Having had my raspberries for a number of years I decided it was time
they were replaced. Last Winter I duly planted a number of stools. These
have grown well producing fine canes. Now my old raspberries have
finished the canes (as normal) are tatty and dead looking, with new
growth starting to show at the base. This is the time I would normally
cut them down, though this year they are being dug out. My question is
this, the new canes are strong and healthy, do I cut them down to make
room for the new canes which will crop next year, if so when? Or do I
leave them and they will crop on these canes next year?

In article ,
Broadback wrote:
Having had my raspberries for a number of years I decided it was time
they were replaced. Last Winter I duly planted a number of stools. These
have grown well producing fine canes. Now my old raspberries have
finished the canes (as normal) are tatty and dead looking, with new
growth starting to show at the base. This is the time I would normally
cut them down, though this year they are being dug out. My question is
this, the new canes are strong and healthy, do I cut them down to make
room for the new canes which will crop next year, if so when? Or do I
leave them and they will crop on these canes next year?

The latter. Raspberries (and most semi-woody rubi) crop on the
previous year's growth, which dies off in the following winter.
Cut them out now, and you will get no crop next year, though
you won't kill the plant.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Broadback wrote:
Having had my raspberries for a number of years I decided it was time
they were replaced. Last Winter I duly planted a number of stools.
These have grown well producing fine canes. Now my old raspberries
have finished the canes (as normal) are tatty and dead looking, with
new growth starting to show at the base. This is the time I would
normally cut them down, though this year they are being dug out. My
question is this, the new canes are strong and healthy, do I cut
them down to make room for the new canes which will crop next year,
if so when? Or do I leave them and they will crop on these canes
next year?

The latter. Raspberries (and most semi-woody rubi) crop on the
previous year's growth, which dies off in the following winter.
Cut them out now, and you will get no crop next year, though
you won't kill the plant.

Apart from autumn-fruiting raspberries, which you cut down in February,
and they throw out vigorous canes which fruit the same year. But there's
a trick you can do...got a note somewhere...hang on...yes, here we a

On GQT, 11 Feb '07, Seabrook said that with Autumn Bliss, you could
prune down only as far as the last fruiting shoot (taking about a thrid
off), in spring (I guess he meant late February). You then get a crop in
June, after which you cut right down in the conventional manner, and it
will fruit again in August. I've never tried this, but Peter Seabrook
seems an old-style gardener who knows whereof he speaks --in spite of
his unfortunate attitude to peat-mining* and regrettable taste in
rockeries and such-like. I haven't dared to try, as I don't actually
klnow what variety I've got; but I don't see why this shouldn't work
with other autumn-fruiting vars, though presumably not the late ones.

*Quote: "What do these scientists know? They haven't done the research."
Not even North Sea fishermen use that one
any more.

--
Mike.

Nick Maclaren wrote:
The latter. Raspberries (and most semi-woody rubi) crop on the
previous year's growth, which dies off in the following winter.
Cut them out now, and you will get no crop next year, though
you won't kill the plant.

See, I am confused by this. You've said this before last time someone
asked, and this is not my experience.

Last winter after they had a late crop, Nick cut out raspberries right down
almost to the ground. They are currently fruiting quite vigorously.
They're definitely cropping on this year's growth!

In article , wrote:

The latter. Raspberries (and most semi-woody rubi) crop on the
previous year's growth, which dies off in the following winter.
Cut them out now, and you will get no crop next year, though
you won't kill the plant.

See, I am confused by this. You've said this before last time someone
asked, and this is not my experience.

Last winter after they had a late crop, Nick cut out raspberries right down
almost to the ground. They are currently fruiting quite vigorously.
They're definitely cropping on this year's growth!

As someone pointed out, there are autumn-fruiting varieties. They
were introduced a few decades back, and are still not the norm.
But, yes, I had forgotten about them.

There are also rubi where the stems last longer than 2 years - I
have a blackberry like that.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The latter. Raspberries (and most semi-woody rubi) crop on the
previous year's growth, which dies off in the following winter.
Cut them out now, and you will get no crop next year, though
you won't kill the plant.

