Are you looking for a new ever-bearing red raspberry variety to add to your garden this season? Transplant ‘Heritage’ bare roots and leafed-out plants in the spring, and they’ll produce berries for you in year one. Join organic farmer Jenna Rich as she shows us how to plant, grow, and care for ‘Heritage’ raspberries. ‘Heritage’ is an amazing raspberry variety that offers abundant harvests of delicious red berries. It is fairly low-maintenance under the right growing conditions. After a heavy fall harvest, simply cut all the canes back in the fall, mulch, and put them to bed for the winter. Raspberries are one of my favorite fruits, and when I learned just how easy they are to maintain, I opened up a new raised bed and added 30 plants to our farm plot. We chose this everbearing variety for our zone 5b farm because it is winter-hardy and highly productive. Get your jam recipes ready! Let’s explore why everyone loves ‘Heritage’ and why you should too! What Are ‘Heritage’ Raspberries? ‘Heritage’ is a popular commercial heirloom everbearing raspberry that has made its way to the list of favorites among home gardeners. It is beloved for its hardiness and high yields of high-quality, dark red, deliciously juicy medium-large berries, perfect for fresh eating and making jams and jellies. These plants are self-fertile, so no pollinators are necessary for them to produce fruits and you don’t need to plant more than one of this variety. This variety grows erect and doesn’t require support, even though it can grow to six feet at maturity. If maintained properly with sufficient water and sunlight, plants may live for ten years. Growers from zones 4 to 8 can enjoy this plant, which survives well even when winters are harsh, though it may need some protection. The canes produce two flushes of fruit per season unless pruned otherwise. Fun Fact: Raspberries are botanically not berries at all. Rather, they are round cone-shaped aggregates of drupelets that separate from the receptacle when they’re gently tugged off the stem. Each drupelet is like a bead clustered around a center core. The average raspberry is made up of 100 to 120 drupelets, each with its own seed. Appearance ‘Heritage’ plants can grow six feet or more with lush, dense foliage. The deep green leaves are made up of alternately arranged leaflets. Tiny five-petaled flowers are white or light pink and appear in clusters. While raspberry plants are typically grown for their delicious berries, the stems of their deep green, textured foliage can be used to elevate a simple bouquet or be displayed alone in a vase as a seasonal statement piece. The fruits are bright, a saturated pinkish-red, and oh-so sweet! How to Grow Raspberry bushes will reward you with garden beauty and delicious, healthy fruits in exchange for ideal growing conditions and seasonal pruning. They are a garden favorite because they can produce fruit on new wood each year with minimal maintenance. Sunlight While raspberry plants may survive in partial sun areas, full sun will result in high productivity and the most fruit. If you live in a particularly dry area with harsh summer sunshine, provide ample water during drought-like conditions. Water Water newly planted bushes and bare roots at least two inches per week for proper root development and establishment. Increase to four inches per week when the plants are setting fruit. Set up drip irrigation lines at the plant base at the time of transplanting, so you’re prepared for any dry spells. Fresh, thin roots dry out very easily. Use a rain gauge to determine the exact rainfall in your garden. Insufficient water leads to small, seedy berries lacking that juicy pop we all crave. Once established, plants have some drought tolerance, but it’s best to check them once weekly to ensure the soil is moist. Keep a watering schedule until just before your first fall frost to ensure the plants are as healthy as possible going into winter dormancy. Once the ground is frozen, plants cannot uptake water or nutrients, so stop watering until spring. Plants receive water when it rains and snows. Too much water may lead to rot and disease. Soil Soil preferred is well-draining sandy loam that is consistently watered and has a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. If your native soil isn’t conducive to growing raspberries, grab a large container. ‘Heritage’ raspberry plants perform well in pots and shouldn’t need any support. Check their water levels frequently. Before planting, fully rid the area of weeds that may compete with shallow-rooted raspberry roots. If there is grass or stubborn perennial weeds, cover the area with a tarp for about a month. You can also start fresh with a metal raised garden bed. Mulch Apply several inches of organic mulch around your plants to keep weed pressure down, retain moisture, and keep the soil warm and cozy. Wood chips, shavings, compost, bark, and lawn clippings are recommended. To make your own mulched leaves, mow over piled-up leaves a few times until they’re in smaller pieces. These will break down more quickly and add fertility to the soil, encouraging healthy fungi and microbes to flourish. Reapply mulch as materials