"Tim Challenger" schreef in bericht
news:1123833994.23b36881cea5bf8d70117586b35b30bc@t eranews...
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:16:42 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

The message .com
from "Rob" contains these words:

If that is the case then how do you "shortened all side shoots to about
6-9 inches" as Tim did last autumn?
Or was he talking about his blackberries then; for his raspberries he
just cut the stems down by a third?
Right Tim?

Sort of, some of the raspberry canes did have some side branches and I
trimmed these as well, thinking they were blackberries.

A bit of quoting of the text you're replying to wouldn't go amiss.

For clarity I'll try and explain what I did.
*Last Autumn* I cut out the spent raspberry canes and tinned them out, as
per usual. I *thought* they were blackberries - as I have blackberries
right next to them in the bed.
So the canes I trimmed off the top 1/3rd, (leaving around 4-5') and the
*few* side branches there were, I cut back to about 5 buds, or less if
they
were shorter.

*This year* the canes seem to have grown only a little in length (probably
not at all actually), the side branches also. - no surprises there. What
has happened is that just about every bud on the main and side stems have
produced shoots which are now around 9"-12" long and this new growth is
bearing most of the fruit. Many more shoots than usual.

In the meantime, the totally new growth from the ground - this year's
canes
- has grown to at least 6' and a couple are 8' tall already. They are also
much thicker and appear more vigorous than previously. Later I'll trim
them
back to around 5-6' and see how next year goes.

The canes have been there about 3 years now and despite my normal efforts
they've only produced so-so yields of mediocre quality fruit. I'm not sure
of the variety but it's definitely a summer-fruiting one.

--
Tim C.

That really is the full story. Thanks Tim, I guess we can close this thread
down now.

BTW The problem about not quoting in a post was because I was using Google
Groups where posts
are so formatted that quoting is unnecessary - very nice in my view - but
not Netiquette probably.
I suppose " I ag" was some form of in-joke . . .
Sorry if inadvertently I transgressed the rules; at least the thread, for
me, was worth it!