When do you cut back raspberries
Pruning Raspberry Plants - Stark Bro's
Pruning is not only an important part of proper raspberry plant care and maintenance, it is also a way to ensure and improve the development of the fruit crop. Here are a few things to remember when pruning your raspberry plants:
NOTE: This is part 8 in a series of 11 articles. For a complete background on how to grow raspberry plants, we recommend starting from the beginning.
Pruning Advice for Raspberry Plants
Pruning may vary depending on the raspberry varieties you plant. The best approach is to understand the bearing nature of the varieties you’re growing so you know how to prune when the time comes. That said, regardless of growth habit, some pruning should be done every spring to keep raspberry plants from becoming tangled and to improve their ability to bear.
- Consider staking or trellis-training your raspberry plants to keep them more upright.
Pruning Raspberry Plants
This information is geared toward typical red, gold, and purple varieties of raspberries. Black raspberries are a little different, and pruning advice for those is located in the next section.
When to Prune Raspberry Plants
Once your raspberry plants have put on enough growth (which may not be until after their first year with you), aim to prune in the early spring, just as new growth emerges.
- Prune young canes back until they are around 4 to 5 feet tall. This will discourage overgrowth and shading and will improve fruit production and quality.
- Completely prune back and remove all skinny, dead, damaged, diseased or otherwise weak canes. As your raspberry plants mature, it is recommended that you cut back the small, thin canes to leave only about 8 to 10 of the strongest ones.
Pruning Black Raspberry Plants
Black raspberry plants have a slightly different growth habit, so pruning is slightly different as a result.
- When new shoots are 3 feet tall, prune off the tips. Tipping the canes stops the vertical growth and results in more vigorous side branching, where the fruit develops.
These lateral branches should be pruned so that they are kept at about 10 inches long.
Pruning Floricane-Bearing Raspberry Plants
Also known as “summer-bearing” raspberries. These plants have the more typical fruiting habit, bearing one fruit crop on the lower part of their two-year-old canes (called floricanes). After fruitset and harvest in the summer, these canes will die back. You should prune them back to ground level in order for the one-year-old canes to thrive and become strong and fruitful second-year canes the next growing season.
Pruning Primocane-Bearing Raspberry Plants
Also called “everbearing” or “fall-bearing” raspberries. Primocane-bearing raspberry plants are unique in that they tend to bear fruit on the tips of their one-year-old canes, which ripens in fall in milder climates. In addition, as these primocanes become floricanes in their second year, they will fruit again, this time on the lower part of their canes the following summer.
Other than that, these can be pruned and maintained in a similar fashion to the typical raspberry plants mentioned above.
- If one large crop is desired, cut all canes back to ground level after the fall crop. This will result in a single, large primocane crop the following fall. Not recommended for northern gardens with short growing seasons and early fall frosts.
- In areas with short growing seasons, a primocane-bearing variety’s fall crop may not ripen, so northern gardeners may prefer to treat primocane-bearing varieties as summer-bearing varieties and forego the fall crop.
Additional Notes
- Be sure to prune at the proper angle to allow the raspberry plants to easily heal over the pruning cut.
- A good reference book like Pruning Made Easy will answer pruning questions and guide you through the pruning process for raspberry plants.
Pruning Raspberries in Late Winter/Early Spring
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By Richard Jauron, Department of Horticulture
Proper pruning of raspberries is essential.
Pruning produces higher yields, helps control diseases, and facilitates harvesting and other maintenance chores. Pruning procedures are based on the growth and fruiting characteristics of the plants.
The growth and fruiting characteristics of the raspberry plant are rather unique. The plant's roots and crown are perennial, while the stems or canes are biennial. Each spring, purple, black, and red raspberries produce new canes from buds located at the base of the previous year's growth. Red raspberries also produce new shoots from buds located on their roots. The individual canes live 2 years and then die.
