raspberry cuttings: how long under jars?

A friend is starting some raspberries from softwood cuttings. She's planted them (in pretty much unamended clay I think) and covered each one with a glass jar.

They've been in for 3 weeks.
She wonders how long she should keep them covered with the jars

The foliage of a couple of them started to wilt and brown at the edges a few days ago. That got her worried about whether they should still be under the jars.


Can somebody point me to a good guide to this kind of propagation, or give some pointers that I can pass on (with credit of course! :-)

what I've told her so far is:

--don't worry much about foliage - what you want is for them to put all their energy into rooting
-- snip off any buds (attempting to flower) - a couple were starting
-- keep the jars on till I check with the DG experts!!

This message was edited May 22, 2005 3:03 AM

I've never heard of doing this with raspberries. If she just waits her mom's plants should get plenty of new plants coming up usually, I believe, after they have produced fruit. At that time she can separate them from the parent plant and she will have much hardier plants.

As far as planting them in clay, I don't know. I begged the feed store to let me clean out from under the rabbit cages and I put that right on top of the soil around the plants and then put about 4-6 inches of sawdust on them and they just loved it. I had so many huge juicy berries.

But, I did that right after Easter (you know bunnies) before the plants flowered and produced the berries. Don't know why it matters when you would do it.

Jeanette

Jnette,

Thanks for the tips. I guess if these don't make it, she can do that later in the season.

I know that when it's roses, you leave them under the jars for a long time (I was reading some threads about that, and some people recommend a full year).

I'll recommend some good organic fertilizing compost (bunny or not!).


22 May: bumping this up to see if anyone else has suggestions.

This message was edited May 22, 2005 3:05 AM