Days to Maturity raspberries from seed

Not many people grow raspberries from seed.  To be honest, unless you have some reason to grow them from seed it is probably best not to.  Most people grow from existing plants, which is far easier, much faster, and far more reliable.

Raspberries are not the easiest seed to germinate, or the easiest seedling to care for.  Most, if not all, are highly heterozygous, meaning that each seed will be genetically unique.  They take a long time to germinate, they are tiny and take  a long time to grow, meaning you have to water them and protect them from slugs, snails and insects over this time.  Then the resultant fruit may be delicious or bland or sweet or sour or anywhere in between.

If you are going to grow raspberries from seed you should NEVER  EVER buy it from ebay as there are too many thieves on ebay selling fake seeds.  Very few seed sellers carry raspberry seed, and many who do make all kinds of dishonest claims about them.  This means if you plan to grow it you will need to get fresh raspberries and save the seed yourself.

Knowing all of this, if you still choose to grow raspberries from seed (perhaps you have some interesting breeding project in mind) I thought I would record raspberry days to maturity from seed.  I wish I started keeping a record of days to maturity a long time ago.


Days to maturity Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) from seed

Seeds planted       16/09/2017             Day 0
Germinated           21/12/2017             Day 96
Flowered              Not Yet Flowered - still tiny
Fruit Ripe              Not Yet Fruited

Raspberry seedling with first true leaf

Raspberry seedlings next to chilli seedlings - raspberry seedlings are tiny