How many raspberry plants per person
The two extension figures are far apart. NC State Extension's small fruit table lists 6 red raspberry plants for a family of four, about 1 1/2 per person. University of Illinois Extension's backyard fruit guide suggests 20 to 25 plants for a family of five, about 4 to 5 per person. The calculator takes the middle of that range, 3 1/4 plants per person, and rounds up, so a family of four gets 13 plants.
Raspberry plants for 1 to 6 people
| People | Plants | Row length at 2.5 ft | Harvest (lb a year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 10 ft | 8 to 16 |
| 2 | 7 | 18 ft | 14 to 28 |
| 3 | 10 | 25 ft | 20 to 40 |
| 4 | 13 | 33 ft | 26 to 52 |
| 5 | 17 | 43 ft | 34 to 68 |
| 6 | 20 | 50 ft | 40 to 80 |
The harvest uses NC State's 2 to 4 lb per plant a year once the canes are established. Colorado State University Extension gives a check by row length instead: a 25 ft hedgerow of red raspberries yields 15 to 20 lb a year under good conditions, about 6 to 8 lb per 10 ft. By that measure, the 10 plants for three people, which fill a 25 ft row, would give 15 to 20 lb rather than NC State's 20 to 40 lb, so read the harvest column as the most to expect.
Neither source gives a separate count for freezing or jam, so the calculator's fresh and preserving columns match. If you want berries to freeze, plant toward Illinois's figure of 4 to 5 per person rather than NC State's lower one.
Why row length matters more than plant count
Red raspberries spread by suckers, so the plants you buy fill in to a hedgerow. Colorado State keeps that hedgerow no more than 2 ft wide and thins it to five or six strong canes per foot. What you are really choosing is row length: 13 plants at 2.5 ft make a row of about 33 ft, and that row, not the number of plants in it, sets the long-term harvest.
If the row does not fit, split it into two shorter rows and keep 8 to 10 ft between them, the row spacing NC State gives.
When the harvest starts
Summer-bearing raspberries fruit on second-year canes, so plants set out this spring give their first real crop next summer. Fall-bearing types such as 'Heritage' fruit on first-year canes and can give some berries in the planting year, as Colorado State explains. Plant in early spring, which Ohio State University Extension prefers to fall.
For plant counts along a row of any length, use the raspberry spacing calculator. For other fruit, see strawberry plants per person and blueberry bushes per person, or plan the whole garden with the garden size calculator.