[Anke]

I have to remove my summer raspberries from their bed inside the fruitcage, as they seem to have succumbed to a virus (leaves dry off and fruit shrivels up), the autumn ones in the bed next to them are doing ok.
I was wondering if anyone can advise what other fruit I could plant? It can only be a bush, as I have to cover the bed with black plastic, no way can I dig out all the raspberry roots, so a bush would be possible planted through the plastic. Trees oir similar are out, as it is inside a fixed cage structure.

Are red/black/white currants ok?

Don't want strawberries, no luck with them, but the slugs/mice love them.... and usually get up for their breakfast before me...

[egglady]

rasps are shallow rooting so i think anything that has deeper roots would do the job - so long as it doesnt over shadow your other canes.  why not stick pots in this/next year and then take the suckers from your other ones and plant them in due course?  you can never have too many rasps in my book!

[Anke]

I know, we have a whole row of autumn ones, I think they are actually better than the summer ones, but will plant some more at the other side of the fruit cage, away from the current bed. It seems that the summer rasps are more prone to get bogged down with viruses...

[Fleecewife]

Hi Anke  .  I just saw this.  I think you might find that the raspberry suckers will just pop straight through black plastic.  They are very determined thugs.   My entire garden is being taken over by rasps at the moment and the only solution is to dig them up or lay concrete over them - and i think they would find a way through that 

For what to replant the area with, currant bushes would be fine I would think, also gooseberries.  You should obviously avoid anything from the same family as rasps, such as other cane fruit, as the virus will probably lurk in the soil.