Choose and Prepare a Site

• 1). Find a location that gets full sunlight each day. Raspberries do best in full sunlight. Raspberry fields can last up to 15 years before replanting, so choose a location you will be happy with for nearly a generation. Also, raspberries don't do well in clay or wet soil, so pick a place with loamy organic soil that drains well.
  
  
• 2). Prepare the soil. Get rid of all perennial weeds the year before you plant your canes. Don't let any weeds go to seed.
  
  
• 3). Check the soil's pH a year or so before you plant. If your pH is below 5.5, add lime. You want to keep the soil between 5.5 and 6.5 for raspberries.
  
  
• 4). Grow a ground cover crop such as oats, rye, millet or buckwheat the winter before you plant to further enrich the soil. Check with the agricultural extension service in your state to determine which cover crops do best in your area.
  
  
• 5). Till under the ground cover in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked. If your soil is prone to retain water, you can either install drain pipe or add a mound of soil as a raised bed for the raspberries. A 1-foot-high mound would be adequate.
  
  
• 6). Stake out where your rows will go. Allow a width of 3 feet to 4 feet for the bed and 7 feet to 12 feet for the aisle between rows, depending on your tiller or tractor's size. For maximum yield per acre, space rows as close together as you can, while still allowing room to till between the rows.
  
  
• 7). Build a trellis in each row to hold your raspberries off the ground, and build it to last for 15 years. Dig post holes 2-feet deep at the end of each row, and add gravel. Set and level the post and pour in concrete. Provide bracing to ensure the fence post stays level until the concrete cures.
  
  
• 8). After the concrete has cured, screw the cross arms on each end post, making a T shape. Place two screw eyes, one each on the long end of the T bar. Place two more screw eyes on the sides of the fence post about 18 inches off the ground.
  
  
• 9). Drive the steep fence posts into the ground at 15-foot intervals. Attach four lengths of wire between the wooden fence posts. Attach one end of the wire to each of the screw eyes. Thread the wire through the holes in the steel fence posts and finally attach to the matching screw eye on the other wooden fence post. The idea is to provide supports for the plant's canes when they are heavily laden with berries.
  
  

Plant the Raspberries

• 1). Determine which cultivars do best in your locale. Some berries produce a single crop in July and August. Everbearing raspberries will produce a crop from early summer through late fall. You may choose to plant some of each type to diversify your crop.
  
  
• 2). Soak your bare root plants in a vitamin B1 solution for about six hours prior to planting, and then plant immediately. Plant one raspberry plant each 3 feet apart for the length of the row. Dig a hole 1 foot deep to plant the root stock and cover with loamy soil and some fertilizer. Water as you plant each one. Mushroom manure, or 4-20-20 fertilizer work well for starting raspberry plants.
  
  
• 3). Mulch with straw, sawdust or black plastic. Install the drip irrigation tubes with a dripper/emitter at each plant.
  
  

Maintaining Your Raspberry Field

• 1). Harvest your berries when they are ripe and you can pull them easily off the cane. Harvest is labor intensive, as raspberries are fragile and need to be harvested by hand. You may need extra workers during the harvest season. Put the raspberries directly into the cartons that they will be sold in or shipped.
  
  
• 2). After the harvest, prepare the plants for winter. After the first year, the berries will produce additional canes. Cut away the 2-year-old canes and leave just the fresh ones.
  
  
• 3). Add a top dressing of manure in the early spring and check the pH. Add lime as necessary to keep the pH between 5.5 and 6.5.