[balfie]

Hi all,

I am very new to alltoments and growing fruit and veg.

We got our allotment a few months back and inherited some raspberry canes.
They are quite long, and produced loads and loads of raspberries.  They have now more or less stopped fruiting.

I understand when raspberries stop fruiting they should be cut back, can I do that now?
And how do I go about it, is there a method?
Do I cut them right back to ground level or higher than that?  Do cut all the canes or leave some long?

All advice will be very welcome!

[ryetek]

Before you cut back your raspberries you need to know if they are Summer rapsberries or Autumn rapsberries.

If they are Summer raspberries you only cut off the old canes. Any new growth will contain next year's fruit and should be left alone. You can cut back Summer raspberries once they've finished fruiting. I did mine last weekend for example.

If they are Autumn raspberries then you should cut them down between November and February. With Autumn raspberries you can cut the all the canes back to the ground. This is because fruit appears on the canes that shoot up earlier in the same year.

I'm not sure of the best way to advise you if they are Summer or Autumn raspberries so perhaps someone else will be better to answer that. However I guess you could look to see if some of the canes have not contained any fruit this year. If so they are probably Summer raspberries and these canes should be left alone.

[savbo]

do a search on pruning raspberries - lots of previous threads explain this very well!

sav

[balfie]

I think they must be summer raspberries as they fruited early and have finished already?
(My neighbours have only recently started fruiting.)

Actually, I have done a search already but found it all very confusing, almost too much info!
I was hoping someone would give me an idiots guide, 'cut these cane back to here, leave those ones, do in now / next week / next month etc etc   

[crh75]

As you say they seem to be summer fruiting.  Therefore, cut any cane that has fruited off near the base (a couple of inches above soil level).  These will have brown stems and yellowing leaves.  The new shoots (green leaves and stems) should be left and tied onto wire supports.  If any plant has lots of stems then the weaker can be removed as well.  Any shoots that are out of line should be carefully dug up.

Forgot to add. Do it after the fruit has finished.  There is no great urgency, but it definitely needs to be done before any winter weather has a chance to break the free standing new growth. 

[balfie]

Thats great, thanks so much for your help.

There are one or two raspberries still appearing, as soon as they stop I will cut them back.
Feeling confident about what to do now, thanks