A few of you asked why we'd need to start our ailing raspberry patch from freshly purchased stock rather than just digging up new shoots the way we've done to expand it in the past. The short answer is --- viruses.

Over time, viruses tend to build up in both raspberries and strawberries, causing declining vigor that carries over to any offshoots you propagate using homestead methods. Reputable nurseries instead rely upon lab techniques to clone without allowing viruses to come along for the ride, resulting in certified virus-free stock.

So if your patch starts ailing for no apparent reason, a fresh start can be worth a few bucks of nursery stock. Be sure to plant in a new location so the diseases won't spread quickly to your new plants and you should get many more years of raspberry for relatively little effort or expense.