Coffee and Raspberries Make A Good Match...Even Before Eating
Our Raspberry Patch On It's Third Summer
I've grown raspberries at every home I've lived in for the past twenty years. In our area of Michigan, raspberries are a pretty natural fit for most yards and soil types. We get just about the right amount of rain for them and they don't seem to mind the clay soil - probably because raspberries prefer an acidic soil and clay likes to hold the acid.
This year, however, I decided to test the soil and discovered it was more alkaline than the patch would probably prefer. I considered some solutions and finally settled on broadcasting raw coffee grounds over the patch.
Unused coffee grounds aren't usually recommended for gardens precisely because they make everything too acidic. Once they're used they make great compost because their PH level neutralizes and they become very nice ground organic matter. But we needed the acid and we found a large can of Maxwell House coffee for $5 at the local Value Center. I waited for a day we were expecting rain and spread it over the whole patch and shook it down a little so the coffee went off the leaves onto the soil.
The spring canes responded by exploding in height. I've never seen raspberry canes get so tall. Now at the tail end of August they've begun producing their fruit on canes that have surpassed the seven-foot height of the fence they're growing against. The bees are having a field day with the large flower clusters and the birds actually can't get to the fruit since they usually steal from the lower canes and these are just too tall.
That's so neat that you could test the soil and provide just what it needed!! Hopefully you will have more than $5 worth of berries and jam!
I know, right?! I've always meant to test the soil but this year I actually pushed myself to get it done before I had to get the beds ready in the main garden. It was well worth it because both the garden and the raspberries have done way better than usual. Now I just have to keep doing it so I can keep an eye on how my amendments are working.
Unless some catastrophe strikes (squirrels, I'm looking at you!) I think we'll get way more than $5 in yield, since raspberries always go between $1 per pint and $4 per pint, depending on where you get them. Even a flat from an orchard is typically $20. From what I see right now, I'd guess we're going to get the equivalent of a flat or perhaps a flat and a half.
that is so good, where do you get your soil tested?
I actually got a kit from the nursery and collected the samples and put them in the tubes and read the results. Not as comprehensive as the one I could do through the MSU extension office - that might be worth doing next to get finer info, but there was plenty to do with what I did get.
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We will hit up local area restaurants for grounds when needed. They are great mulch!
I hadn't thought of the used grounds as mulch - that's a really good idea. Especially for seedlings, which often need something finer than the big plants. Do you notice any mold growth issues at all?
no more than normal. seems less than straw.
It's amazing how quickly they responded.
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It really is. I wasn't expecting to really see results until next year.
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I used to grow blueberries years ago. I seem to recall we put spent coffee grinds to increase the acidity. The other option is to use azalea fertilizer (but it isn't natural like coffee). Good luck!
I have the fertilizer for the blueberries we're about to plant but I didn't want to go too acidic - it was sort of a wait-and-see-if-this-makes-a-difference kind of thing. I'd also heard it was easy to burn non-dormant plants with the acid fertilizer and the coffee wouldn't be able to work as fast and so was likely gentler. From what I read, it sounds like spent coffee has a neutral PH, which is why we did fresh grounds.
Interesting.
I haven't had issue with raspberry growth and I have to wait until next season to see new berries, since I moved them before this season.
I hadn't yet noticed an issue with their growth (I actually was pleased with how the root system had taken and what I had seen already) but I'm always interested in boosting production and I was testing the main garden at the time - it made sense to test the raspberry patch while I was at it.
My next test is actually going to be to cut down all the canes in March rather than just cutting them back and going for an early summer crop. This year the spring canes were so vigorous they kind of choked out the summer canes and the Japanese beetles did a number on the fruit that was able to be produced. I'm wondering if we should just aim for the late summer crop from the spring canes and see if the patch is stronger and able to produce better that way. I've never done this before (I always go for both yields) and am interested to see if the experiment works.
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