Pruning raspberries

Pruning raspberries (post #12725)

Treetalk on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 00:08 (updated 04/16/10 - 04:15)

Fruit and Berries

I have an old patch of early red rasberries. Last fall after a few good years they looked pretty straggly and decided id prune basically them down to the ground and if they came back fine..if they didnt okay too. Well they came back like gangbusters and i had a great crop this summer. But now I dont know whether to prune them down to the ground again ?.. 3' high ? . Id say all the canes out there now are only 1 year old and about 3-6' tall . Tuff love again? Thanks for any help.

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by Catskill Deb in reply to Treetalk [original] on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 01:30

Aren't raspberries wonderful? I think in the fall you're supposed to cut to the ground any canes that fruited this year. They're easy to identify because they usually turn brown or have some ends on the branches that show where the berries were. You leave any canes that don't look like they had berries this year. That's all there is to it. After that, if you think the remaining canes are too thick, you can choose to thin them some more, but I never do that (except via lawn mower where they travel out into the yard).

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Ruth in reply to Treetalk [original] on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 15:58

Catskill Deb pretty much has it right. In my experience, you can pretty much do anything you want with raspberries, and they'll not only survive, but thrive. You might try an experiment: Cut half the patch down to the ground, and just thin the rest. It may turn out that the "grounded" plants just fruit later than the others, so you'll extend the season.

www.vegetablegardener.com

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by Treetalk in reply to

Anonymous [original] on Tue, 10/13/2009 - 23:59

Alas yes the pruning of rasberries seems to be somewhat esoteric.This years's fruiting canes/ juvenile canes / old canes...yadayada.... thats when i came up with the slash method . It got only worse when i had late season gold rasberries that were supposed to be pruned diffrent than the red.I got rid of them because they didnt taste as good and only complicated things. Maybe ill try both methods. Like them razzies if only they werent so..needy once picked.

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Ruth in reply to Anonymous [original] on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 12:41

They're not exactly needy, as in they'll die if you don't care for them. It's more like they'll take over your yard. I've got a patch of black raspberries out in the back field, and every winter I do what I think is radical cutting back. I even pull out some. But come summer, the patch is overgrown and tangled again.

www.vegetablegardener.com

(post #12725, reply #5 of 5)

by jimcco in reply to

Anonymous [original] on Fri, 10/16/2009 - 23:54

Following are recomendations made to commercial growers for fall bearing red raspberries.

For spring only fuiting reds follow the reccomendations for the blacks but don't grow in hills instead try to have 6-8 of the best canes per linial fot of row.

As far as spread is concerned; you want a row of canes max 18" wide. Don't worry about canes per foot in the row. The best way to manage fall bearing reds is to wait till spring before new leaves start; then prune all the growth in 1/2 of the row all the way to the ground. Prune the other 1/2 of the row to 18" -all plants live and dead. Then next year swap ends which will get rid of previous old growth. Doing this will get you enough spring crop to eat on the ones not pruned to the ground. Then you will get a smaller crop on those plants in the fall and the ones pruned to the ground will have a larger crop.

For black raspberries; these should be kept in hills 30-36" apart in the row and 5' between rows. When they are done fruiting in june prune out the canes that fruited as the will die anyway and that lets the roots feed the new canes that will produce next year's crop. In July/Aug prune the new canes to 30-36" height. This will cause the canes to branch. Then next spring thin the canes to 5-6 per hill and prune all lateral branches to 12-18".

Edited 10/16/2009 7:55 pm ET by jimcco

Pruning raspberries