With their baby soft skin and delicate construction raspberries are the most fragile of fruit. Both form and flavour deteriorate quickly after picking, making them labour-intensive to harvest and costly to buy.

Growing your own allows you to indulge in a summer feast that can last to October –and they freeze well for a mid-winter treat.

Raspberries don’t need a lot of space and couldn’t be easier to prune.

Get the soil conditions right and they should produce for years.

Summer-fruiting raspberries crop from June to early August, according to variety, on canes produced the previous year.

Good choices are ‘Glen Ample’, ‘Malling Jewel’, ‘Julia’ and ‘Glen Magna’.

Autumn fruiting varieties crop on canes produced the same year from mid-August until the frost. ‘Autumn Bliss’ is the best.

For healthy fruitful plants you need a humus-rich, slightly acid soil (pH 6-6.5) which retains moisture but is never waterlogged.

Improve sandy or clay soils by digging in a lot of organic matter. If the soil gets very wet in winter, or is very alkaline, create raised beds filled with suitable topsoil.

Support summer-fruiting varieties on wires stretched between 6ft posts. After fruiting, cut old canes that carried the fruit down to the ground, leaving the young ones for next year.

Autumn varieties usually do not need staking. After fruiting, cut all the canes down to the ground.

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