break down. If you live in colder climates, mulching is an important step for winter preparation. We layer several inches of aged compost to protect the crown and a thick layer of mulched leaves around the base. Add wood chips to the walking paths to increase insulation and reduce muddiness between rows. Climate and Temperature The preferred daytime temperatures are between 65 and 80°F (18-27°C), but ‘Heritage’ raspberries can tolerate much warmer. While hardy down to USDA zone 4, take care when temperatures fall below 5°F (-15°C) to protect the crown and root system. Fertilizing I recommend soil testing before you start a new raspberry patch and starting each season so you know exactly what your soil and raspberries need. When opening up your gardens in the spring, feed established raspberry bushes before new growth begins. Use a well-balanced, slow-release fertilizer like a 10-10-10 and follow the instructions on the packaging. Alternatively, select a fertilizer that’s higher in nitrogen for the first feed of the year to encourage healthy stem growth and foliage, then apply the 10-10-10 around June when new foliage begins. Do not fertilize in late summer or fall. This encourages new growth that may be damaged during frost and winter dormancy. Harvesting ‘Heritage’ raspberries can be harvested in the first year. The light summer crop comes from the canes they came out of dormancy with, and the heavy fall crop comes from the new canes that have popped up this season. Berries release fairly easily from the receptacle, and fruits hold up very well in travel and storage, making it a great option if you bring your berries to a farmers’ market or sell them at a farm stand. Be careful, ‘Heritage’ is thorny! Wear gloves to protect your fingers. Pruning Everbearing or fall-bearing raspberries are referred to as primocane varieties, which means they fruit on fresh wood. For two flushes of fruit, prune similar to floricane varieties, scheduling pruning sessions directly after each fruit flush. Note that the second flush may come very late in the season in northern climates, but it will be larger. Alternatively, cut back plants to two inches during dormancy in early to mid-March. This encourages one large fall crop and makes pruning a cinch, just once per season. New growth will produce the fruits. Remove suckers regularly and discard or share them with gardening friends to control the spread. Propagation Raspberry plants are sold as bare roots or small plants in containers. How you plant them depends on the type of plant you receive. Starting a plant from seed is possible, but it’s a time-consuming and tedious process. While I love starting plants from seeds as much as the next gardener, I advise you to leave the hard work to the experts on this one.

Looking for an exceptional cherry tomato to grow this summer? Look no further than ‘Sun Gold’. This prolific fruiter yields clusters of juicy, flavorful, low-acid tomatoes from early in the season until frost. Join gardening expert Katherine Rowe in exploring ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes for the summer harvest. It’s no wonder ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes are one of the most popular cherry tomatoes for the garden. This early-maturing hybrid variety is beloved as a gardener favorite for its bountiful fruits, cheery yellow-orange color, and deliciously sweet flavor like a taste of summer squeezed into juicy, bite-sized fruits. ‘Sun Gold’ glows in the garden with full clusters of perfectly round, golden tomatoes. Plants are high-yielding and disease-resistant, adding to the advantages and ease of growing ‘Sun Gold’. They’ll grow and produce the tender orb fruits from early summer until frost for an ongoing harvest. Brighten the garden and the salad bowl with ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes. Here, we’ll explore how to easily incorporate these favorite cherry tomatoes into our gardens this season. What are ‘Sun Gold’ Tomatoes? ‘These cherry tomatoes boast an exceptionally sweet flavor in abundant, bite-sized fruits. Indeterminate plants yield clusters of tangerine-orange tomatoes throughout the growing season. The juicy, tender fruits are among the tastiest of the cherries. ‘Sun Gold’ is a hybrid cherry tomato whose parents are a trade secret. Tokita Seed Company of Japan introduced the golden hybrid in 1992. Some growers speculate the prized heirloom beefsteak-type tomato ‘Brandywine’ is one of the parents, favored for superior flavor and garden performance. We’ll just have to be content with knowing hardy stock led to a strong garden performer and excellent flavor. Beyond its flavorful fruits, this variety is noteworthy for its disease resistance. Plants resist fusarium wilt and tobacco mosaic virus, two common tomato fungal problems. ‘Sun Gold’s’ high yields, vigor, disease resistance, and quality fruits earned it the Royal Horticulture Society’s prestigious Award of Garden Merit. Characteristics ‘Sun Gold’ is an early producer, with fruit maturing around 57 days after transplanting. The productive plants bear clusters of 8 to 14 fruits, with each petite globe weighing about one to one and a half