pruning raspberries after a mistake last year.

after making the mistake of cutting back the first year canes that i think i should have left last year (even though they did flowers and crop (a long story that i've asked about previously so won't go into it again).

i left some canes (actually just thin and spindly twigs really) but i was concerned about leaving absolutely nothing for this year so left them in. these have now grown pretty well and now have just started producing the start of flowers, even though there are still flowers from last year that have died back .

i also have plenty of fresh canes coming through, they look healthy and think although they aren't that tall as yet (to be expected i guess). the trouble i'm seeing now is there maybe too many fresh canes coming up, which i'm concerned may lead to taking too much energy and not producing a small amount of quality canes for next year. i have been feeding with BFB and they are under a heavy mulch of rabbit manure.

unfortunately i don't know what variety they are, but they flowered and cropped quite early last year and as they are starting to produce flowers now i'm guessing they are some sort of summer variety.

so basically should i thin down the canes to leave the healthiest 3 or 4 canes per plant or just let them get on with it and try to rectify the situation next year?

thanks for the reply.

these things are confusing me too much.

by the end of last year they produced 3-4 fresh canes per plant, but as these had cropped so i cut them out. think i should have left them in now for this year.

when would i expect to see fruit from summer varieties, and when would i expect to see fruit from autumn varieties?

thanks for that. i'll leave them for this year and see when they crop.

if they are summer varieties, as i cut most of them down to the ground would this affect when they crop this year (i'm guessing so) or will they just produce canes for next year with no fruit?

Allen, unfortunately some Summer and Autumn varieties seem to almost overlap on the cusp. The simplest method is to mark or note somehow which canes fruit in a particular year, and then cut bck all of those canes in December, Autumn or Summer fruiting. You will always see old withered fruit stalks on canes that have fruited.

i don't really want to cut any canes, i made the mistake last year of cutting the canes out that i think i should have left.

so from all the replies i think i'm going to leave everything as it is for this season. leave them all in until december time. cut back any dead and woody canes. remove the weakest looking canes and suckers to leave 4 or so of the strongest canes per plant in place for next year. then hopefully next year i will have a better idea if they are summer or autumn.

have i got that right? any one have any better ideas or disagree about the plan?

thanks all.

You describe a similar situation that I have. Planted 6 summer canes last year, which produced a small crop and new canes. Cut off the old ones and now they too are flowering. The new growth for this year is coming through....everywhere. I have literally hoed dozens from the path. They are very evasive.

Are you finding that hoeing is enough to stop them Ivor? I have a similar problem to you, I moved my rasps to a new area over the winter, and I thought I'd dug all the roots out, but suckers are coming up several feet from their old location, in my rose bed, in the lawn and in the middle of my broad bean patch.  I keep digging the bllghters out where I can, and pulling them off where I can't dig, but they just keep popping up elsewhere!

Is roundup the answer?

Your new canes that don't fruit this year will fruit next year so when you cut the ones that have fruited this year right down to ground leave the ones that didn't fruit for next year. Our canes are tied  to a wire which is between two wooden posts. In autum we cut the fruited canes right down and the space the new growth so they are in a row and tie to the wire. Here is a link which might help.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/fruit/raspberries?type=f

this is what i thought when i pruned them last year, but the few canes i did leave in that had cropped are now lush, green and producing flowers again. hence why i'm confussed.

if i wait long enough i take it the old canes will die off themselves and i will know that these need to be cut out.