https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW4nSVgQhqY Doesn’t matter if you have autumn or summer varieties.
- Prune in late winter. Plant should be dormant, before it grows new leaves!
- Look at the stems. If they’ve had fruit on it, you can cut them right back to the ground. Doesn’t matter if it’s been an autumn fruiting or summer fruiting variety. If the stem has already fruited, it will not fruit well again.
- If you are sure you have an autumn fruiting raspberries, you can cut down ALL stems right to the ground. Level with the ground. New stems will grow that will bear fruit in autumn.
- If you don’t prune autumn varieties all the way back in winter/early spring, they will give fruit in summer AND autumn, that’s why they are also called everbearing raspberries. But each harvest will be smaller, and the autumn harvest will be delayed.
- If you have a summer fruiting raspberries, DON’T cut the stems that have no signs of fruitbearing from the previous year. They will fruit this summer.
- Old canes are often thicker and have dry-looking skin. These ones you cut completely down, as close to the ground as possible.
- New canes are usually brown and more supple, with shiny skin. They look fresh.
- Specifically for summer bearing BLACK raspberries: In addition to cutting out the old canes, you should also:
- Prune the tips, i.e. the ends of young shoots, because they grow a bit too unruly, and also to encourage the formation of lateral buds. In spring, prune these lateral branches, leaving 8-10 buds on each branch. Unlike the most common raspberry bush (Rubus idaeus), new shoots on the black raspberry appear at the base of the stems rather than from the roots.
- Tie them up, otherwise they will flop on the ground.
- After you’re done, give them a bit of fertiliser, e.g. seaweed, to help them start their growth cycle.
My varieties:
Summer-bearing:
- Black raspberries Rubus occidentalis
- Mormorshallon
- Glen Ample
Autumn-bearing:
- Polka