The shoots of purple, black, and summer-bearing red raspberries are strictly vegetative during their first growing season. The following year, these same canes flower, produce fruit, and then die.
The growth and fruiting characteristics of fall-bearing red raspberries are slightly different. Fall-bearing varieties naturally produce two crops. The first crop is produced in late summer or early fall at the tips of the current season's growth.
The following year, a summer crop is produced on the lower portions of these same canes. After the second crop, the canes die.
A number of yellow raspberry varieties are also available. With the exception of fruit color, the growth and fruiting characteristics of yellow raspberries are identical to red raspberries.
All raspberries should be pruned in March or early April. Late winter/early spring pruning procedures for the different types of raspberries are outlined below.
Summer-Bearing Red Raspberries
Remove all weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level. Leave the most vigorous canes, those approximately 1/4 inch in diameter when measured 30 inches from the ground. After thinning, remaining canes should be spaced about 6 inches apart.
Also, prune out the tips of the canes which have died due to winter injury. Cut back to live tissue. If the canes have suffered little winter dieback, remove the top 1/4 of the canes. Cane-tip removal or "heading-back" prevents the canes from becoming top heavy and bending over under the weight of the crop.
Red raspberries sucker profusely from their roots. To prevent the planting from becoming a wide, unmanageable thicket, red raspberries should be confined to a one- to two-foot-wide hedgerow. Shoots growing beyond the one- to two-foot-wide hedgerow should be destroyed using a rototiller or spade.
Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Two Crop System for Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Follow the same pruning procedures as described for the summer-bearing red raspberries. This pruning option provides both a summer and fall crop.
One Crop System for Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Prune all canes back to ground level in March or early April. While the plants won't produce a summer crop, the late summer/early fall crop should mature one to two weeks earlier. Also, total crop yield is typically larger utilizing the one-crop system versus the two-crop system. Maintain the plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow.
Yellow Raspberries
The pruning of summer-bearing and fall-bearing yellow raspberries is identical to their red raspberry counterparts.
Black and Purple Raspberries
Remove the small, weak canes, leaving only four or five of the largest, most vigorous canes per clump or plant. Cut back the lateral (side) branches to 12 inches in length for black raspberries and 18 inches for purple raspberries.
When pruning is completed, remove the pruned material from the garden area and destroy it. Removal and destruction of the pruned material helps control raspberry diseases, such as anthracnose and spur blight.
Issue:
February 9, 2011
Category:
Garden Management and Maintenance and Design
Tags:
pruning
raspberries
small fruit
Authors:
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Horticulture and Home Pest News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required.
This article was originally published on February 9, 2011. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.
How to cut raspberries so that the berries are large
September 12 Likbez Advice
Detailed instructions with pictures to help you get your bushes in order.
Why prune raspberries
Shrubs grow very quickly. If you do not remove excess shoots in a timely manner, the raspberry runs the risk of turning into an impenetrable jungle. In dense thickets it is difficult to harvest. In addition, due to tightness, raspberries will receive little sunlight and be less ventilated. As a result, the berries will begin to shrink, and the plants themselves will become a cozy home for diseases and pests. nine0003
When to prune raspberries
In spring, work starts when the snow melts. The optimal time for most regions is from the end of March to the end of April.
At this time, you need to remove all dry, broken and frozen shoots.
In autumn, pruning is carried out after harvest. Try to cope 2-3 weeks before the arrival of frost. At this time, dry and diseased branches are also removed. And also all those on which there were berries, since next season they will not please with a good harvest. But fresh shoots, on the contrary, are left: in the summer they will begin to bear fruit. nine0003
During the summer, you can carry out preventive pruning - remove diseased, damaged and dried branches.
How to prune raspberries
Carefully inspect the shoots and first cut dry, broken, diseased and pest-infested shoots to the very root.
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Spots on shoots are a sign of disease. Frame: Procvetok / YouTube
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Raspberry shoot affected by pests. Frame: Procvetok / YouTube
And then start deleting old branches. It’s easy to identify them: feel free to completely cut off all the shoots from which you picked berries this season.
