Raspberries confusion needs clearing up

**mothhawk** · 17-08-2014, 05:39 PM

It's the other way round. Autumn fruiting you cut everything to the ground after they finish fruiting, and the new canes grow up in spring and fruit in autumn. They start fruiting about the end of July, through to the frosts.

Summer fruiting canes start to bear fruit in June, which means they have to start flowering end of April, beginning of May. There wouldn't be time for that if they had to grow up from the ground, so they fruit on the canes that grew up from the ground the previous year.

**mrgrower** · 17-08-2014, 05:43 PM

Cheers thanks I'm having a bad week so that information has helped.

Mr G

**marchogaeth** · 17-08-2014, 05:50 PM

Originally posted by mothhawk View Post

It's the other way round. Autumn fruiting you cut everything to the ground after they finish fruiting, and the new canes grow up in spring and fruit in autumn. They start fruiting about the end of July, through to the frosts.

The autumn ones don't need cutting down until January/February. BUFFS advises not cutting down any that have grown in the previous year but not fruited.

**Mumbles** · 17-08-2014, 05:59 PM

Originally posted by marchogaeth View Post

The autumn ones don't need cutting down until January/February. BUFFS advises not cutting down any that have grown in the previous year but not fruited.

I did that with half my canes and got fruit a lot earlier than the canes that were cut right down. They stopped fruiting about a month ago and me the new canes are loaded with flowers and fruit on the way

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**mrgrower** · 17-08-2014, 06:06 PM

So was my original understanding correct? about only cutting this years fruited canes back and leaving the new growth????

**Hazel at the Hill** · 17-08-2014, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by mrgrower View Post

So was my original understanding correct? about only cutting this years fruited canes back and leaving the new growth????

Yes - cut down anything that has fruited this year.

The summer varieties will have new growth as well as fruiting canes whereas the the autumn varieties *should* have fruited on all canes and can all be cut down.

However, as Marchogaeth says, if there are some stems on the autumn varieties that haven't fruited, you can leave those for an earlier crop next year.

Personally, I find that the autumn rasps are such thugs that I am happy to kick them back into some sort of order in the winter, and cut down all the canes, fruited or not..

**mrgrower** · 17-08-2014, 06:21 PM

ok so what do we do with a summer variety should that just be left to grow?? or do we cut that one back to??

**Hazel at the Hill** · 17-08-2014, 06:26 PM

Originally posted by mrgrower View Post

ok so what do we do with a summer variety should that just be left to grow?? or do we cut that one back to??

Summer varieties should have both canes that have had fruit on, and new growth which has not. Cut down the canes that have fruited, leave the others (the new growth) which will bear fruit next year.

**mrgrower** · 17-08-2014, 06:35 PM

Originally posted by Hazel at the Hill View Post

Summer varieties should have both canes that have had fruit on, and new growth which has not. Cut down the canes that have fruited, leave the others (the new growth) which will bear fruit next year.

Confusion rectified

Thanks Mr G

**veggiechicken** · 17-08-2014, 06:38 PM

My theory is - cut down any dead canes, leave anything green. I have to have a theory as all my raspberries are muddled up and I can't tell t'other from which.

**mrgrower** · 17-08-2014, 06:40 PM

Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post

My theory is - cut down any dead canes, leave anything green. I have to have a theory as all my raspberries are muddled up and I can't tell t'other from which.

I only have autumn ones so am OK to just hack

**Noosner** · 17-08-2014, 06:48 PM

As we are talking rasps, can anyone advise me how much to 'thin out' summer fruiting canes? A friend told me he got much better yields of rasps by thinning out his. I've got about 4 canes per plant, about 2"-3" apart. Does that sound too dense?

**Doive** · 21-08-2014, 03:45 PM

Our raspberries were planted last year. This year they have gone mental, fruited moderately well, but this year's growth is now eight feet tall... and the raspberry patch is overwhelmed with growth. Really need to prune it over the winter!

**BUFFS** · 21-08-2014, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by marchogaeth View Post

The autumn ones don't need cutting down until January/February. BUFFS advises not cutting down any that have grown in the previous year but not fruited.

if you tie in any stems that have not fruited and trim them to 5 - 6ft tall they will flower earlier so giving you a bumper summer crop and the "new" stems that have sprouted in the spring will produce the autumn crop so wasting nothing, we have done this now for some years and our only problem is what to do with the offshoots that pop up each spring about 3ft from the parent plants...

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