Apart from autumn-fruiting raspberries, which you cut down in February,
and they throw out vigorous canes which fruit the same year. But there's
a trick you can do...got a note somewhere...hang on...yes, here we a

On GQT, 11 Feb '07, Seabrook said that with Autumn Bliss, you could
prune down only as far as the last fruiting shoot (taking about a thrid
off), in spring (I guess he meant late February). You then get a crop in
June, after which you cut right down in the conventional manner, and it
will fruit again in August. I've never tried this, ...
^^^^^^^^^^
The stool will, if it has new growth in current year. The one you cut out,
of course can't fruit :-)

This procedure works. Every year, in my 15 year old autumn fruiting patch,
I leave any good unfruited canes, and prune off the tops of any
that have only fruited near the top. These give me a crop in late
June/July, then a fruiting gap until aprox mid august when this years
canes start to fruit and continue till November or even later.

Jim

Jim Jackson wrote:
[...]

I wrote:
On GQT, 11 Feb '07, Seabrook said that with Autumn Bliss, you could
prune down only as far as the last fruiting shoot (taking about a
thrid off), in spring (I guess he meant late February). You then get
a crop in June, after which you cut right down in the conventional
manner, and it will fruit again in August. I've never tried this, ...
^^^^^^^^^^
The stool will, if it has new growth in current year. The one you cut
out, of course can't fruit :-

Ha, ha.

This procedure works. Every year, in my 15 year old autumn fruiting
patch, I leave any good unfruited canes, and prune off the tops of any
that have only fruited near the top. These give me a crop in late
June/July, then a fruiting gap until aprox mid august when this years
canes start to fruit and continue till November or even later.

Good news. I want to have a go. But I'm not quite clear: do you cut the
June-fruited canes down to the ground as in Seabrook's method? Or are
you saying that it's /those/ canes which fruit from August onward?

--
Mike.

On 2010-08-06, Mike Lyle wrote:
Jim Jackson wrote:
This procedure works. Every year, in my 15 year old autumn fruiting
patch, I leave any good unfruited canes, and prune off the tops of any
that have only fruited near the top. These give me a crop in late
June/July, then a fruiting gap until aprox mid august when this years
canes start to fruit and continue till November or even later.

Good news. I want to have a go. But I'm not quite clear: do you cut the
June-fruited canes down to the ground as in Seabrook's method? Or are
you saying that it's /those/ canes which fruit from August onward?

Cane that have fruited do not fruit again. So those that fruit in
June/July, I cut down. The canes that fruit in Autumn are the new canes
that grow alongside them.

I don't allow many canes to remain when I do the Jan/Feb prune back -
less than an average of one cane per stool. I find that some stools
have several canes that hardly fruit in the autumn, and others fruit all
the way down the canes. I have a bed of "normal" summer raspberries as
well.

cheers
Jim

I have a different raspberry problem.

We have a patch full width of the allotment, about 1m wide (3 or 4 canes
deep, give or take). The fruit at the east side of the line is weedy and
turns to mush quickly and never grows very big. The fruit at the west of
the line is large and solid and taste much nicer.

Now, we inherited the plants when we took over the plot, so we have no idea
if they are all the same variety or if that's the difference. Other things
I considered are that the sun will be available at different times of day to
the opposite ends. Or that the plots on either side have different amounts
of weed which could possibly be altering the amount of water available.

I'm guessing the most likely thing is that they are different varieties, but
it seems a bit ... haphazard, which is unlike the previous person, who was
very precise about these things.

Have I missed any obvious other potential cause?

I'm considering removing all of the canes on the east side at the end of the
year and replacing them either with different raspberries (new ones or
cuttings from the west side) or with something different.

Jim Jackson wrote:
On 2010-08-06, Mike Lyle wrote:
Jim Jackson wrote:
This procedure works. Every year, in my 15 year old autumn fruiting
patch, I leave any good unfruited canes, and prune off the tops of
any that have only fruited near the top. These give me a crop in
late June/July, then a fruiting gap until aprox mid august when
this years canes start to fruit and continue till November or even
later.

Good news. I want to have a go. But I'm not quite clear: do you cut
the June-fruited canes down to the ground as in Seabrook's method?
Or are you saying that it's /those/ canes which fruit from August
onward?

Cane that have fruited do not fruit again. So those that fruit in
June/July, I cut down. The canes that fruit in Autumn are the new
canes that grow alongside them.

I thought so. Thank you. That's the Seabrook method; but you never know
with gardening --always a toss-up whether ancient wisdom still holds
good, or, "Blow me down if these 'ere new-fangled notions ain't roight
after all!"
[...]

--
Mike.