They are thicker and darker than the others. Such rejuvenation will benefit raspberries, and she will put all her strength into the development of new branches.
Young green shoots also need to be thinned out. Cut at the root of the weak and thin. Leave strong and well developed, no less than a pencil in diameter. Measure about 40 cm from the ground and to this level, remove all the lower leaves on the remaining shoots. nine0003 Frame: Procvetok / YouTube
Cut branches and leaves can be a source of diseases and pests, so be sure to collect them from the site and burn them.
What to do with raspberries after pruning
Frame: Procvetok / YouTube Do not be too lazy to treat the bushes with special means that will save your raspberries from diseases. For this, a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture or the preparations "Abiga-Peak", "Skor", "Hom" and "Azophos" are suitable, which are diluted according to the instructions on the package.
Thoroughly apply the mixture to the leaves and stems of the plants, as well as the soil around them. nine0003
Read also 🍓
- How to prune gooseberries
- How to prune currants
- How to tie blackberries correctly
- How to harvest cucumber seeds
- When and how to plant currants so that you can then harvest large berries
How and when to prune raspberries in autumn: tips for beginners
It is better to carry out the procedure in the autumn, because pathogens and pest larvae often remain in the stems of the plant for the whole winter, which can harm the garden in the spring if they are not removed prematurely.
Proper pruning of raspberries in autumn increases yields and improves fruiting in the coming season. It also makes plants stronger and stronger.
It is best to carry out the procedure as soon as possible in order to protect the crop from the sudden onset of pests and diseases.
It turns out that suitable time for pruning raspberries in the fall is immediately after fruiting and harvesting (and it can end in August, and in September, and in October).
The following step-by-step guide will help you prune raspberries correctly in autumn:
Step 1: Selecting a tool.
The first step is to select a tool. It is optimal to use a pruner, but it must be sharp, disinfected.
Step 2: Site preparation
Before the procedure, it is necessary to completely clean the raspberry so that nothing interferes with the procedure. It is necessary to remove the mulch, grass, fallen leaves.
Step 3: Prune the shoots directly
First cut off (ie cut to the base) the two-year-old shoots that were producing . How to identify them? Biennial shoots are dark, dark brown in color, their bark is dry and flaky (but annual branches are light brown or greenish).
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Then remove all weak, dry, damaged annual shoots.
thin, herbaceous shoots are subject to pruning, because there is no point in leaving them - they will still not be able to endure frosts and will simply take extra resources from the bush.
How high should fruiting shoots, dry, damaged weak branches be cut? Pruning must be done flush with the ground . Do not leave stumps (maximum height no more than five centimeters). If you leave a stump, then pathogens and pest larvae can easily settle in them and attack the awakened garden and raspberries in the spring.
After pruning raspberries in autumn, 8-10 annual strong shoots should be left per 1 square meter, or about 5-6 per bush (no more, otherwise thickening will occur).
In this case, the remaining shoots should not be intertwined with each other, there should be a small distance between them. nine0003
Below is a picture of raspberry pruning in autumn.
The illustration shows that two-year-old shoots are cut off at the base (highlighted in blue), while annual shoots are shortened at the top (highlighted in red).
Step 4: Pruning raspberry shoots affected by pests and diseases.
What to do if you started the procedure, but noticed that some shoots are affected by pests or diseases? In such a situation, you need to act in a special way. nine0003
If your bushes were affected by diseases or pests this season, then they must be treated in the fall with fungicidal (for example, 3% Bordeaux liquid) and insecticidal preparations (Aktellik, Aktara). Also, preventive spraying does not interfere in the spring.
If raspberry bushes are affected by the disease purple spot , (expressed as brown or black spots on the stems), then urgent action must be taken. If the disease has not spread much, and the spots are present on one or two stems, then they just need to be cut off at the root.
