[Snap Dragon]

My Mum got her lottie last year and inherited all the usual fruits... blackberries, strawberries, summer and autumn raspberries and of course rhubarb.

She had a fairly good crop of raspberries and I cut the old canes out of the summer ones last year but there did not appear to many new canes for this years fruit.

As we have no idea how old any of the inherited fruit is could it be they are past it. Should she be looking at getting some new canes in this Autumn and if so can they be planted in the same place or should they be moved elsewhere?

[gobs]

Everything has a life span, but I would not be thinking that first of all.

Maybe they are a bit crowded? Need some manure, too. A few canes to a rootstock you can expect to grow only. Tell us more!

Hopefully, they are not diseased, but look out for any strange appearance.

That's supposing nobody stole the fruit and you only cut out the old ones. :roll:  

[Snap Dragon]

It did look like there was quite a lot of them last year so maybe overcrowding is the problem.

Maybe last years pruning and a good feed may help them.

How long should you expect them to last - just out of interest (as I will be planting some on my new lottie this year.

[gobs]

Most retail will advice you to replace your soft fruit every 8 years or so. This is something no one bothers with in practice, unless you have disease or fancy a new variety. Decades old soft fruit are fruiting nicely.

If they are a bit of a jungle, plant them up with root and cane, so they are at least 1&1/2 foot apart, manure well, you can happily do this this time or during next month yet, be careful not to break of buds and shoots from the canes.

They require no other 'pruning' than taking out old, fruited canes.