Raspberries

Cadyboo

Hi all,
this is my first year of raspberries, blackcurrants, and gooseberries. Heard somewhere that the fruit cant be eaten the first year? Is this true?

G453

You can eat it but its better for the plant if you leave it be for the 1st year is what they mean I think!

Gordon Gekko

Raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants all fruit on wood that is one year old. What this means is that having planted them in the winter just gone, they'll grow new wood this year but you won't get any fruit off them as they won't have any one-year old wood. You will harvest next year from the wood grown this year.

Usually you're recommended not to harvest from rhubarb in the first year and also to cut off the flowers from strawberries in their first year - this allows the rhubarb and strawberry plants to get well established.

old boy

if you do not eat them the blackbirds will.

The Sweeper

Just a point - it's not that you don't eat the fruit, in these instances - the recommendation is actually that you pinch off flowers in the first year, so that the fruit doesn't grow at all. That way the plant puts the energy it would otherwise put into fruiting, into growing and strengthening so that by the second year, it's a stronger plant and can support more fruit.