Topic: Pruning raspberries

[Yorkshire Lass]

This is my first year of growing raspberries and I've had a very good crop. They were summer fruiting so what is the best time to prune? I am assuming I cut back the canes which have fruited and leave the new ones for next year.

[Nora42]

By now the ones that have fruited should be looking a lot worse for wear, shabby with yellowing leaves and you will notice the stems are brown compared to the new shoots - next years fruit which are green.
Cut all old brown wood down to ground level.
Leave all new green canes.

I find this job quite therapeutic as your raspberries will look so much tidier than before you started.
I usually leave the mulching and feeding until autumn.

hope that helps Nora

[chriscross1966]

Pruning raspberries is a job for doing a bit later in the year in my book, though it certainly won't hurt to do it now, you have to seriously mistreat a raspberry to do any harm..... I find with Tulameen that the fruited stalks die back anyway..

[Yorkshire Lass]

Thank you , a great help, if it cools down I may do it this weekend

[squeezyjohn]

It depends on the type of raspberry!

Summer rasps should be cut down after they've given all their fruit - quite soon normally.  This is so they can grow up new canes before the end of the year for next year's crop.

Autumn rasps should not be cut back until they're finished - normally in October or November.  If you've got a lot of autumn canes growing now - you can snip the top off some of them before they flower - this will create side shoots which fruit slightly after the main lot do and keep you in raspberries as long as the sun will ripen them.

Cheers

Squeezy

[terrier]

Unfortunately, I need to move my summer fruiting rasperries from where they are growing. After pruning out the old stems, is it OK to dig up the roots and move them or is this likely to kill the plants?

[squeezyjohn]

The normal time for moving raspberries is when they're dormant in the winter ... but if you've got no choice then you should give it a go trying to disturb the roots as little as possible and water them in well.

In my experience raspberries are pretty resilient things.

[chriscross1966]

Raspberries are pretty tough, if they're throwing up offsets away from the main plant you could try digging them up with as much root as you can get adn putting them in a big pot and keeping that well watered. Once they are well established in the pot then plant them out.... if you go direct then water lots. I guess last time I moved some I used the pot method, but didn't really have a choice as the new location wasn't ready...

[terrier]

At the moment I can't see what is old and what is new offsets, it's just a tangled mass. I'll get a better idea when I prune them back. I can leave them until early winter if that would be better and pot up some offsets now.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Early winter when they're not growing would be far better.

[Digeroo]

I managed to snap off the top of some of my autumn raspberries and I was rather gutted about it but they have produced loads of side shoots, so interested that you suggest doing this on purpose squeezyjohn.

[Paulh]

If you have had your plants a long time, consider buying new stock. They do get old and suffer from virus. The new plants will be vigorous so 6 will be 12 after one year and 24 after 2 years! There are also better varieties now. I bought 6 Joan J Autumn fruiting two years ago; they are now mugging the rhubarb and about to crop heavily with large luscious fruit. I had been encouraging invaders from the next plot, but they produced a few tired fruits only.