Topic: Must I cut the raspberries?? confused?

[antipodes]

I was reading about raspeberries (subsequent to teh discussion about gooseberries!!) and it said that the first year, allow no crops! Is that true? If so, must I prune them down? I will be disappointed as the children were looking forward to some rasperries in the autumn.
They are Heritage variety.

[Stevens706]

Hi I planted out my raspberries for the first time last year and just left them to grow, they didn’t produce lots of fruit but got enough for my 2 girls to eat (odd couple each time they came to the lottie)

So I would just leave then as they are.

This year they have lots of flower buds on so they haven’t seemed to suffer for letting them fruit last year.

[sweet-pea]

I would agree with Stevens706, I did the same and got a few berries last year, and so far they seem to be doing ok this year.

Sp x

[tuinman]

Yes they are pretty tough, let them be this year. I prune mine back to a couple of centimeters every february to get a late summer crop, heres a pic of them now;-

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n31/valleydaz/DSC00864.jpg

[antipodes]

wow! I don't know if mine will ever look like that! I didn't realize that they spread out so much, I had always pictured them as tall & spindly! (hint - don't actually have raspberries where I am from so I have never actually seen a full bush before  :-\
Oh well, I guess that I will let them get on with it then and just prune them back next winter. They already have some offshoots around so they are obviously happy with where I have put them...

[sweet-pea]

Antipodes, do you know whether they are summer fruiting or Autumn fruiting ones you have as you prune them differently.
Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on the same years growth so they are pruned in winter/early spring. Cut back all the canes.
Summer fruiting raspberries fruit on the previous years growth, so you have to make sure that you only prune out the canes that fruited in the summer, leaving the new canes to bear fruit the next summer.

SP x

[saddad]

Thanks SP that was what I was going to say...
 ;D

[jennym]

And if in doubt as to which sort of raspberries they are, leave them alone! It certainly won't hurt, and you can have a good look at what happens over the summer and winter period.

[antipodes]

Hmm, let's see...
"Fruiting from August until well into Autumn, the rich crop of juicy fruits have a delicious aroma. Raspberries are ideal for desserts and freezing. Best planted in a sunny sheltered spot in the garden."
or
"Heritage raspberries are an ever-bearing variety, producing tasty, medium-sized, firm red berries from mid-summer through fall. They are disease resistant, highly productive and easy-to-grow in zones 4 to 8. The plants will bear fruit the first year. A summer crop begins to ripen in early July. The fall crop is highly productive and ripens from the end of August until frost."

That's what a couple of sites say for heritage variety. Does that mean an autumn or summer variety then???

[jennym]

Treat them as autumn really - you will cut back the fruited canes in winter/early spring. There's a good link here which mentions your variety Heritage, but it is a US site, so bear this in mind. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1421.html

[saddad]

If your site is exposed better to cut back before winter so that the plants don't rock the roots... if prone to severe frosts leave until late Feb to cut so that the tops take the frost...
 :-\

[antipodes]

hmm that is quite a good site, explains the pruning process. I had better print that. Don't get such severe frosts here, it is pretty mild, although it can drop below 0c at some times in the winter. Better prune in winter methinks, it says you can get 2 crops if you want, maybe i could try that after a couple of years.

[amanda21]

I planted some Autumn bliss canes this year and I've noticed that some have nice green shoots on but others still look as bare as when I put them in.  Does this mean these ones are dead?  I'll be pretty annoyed because I would say of the ten I put in about half have got no growth so far?!   :-[

[OllieC]

The reason commercial growers cut them once, after autumn harvesting, is because you can run a tractor over them & all your pruning is done in next to no time, compared with a fairly complex/tedious bit of pruning to get the 2 crops. On the scale that I do them, I cut back to half height at the start of winter, and then remove that bit after it has fruited in early summer.

2 crops, an early & late, with a bit of a drop-off when fruit is cheap on the market.

Oh, I only bother with primocanes.

[lancelotment]

I had a similar feeling about my rasps Amanda, so I ripped one of the out of the ground.  All the wood above ground was brown, dry and dead.  In among the tangle of roots however were three nice fat white shoots that were growing but just hadn't broken the surface yet.  I would hang on a bit before you give up on them.  Lance

[SGuy]

I have exactly the same case as Amanda - Autumn Bliss canes planted this year, some with growth but others completely bare.

I'll take your advice and leave it a bit longer as you suggest Lance.  Any advice on whether I should feed or water the bare canes?  (I've never grown fruit before)