[Oldskoolrools]

I have four types of raspberry cane which I planted last year, however I am not entirely sure which are winter and which are summer, and hence which require cutting back to ground level, and which require the canes which have fruited to be cut back. The canes I have are Glenmoy, Jewel, Octavia and Autumn Bloom.

Any advice on how each of these should be pruned appreciated.

[DD.]

The first three are summer fruiting. You need to cut out the canes that fruited this year and leave the new growth.

Do you mean Autumn Bliss as the fourth one? If so, once fruited all the canes are cut out to within a couple of inches of the ground, they will fruit on the same year's growth next year.

[Oldskoolrools]

Hi DD

Thanks for your reply.

I’m afraid I may have made a bit of a mess of my raspberry canes, as I wasn’t aware of the different requirements when I planted them. (Amateur, I know). I may even have the Autumn canes in the middle of a row with some summer ones.

I think I have them correctly identified, but am not 100% certain. I also cut back almost all of them last year, hence very little fruit this year. The canes I left did bear fruit, so I can be certain they are summer canes (Octavia).

What is confusing me, is that I must have cut back the Autumn Bliss to ground level, but I see no evidence of fruit yet. Is it too early or should the fruit be forming?

I also filled in some spaces where canes died with a mystery cane from a friend.

Is there an easy way to determine which are definitely summer and which are definitely Autumn? An “old boy” who works on the fields told me one has thorns, the other doesn’t. Most of mine appear to have thorns).

tempted to start again 

thanks for any advice

[DD.]

Firstly - forget what the "old boy" told you! Both my summer and autumn varieties have thorns. I sometimes think they make these things up as they go along.

Autumn raspberries should be well into fruit by now.

If you're uncertain which is which, you can safely cut out any that you know have fruited, as that applies to both kinds. Leave anything you're unsure of. You'll be able to tell what's what next year when it come to fruiting time.

[crh75]

Too add to what DD said, autumn fruiting raspberies will often have a few fruits on old wood as well, just to try and confuse you.

[LilacSandy]

Cut out any brown stems and leave and green ones, the brown ones are usually the fruiting canes of summer raspberries.  You should be cropping your Autumn canes now and they should have fruit down 3/4 of the stem.