A Raspberry Patch: Free and Simple

Here's what you need:
~ A spot to plant raspberries
~ An established raspberry patch (and permission)
~ Heavy gloves
~ Pruners
~ A bucket of water

Here's what you do:
~ Find canes that have arched over into the ground. Look for brown stems at the bottom which turn green at the opposite end. The green end, if in the ground, will have just started to shoot roots.
~ Clip the vines about 2-3 feet from where the green end goes into the ground first. (This will allow the old cane to not be damaged.) Then pull steadily on the cane with the green end until you pull the roots out of the ground. This will work best when the soil is wet or there isn't a lot of weed cover at the base of the vines.
~ Put the root ends of the cane immediately into water.
~ You may then take them home and plant them with a small trowel or you can allow them to soak a bit more in water to establish more roots before planting.

For the planners:
If you take the arching canes in late summer and place them in a bucket of water before they reach the ground, they will sprout roots and you won't even need to pull them. :)

Here are some pictures of some black raspberries I cut and pulled from my parents last week. My transplanted berries from last year all root rotted with the rains mid summer, so I am trying again.