion pairing, although the evidence for pest suppression is thinner than the custom suggests. Flowering companions make the stronger case, because they feed predators and pollinators working through the plot.

Cutting chard through the cold months

Swiss chard, including the coloured selections sold as Bright Lights or Rainbow, keeps producing when it is treated as a cut-and-come-again crop. Take the outer leaves at the base with a clean cut and leave the central crown intact. New leaves then push from the middle for weeks.

A July sowing gives plants large enough to crop from autumn through a mild winter, followed by another flush in spring before bolting. Chard handles cold that stops lettuce dead, and under a cloche or in an unheated polytunnel it holds through most frosts down to around minus 5 degrees C.

Ruby and Fordhook Giant differ mainly in stem colour and cold hardiness. The plain green-stemmed types are generally the most robust in a hard winter. Slugs cause the real winter damage, sheltering in the crown and grazing new growth during mild spells, so dead outer leaves should be cleared and the base kept open.

Pick little and often. A plant stripped bare recovers slowly, while one giving up two or three outer leaves at a time can keep a short row of six to eight plants useful for longer.

The bare frame in winter

Late winter is the easy moment to tighten vine eyes, take slack out of straining bolts or Gripple tensioners, and reset any ties or clips left hanging on the wires. With the raspberry canes cut down, mulch can also be laid along the row while the ground is open.

Once the canes are gone, the structure exposes details that summer growth hides: sagging wire, loose fittings and low patches where water sits. The empty run also shows which stretches of soil stayed wet, a clue the canes hide once new growth fills the frame.