Two crops for autumn raspberries

I've read that some autumn raspberry varieties will produce a summer crop on last year's wood. Is this a general feature of all autumn raspberries or is it variety specific?

If the old canes aren't chopped down in winter some of them will stay alive to produce a small early crop the following year before the autumen crop proper is produced on the new canes.

Whether it's a good idea to take so much out of the plant in one year is another matter (you will probably never know whether the overall crop has been affected or not!)  

I hate to dissagree but according to Gardening Which, Independent tests on double cropping of Autumn raspberry plants (ie leaving the old canes to fruit the following Summer), have shown that the total crop is a bit larger than for Autumn cropping alone. It also has the benefit of spreading the cropping period from July to late Autumn.
This matches my experience with double cropping. I think that you can do this method with any of the Autumn fruiting rasps.

Having done it once due to circumstances beyond my control, I know which way I'm going when I'm in control of circumstances.

Apart from which it's so much easier to prune the whole lot once they've finished fruiting, rather than play eeny, meey, miney, mo!

Thankyou Kirpi.

... when in doubt, experiment

You make a good point JayG.

I have two rows of 5 Autumn Bliss autumn raspberry plants.  I am going to cut one row of 5 down over winter and leave the other row to crop twice and see if there is any difference in harvest between the two and see for myself.

Of course, I can't do anything about the weather but the weather will be the same for both rows and I will feed and water both rows the same.

It would be boring and stale if we all did things the way people have done them for years because that's the way we've always done it.

Hi Ice - are you stalking me?