Topic: Raspberries again

[northener]

Forgot to prune them. They are summer fruiting had a real bumper crop last year. What would you recomend?

[laurieuk]

Provided they made new growth last year you will do no harm pruning the OLD wood away and tying in the growth made last year. It is generally easy to tell the difference and if you had tied them last year then all you need to do is cut out any canes that are tied knowing they were there last year.

[Russell]

I agree with Laurieuk, I am just now tying up my raspberries in exactly the way he describes. I would add that if you are in doubt about whether a cane is old or new, a gentle scratch on a new cane near the bottom will show green. I do also remove puny little new canes that are not going anywhere because I don't like bending my back to pick them (that's why I don't grow strawberries). Finally I cut off the tops of the new canes at eye level so the fruiting spur tips when they grow will be within arms reach for picking.

[northener]

Thanks for that.

[gavinjconway]

What I have seen and read about summer variety is as follows: this years growth tie to the left of centre position and next year to the right and so on and so on... This way each year the fruiting canes are either on the right or left and easy to identify which are to be cut down..  Autumn canes just cut down each year..

[Digeroo]

I don't think you need to prune the summer type ones.  The canes which fruited last year die off and so you just need to remove the old dead wood leaving the other to fruit this year.   If you bend them gentley the old ones will break and the new ones will bend.

[artichoke]

I'm growing summer raspberries for the first time (put them in last year and got small crop); I've taken out the old fruiting canes but hesitated over whether to take the tallest tips off the new canes, thinking I might lose fruit. Is this really all right?

Autumn fruiting are easy, of course, and I have enjoyed them for years.