[3759allen]

after just reading a un related thread, people are saying that you shouldn't prune the canes from last year "summer fruiting ones they fruit on the stems that grew last year".

last year was the first year as they were planted as canes last spring. by the end of summer the original canes were dying off with fresh ones coming through. i cut back the original canes, the new canes that were coming through then had a good crop (considering it was the first year). after these had finished flowering/ cropping and started dying back i thought you had to cut them back for fresh ones to come through for this year to produce and crop?

so i'm now confused. the canes that grew last year have already cropped. should you leave them to crop for 2 years? if so how would i tell the difference from the the ones that have cropped twice to once that have cropped once?

i'm hoping i'm being paranoid that i've cut the wrong canes and won't have any fruit this year. would it just be that the canes are confused as they were new canes.

[JohnB47]

On a summer fruiting variety, the fruiting canes should gradually be joined, as the summer progresses, by new shoots that will become next years fuiting stems. You then cut off the old, fruited, canes. Are you saying that you've had no new canes produced this year? Are you sure you have a summer fruiting variety? What variety exactly?

[mumofstig]

This should help
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Autumn fruiting varieties are cut to the ground after fruiting, but don't form their new stems until the following spring .

[Totty]

If a cane has fruited, you cut it right back to the ground in late autumn/winter, regardless of weather it's a summer or autumn variety.
If all of the canes on your plot have fruited, and you have cut all of them down, new canes will be around the base stems now just waiting to start pushing out.

Totty

[3759allen]

thats what i was hoping people would say, panic over. phew!

the original canes i planted cropped, and cut down when they looked old and woody. this was mid summer, don't know if that was right though.

new canes grew and cropped, i then cut these back before Christmas. this then left a few new canes that hadn't fuited and looked quite lush so i left them. again don't know if this was right.

as to the variety, i don't actually know. i brought them dirty cheap locally on gumtree from a foreigner, he didn't know what they were. but at £5 for 10 canes i thought it was a risk, and i'd find out soon enough. they did seem to start cropping by the start of summer, but still trying to produce in november (didn't ripen though i'm guessing to lack of sun). i guess i'll get a truer idea this year as they would be more established.

thanks for the replies