Topic: faqs from newbies

[BAK]

I was asked the other day by a relative newbie on our site how to prune raspberries.

A little light went on in what passes for my brain as I realised that this is far and away the most asked question on our site.

Interested to know what the faqs are on your site.

Note - The stock answer to the raspberry question (I hope!) is that it depends whether they are summer (June) or autumn (Aug-Oct) fruiting. Summer ones have a 2 year cycle ... cane grows in year 1, fruits in year 2 and is then cut out. Autumn ones have a much simpler 1 year cycle ... cut all canes down to the ground in late winter as they will grow and fruit all in a single season.

[BarriedaleNick]

That would be my answer.
In practice however I seem to forget which are which and they all end up treated as Spring fruiting..

[antipodes]

I always get confused by this! I have Heritage rasps, they fruited this year from July till October!!! Yet I did cut them right back in February! And got a big crop. So they must be autumn fruiters - but when did autumn start in July  ???  ???  ???

[BAK]

ours started in late July this year.

July sounds ok generally for you given where you live antipodes.

[jimtheworzel]

why not just look on the internet-its all there for you to read.

[gavinjconway]

I read a good tip the other day about Summer raspbs...

Year 1 canes tie to the left of centre of the plant... then year 2 to the right.. next year to the left again and so on..

So year 1 canes when fruiting in their second year can all be cut leaving the new canes to grow on. Cutting all on the left or right of the centre point of the plant makes good sense.. simples!!

[plainleaf]

you guys are lucky since most common varieties here are both summer and fall fruiters.

[brown thumb]

i was going to plant both summer and autumn(fall) raspberry's but since reading on here  about the pruning i am only going to plant autumn  ones so i can give them a chop right down each year also read the autumn one can fruit twice yearly does any one do this and does it require any special pruning

[sunloving]

Another common one is asking about rotovating the site rather than digging and weeding it.

Uusually its becuase they want to get going and it seems the easy option.
My Answer is cover the whole plot then dig it and weed it a meter at a time and stop as soon as your back hurts so youll live to return tommorow.

Re raspberries i treat them like clematis it doesnt matter which you have if you prune out the fruited shoots as soon as they are over.

and a third common one is about cheap mulches/organic matter - I always suggest grass clippings/ newspaper/manure and make your compost bin as soon as you can. and Chicken manure pellets for planting if the soil is poor and you havent manured it.
x Sunloving