Raspberries are a great addition to your snacking garden. They are relatively carefree with some pruning needed only once or twice a year. Most of the raspberries we grow are floricane varieties. What this means is the flower and fruit on two-year-old wood. The first year, floricane raspberries only have vegetative growth and in the second year, they will fruit. Primocane raspberries flower and fruit on the current year’s wood or essentially every year. As we move truly into fall, it is a great time to get out to the garden and prune your raspberries. It will get you out in the sun and enjoying the crispness of the air.
Raspberries have a very long-lived root system. Therefore, with whatever type of raspberry you are growing, vigorous pruning once a year will suffice. Primocane raspberries can be pruned right back to the ground in the autumn when fruiting is finished. For floricane raspberries, in spring canes will emerge and grow throughout the summer producing only leaves. The following growing season, the canes will branch out and produce flowers and then fruit. Following fruiting those two-year-old canes will die off.
It is habitual to finish the harvesting of the fruit and then not go back to the raspberry patch until spring. However, the best time to remove the spent canes is after the last fruit has been picked. The advantage of this is the stand is less “full” and has increased airflow. This will decrease the possibility of disease and insect problems. For example, if you had a spider mite problem in your raspberry patch, quickly removing the spent canes will almost eradicate the problem. Remove old canes at ground level and send them to the landfill if there have been insect or disease problems.
If you have never pruned raspberries a bit of preparation should be taken. Ensure you wear long sleeves and sturdy leather gloves to minimize the damage to the pruner! A good pair of pruning shears or loppers will also make the task a bit easier. Enlisting strong help is also something to consider!
Once the removal of the spent canes is done, then nothing further is required until spring. In early spring, when the new growth is just beginning to emerge, it is a good idea to selectively remove some of the new canes to narrow row widths and thin the stand.
The width of the row should be maintained at about 30 to 46 cm (12 to 18 inches) with individual canes being spaced no closer than 15 to 23 cm (6 to 9 inches) apart. Optimum yields are achieved where canes are thinned to a density of four or five canes per linear foot of row. Remove the shortest, thinnest, weakest, and any that appear to have sustained winter injury. A strong relationship exists between a cane’s thickness and its productivity, so the thickest canes should be left. A thinner, less dense stand will result in higher yields.
Pruning your raspberry patch properly will result in a longer-lived, healthier patch that produces more of that delectable fruit!
Hanbidge is the Lead Horticulturist with Orchid Horticulture. Find us at www.orchidhort.com; by email at info@orchidhort.com; on Facebook @orchidhort and Instagram at #orchidhort.
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