ounces. Each plant produces about 120 fruits. The fruits have a low acid content and a sweet flavor with citrus notes. Cherry tomato clusters begin to ripen at the base (stem) and progress to the fruits on the tips. The ripening phases stagger the harvest over a few days and create an attractive look to the plant with bunches of green, yellow, and rich gold tomatoes. Once the fruit gets going, the harvests continue weekly throughout the summer and into fall. As an indeterminate plant, it has six-foot-long or longer vines, but four-to-five-foot vines are more likely. Indeterminate tomato plants grow and produce fruit all season until frost. The long vining stems benefit from staking, caging, or trellising to maintain production and health. The fruits are tender and thin-walled, making them fragile for commercial shipping to grocery stores but perfect for the local grower’s market or home garden. As fruits ripen and become full of juice, they sometimes crack or split (especially following rain, water fluctuations, or intense sun exposure when ripe). An option to prevent cracking is to pick fruits a few days early to let them fully ripen indoors. Fruits are flavorful even before they are fully golden, and early picking won’t compromise flavor. It also protects the thin-walled fruits from the sun, garden pests, and birds, who find them tasty, too. Native Area All tomatoes originate from wild, tropical ancestors in South America, with a narrow growing range along the coast and bordered by the Andes Mountains from Ecuador to Chile. The original cherry tomato, a wild, weedy plant with small fruits, dates to Ecuador some 80,000 years ago. Humans cultivated this small-fruited plant, spreading its range to Central America and further into South America through people and wildlife. The fruits that became the basis for the modern tomato came into cultivation in Meso-America 7,000 years ago. Explorers from Spain brought domesticated tomatoes to Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, but they were slow to enter cuisine. Tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, with peppers, eggplants, tobacco, and many herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and trees. Nightshades had a reputation for toxicity, so plant collectors gave caution to tomatoes. Planting Tomatoes are frost-sensitive plants, requiring warm air and soil temperatures for best growth. They grow easily from seed. Start seeds indoors five to six weeks before the anticipated final frost date. Transplant seedlings outdoors one to two weeks after the last expected frost has passed and as nighttime temperatures are above 55°F (13°C). Vegetables in the nightshade family benefit from crop rotation yearly because they are susceptible to transmitting diseases. If you’re growing tomatoes in the ground, choose a spot where you haven’t grown other nightshades (eggplants, tomatillos, potatoes, peppers, and other tomatoes) in the past year for a clean plot. Indeterminate cherry tomatoes like ‘Sun Gold’ need a two- to three-foot spacing between plants. If planting in rows, space rows three to four feet apart to give the vining stems plenty of growing room and circulation. Plant tomato stems deep; each hair on the stem has the potential to set a root. You can plant as deep as leaving only one or two upper leaf sets exposed. Some gardeners lay plants horizontally in a buried trench, leaving one or two sets of leaves above ground for maximum rooting. A vigorous root system leads to strong, stable plants with increased nutrient and water absorption for best fruiting. The long vines need a support structure for best growth. Install the support structure at planting time to avoid disturbing roots and foliage later. A large cage provides ample space. ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes grow in containers as long the pot is large enough to accommodate mature plants with plenty of soil volume for a robust root system. A 15 to 20-gallon container gives indeterminate tomatoes room to grow. ‘Sun Gold’ may get a bit tall and rangy in containers as the season wears on, but the bounty of golden orb tomatoes is worth the space allotted. How to Grow While ‘Sun Gold’ is a relatively carefree tomato plant, it benefits from specific cultural conditions for the best growth and vigor. Plenty of sunlight, consistent water, and air circulation are key to tomato plant health. Maintenance Indeterminate tomatoes grow tall and leggy by the season’s end. Pruning isn’t necessary with caged plants, nor is it essential, but pinching off suckering offshoots can be beneficial, especially with staked or trellised plants. Pinching low offshoots, or at least pinching off the ends when shoots are six to eight inches long, directs energy to the upper parts of the plant and keeps leaves and fruits off the soil level. Mulching is another regular maintenance practice at planting and as needed during the growing season. Initially, let the sun warm plant roots for growth without mulch. When stems reach 18-24 inches tall, layer two to three inches of weed-free straw around plants. Mulch aids moisture retention, weed suppression, and soil temperature regulation.

