GrowingHQ

Polka

An autumn raspberry with larger and firmer fruit than Autumn Bliss, cropping from late summer until the first frosts. Same pruning: everything to the ground in late winter.

A cultivar of Raspberry. Everything on this page is about the cultivar; how to grow the species is on the plant page, and how big the tree gets is on the rootstock page.

Names and origin

Origin
Poland, late 20th century

Pollination

What this cultivar needs before it will set a crop.

Self-fertility
Self-fertile
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry — pollination

Checked 2026-08-13

Partner
No partner needed
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry — pollination

Checked 2026-08-13

Ploidy
diploid
source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

  • NIAB — National Institute of Agricultural Botany: Cultivar ploidy records

Checked 2026-08-13

Partners needed
none

Partners for Polka, from the 4 raspberry cultivars GrowingHQ holds

Computed by the pollination engine from the flowering groups, ploidy and recorded pairings on each record — not a hand-written list. The scope is exactly what the heading says: these are the answers that exist in this catalogue, not the answers that exist.

No partner is required

Polka sets a crop on its own pollen. The table below is still computed, because a compatible neighbour does no harm and a grower planting two trees may want to know which pairs work.

No compatible partner in this catalogue

That is a statement about GrowingHQ’s coverage rather than about the cultivar. A nursery list will contain compatible cultivars this catalogue does not hold — the pollination mechanisms page explains how to work one out.

3 further cultivars return no verdict, because a flowering group or an incompatibility group is not recorded on one side. The engine reports that rather than assuming a value: Autumn Bliss, Glen Ample, Malling Jewel.

The fruit

Season
Late
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — season

Checked 2026-08-13

Use
Eating
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — use

Checked 2026-08-13

Keeping
Eat within days
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — storage

Checked 2026-08-13

The plant

Vigour
More vigorous than average
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — vigour

Checked 2026-08-13

Habit
Upright
source

Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — habit

Checked 2026-08-13

Cropping
Crops regularly
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Raspberry cultivars — cropping

Checked 2026-08-13

Fruits on
This season's growth
source

Sourced guidancehigh confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Autumn raspberry — pruning

Checked 2026-08-13

Why that decides the pruning

Fruit forms on growth made in the same season. Hard winter pruning is therefore not only safe but necessary to produce that growth.

Cultivar record reviewed 2026-08-13.