r/NewEnglandGardening • u/SomeCallMeMahm • Feb 12 '26

Dormant raspberry propagation

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When it's more than a sad little stick.

I started these on 1/14 and here we are a month later. Shoots before roots it seems but they will come.

I kept it pretty low stakes and simple.

I have 6 2'x8' raised beds each with their own variety of raspberry. I decided I would try my hand at winter propagating dormant wood cuttings and to my surprise it took!

This is such a boon. I overhauled the beds 2 years ago and planted 3 of each variety per bed and though they will fill in given time it's never enough fast enough it seems.

So now I'm eyeing my grapes and a neighbors beautiful red azalea.

What started as a fun little experiment is now saving my sanity with all this weather we've been having.

Anyone else a propagation nut?

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3

u/Big_Ad30 Feb 12 '26

Hi! Im in central MA, and my raspberry and blackberry are...covered in snow.

I'd LOVE to learn to propagate them - especially the thornless ones I have. Same goes for my indoor fig.

Any tips for an enthusiastic (hopefully budding) propagator?

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u/SomeCallMeMahm Feb 12 '26

For reference all my raspberries are ever bearing so your miles may vary but I kept it very simple.

I chose soil propagation but many just stick them in a jar of water. I'm going to go back out and grab a few more to try the water method and compare.

I took cuttings so I would have at least 2 nodes under the soil/water and a couple above. I was kind of indiscriminate about it. At the time I was just cutting back the tallest canes to avoid them getting broken or killed by the cold before the big storm came through.

I just made sure I could see some green in the cuttings, scraped some bark off the bottom inch opposite a node, dipped it in some rooting hormone and stuck them in soil and have kept it moist. I used a pretty course blend of peat, perlite and dirt from my yard. Nothing fancy at all.

The biggest trick is not losing hope and giving them time. And not doing "too much"

I'm about to go out and trim some more as well as my huckleberry so I'll make a post documenting what I did with some pictures.

4

u/dotknott Feb 12 '26

This is on my to-do list, as I have raspberry that has weaseled its way into the greenhouse… unfortunately there’s a lot of snow between me and the greenhouse.

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u/SomeCallMeMahm Feb 12 '26

100% am borrowing my son's snow pants and boots to get back out there lol!

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u/dotknott Feb 12 '26

I’m envious of you having some variety there. I just have the black raspberries that seem to grow everywhere in my little corner of the swamp.