Planting berry bushes in November: getting bare-root plants off to a good start
Late autumn is the best and cheapest time to plant currants, gooseberries and raspberries as bare-root stock. These few steps help them settle in well before spring.
November is planting time for berry bushes. The plants are dormant, the soil is usually still frost-free, and nurseries sell bare-root stock that costs far less than potted plants. If you plant now, the bushes can settle in before and between frosts and get going in spring without a setback.
Why bare-root plants do best in late autumn
Bare-root plants are lifted while dormant and travel without leaves or a pot. That is no drawback: with no foliage they lose very little water, and new fine roots form in autumn and during frost-free spells in winter, as long as the soil is mild enough. The planting window runs roughly from November to March, as long as the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. Autumn also gives you the widest choice of varieties.
Before planting: soak and trim the roots
Stand the roots in a bucket of water for two to three hours before planting. Cut damaged or kinked roots back cleanly with a pair of clean secateurs. If you cannot plant right away, heel the plants in at an angle in loose soil so the roots do not dry out. If the ground is frozen, keep them in a frost-free shed with the roots in damp sand or soil.
Spacing and planting depth
Currants and gooseberries need about 1.2 to 1.5 metres between plants so that air and light reach the shoots. Plant raspberries 40 to 50 centimetres apart in the row, with roughly 1.5 metres between rows. Set currants and gooseberries slightly deeper than they stood in the nursery, which encourages strong new shoots from the base. For raspberries, the buds at the base should sit just below the soil surface.
Prepare the soil and water in well
Loosen the planting spot to a spade’s depth and mix in ripe compost. Fill in the soil in layers and firm it lightly so no air pockets remain. Then water generously, even in rainy weather: this washes soil right up against the roots. A mulch layer of leaves or straw keeps the soil loose and protects the roots from freeze-thaw swings.
Pruning after planting
Shorten the shoots of currants and gooseberries by about a third after planting. This balances the loss of root mass and encourages branching new growth. Cut raspberry canes back to around 20 to 30 centimetres. It feels drastic at first but pays off with stronger growth in the first summer.
Site and common pitfalls
Berry bushes like a sunny to half-shaded spot with free-draining, humus-rich soil. Do not plant raspberries where raspberries or blackberries stood before, as the soil tends to get tired there. None of them like permanently wet spots. Write down variety, planting date and location, and in a few years you will know exactly what thrives where. In Rootivo you can record this in the bed editor and look up varieties in the plant encyclopaedia.