The rambutan tree is a true tropical that produces some distinctively hairy-looking berries. In this expert guide by gardener Kaleigh Brillon, you'll learn the growing tips you need to grow and harvest these interesting fruits! If you live in the US or Europe, you might be wondering what on earth a rambutan tree is. It’s a heat-loving tropical plant that needs to grow in USDA hardiness zone 10 or higher, so many of you may only be able to buy them online or in specialty farmers’ markets. They’re related to lychees and grow hairy-looking fruits that you peel to reveal sweet flesh that’s a lot like grapes. Yum! While you may never grow a rambutan tree in your backyard in the majority of the US, you can give it a try in a climate-controlled greenhouse. This tree loves warm weather and lots of humidity, so you’ll need a moist environment for it to grow in or for it to bear fruit. If you live in the perfect rambutan climate or want to try your luck with some tropical fruits, read the following guide to growing this unique tree. All About The Rambutan Tree The rambutan tree (Nephelium lappaceum) originates from southeast Asia and can be found in the coastal lowlands of China, Thailand, Vietnam, and other surrounding countries at sea level. Temperatures under 50°F (10°C) can kill the tree, so it’s no wonder why it’s considered to be so exotic in the US! It has since spread to southern Mexico and Central America, specifically in Costa Rica. Rambutan fruit is sometimes called hairy lychee because of its similar appearance to lychee. (After all, they are closely-related cousins coming from the Sapindaceae family.) The soft spines create a hairy appearance, but the skin is red, and the flesh is white, just like lychee. The taste is sweet with a bit of a tang, much like grapes or strawberries. Characteristics When these trees are grown in the perfect habitat, their spreading crown can range from 32-82 feet tall! Growing them in a medium-sized to small pot in a greenhouse will likely result in a smaller tree, but you’ll still be able to get delicious fruit. The Malay word rambut translates to hair in English, and the name, Rambutan refers to the hairy appearance of the fruits. These fruits appear after budded trees flower. Flowering occurs on male trees, female trees, or hermaphroditic trees in spring through summer and again in late summer through fall. The flowers are pollinated by ants and bees. The tree has glossy green leaves with a slightly leathery feel that can sometimes be yellow-green. Although the fruit is typically red and white, the outside can sometimes look orange or yellow, and the inside may occasionally be pale pink. Uses After peeling the fruit, they can be eaten raw or cooked and canned in syrup. They’re often extremely sweet and can be enjoyed as a dessert, but they are full of vitamin C. The roots and bark are often used in natural medicine, and the seed oils can be used to make candles and soap. Silk can be dyed green with young tree shoots. Planting The easiest way to get a rambutan tree growing is to start from seed indoors in a container. They require TLC from every single seed to transplant, so keeping them in a controlled environment will be the best way to increase your chance of success. Rambutan seeds are only viable for up to one week after being harvested, so you’ll need to act fast once you get your seed. Remove the fruit from the seed and let it dry completely. Place the seed in sandy, loamy soil with good drainage. Even though rambutans like humidity and lots of water, there’s still such a thing as too much water, especially when they’re young. Cover the seed with a light layer of soil and water it well. Make sure the soil stays moist but not wet, and keep the seed under a grow light. It can take 10-21 days for it to sprout, so don’t worry if it takes a while. Once the tree sprouts, keep it indoors with moist soil and lots of light. It won’t be ready to move outside until it’s about 1 foot tall in about 2 years and won’t produce fruit until it’s 4 or 5 years old. You can plant the seed any time of year if you’re growing it indoors, and when it’s time to transplant, you can do so in early spring.