New Mexico gardeners can grow red, ripe raspberries in the state's alkaline soils by selecting fall-bearing varieties, a New Mexico State University horticulturist said. But traditional raspberries with biennial canes such as Latham tend to suffer from winter kill here.
Biennial raspberries produce canes during the first growing season and fruit the following summer.
The canes are often damaged from alternating warm and cold weather in the spring of the second year, and fruit tends to sunburn in summer, Dickerson explained. On the other hand, everbearing red raspberries such as Heritage, Red Wing and Autumn Bliss produce fruit in the fall of the first growing season, on the ends of canes produced earlier the same year. Cutting back canes during the winter protects them from late spring freezes. Once established, however, raspberries will thrive in most well-conditioned garden soils with sufficient water. Bareroot cuttings planted in the spring often have to contend with drying winds and soils with relatively high salt content, which can kill plants.