raspberry help

Hi Alan
What variety are they?
Tell Heidi she will have to wait.

When's the use by date on the custard?

If they're summer raspberries then you will get a small amount of fruit from the existing cane and then they will throw up more canes in late summer to produce the fruit on next year. To prune these you prune back the canes that have flowered leaving the rest to produce fruit next summer.

If they're autumn raspberries then once they've settled in they should sent up a few canes which will flower in summer and fruit late summer/autumn. To prune these you cut back all the canes in the dormant season and they will send up new canes each year for that years crop.

If they are confused then they might flower on the existing canes and produce fruit in the summer whilst producing new canes which will produce fruit in the autumn and then produce a second batch of canes for next years summer crop. Cut back canes that have flowered to ground level and leave the others. (this type is also known as two timing raspberries each crop is smaller than a specific summer/autumn crop but the total is the same and spread out over a longer period)


Anyway, at the moment your canes are getting their feet into some comfy slippers, they'll be popping out new leaves soon.

Last year, I divided & transplanted about a dozen Autumn canes & are about a foot high, only 1 of them is showing any buds at the moment but give them time. A bit of warm weather will have them climbing so high, you'll need a ladder to pick them.................

Last year, my first with raspberries I bought 3 canes in the autumn and planted them out. After 3 weeks or so I gave up on them they were so obviously dead.

Not to be beat I bought 3 more of the same variety and put them in 6" pots in the greenhouse to give them a start in life.

The result is I now have 6 yes 6 canes all in leaf, shows how much I know.....

All this talk about Raspberries prompted me to pop my head in the Raspberry Cage. Cutting them down to 3-4ft at the end of the season is paying dividends as it looks like I'm gonna have a nice Summer crop from last years canes(as per pic) before this years canes take off in time for Autumn.

thank you

Thanks to you all , very helpful. could not find a sell by date on the custard but Heidi says that we are both past ours at 84 and 78 but going strong, erecting a flat pack 10ft x 12ft greenhouse when it stops raining

Last year we were sick of eating rasberrys, made 2 litres of raspberry vodka and after that started giving em the dog.

Wow, Please be careful.

Thanks BM that pici made me feel much better about my efforts, mine look very similar.

I have fruit cage envy BM lol. What type are they and how long have they been in?

They are JoanJ, an Autumn cropping variety. This is their 3rd year. All the books say to cut them down to almost ground level after cropping but I don't. What I do is cut them down to around 3ft, these are what you are seeing in the photo, they will crop in the Summer at the same time as throwing out this years canes so once the ones in the photo have fruited, they will then be cut down at ground level leaving the newly grown Autumn canes to give a second crop around Sept/Nov. Hope that makes sense.

Let me try again...............the canes in the photo are last years canes & will give me "their" 2nd crop as they fruited last Autumn & were 8ft tall, they will then be removed after cropping..............New canes will come through soon to give me their 1st crop around Sept time......these will then be cut down to 3ft and allowed to grow for a 2nd crop next Summer.

Basically BM, your tewo timing.

So, I planted out some cell grown Joan J plants last year. The canes didn't grow large as they were late in so I pruned them back last month. Coming through the soil now are all the replacement canes which will grow through spring and flower in summer to give me an autumn harvest.

These are 1st year canes (and the only ones on the plants) and that will be their first harvest. So, once the raspberries have been harvested, instead of cutting them right back to the soil as you are supposed to do with autumn raspberries I cut them to three feet.

Next year they will be mature 2 yo canes that will flower earlier and fruit in summer, whilst the 1yo canes are growing. After harvest I then cut the 2yo canes back to the ground. The 1yo canes will flower and fruit later and I repeat the prune back to 3 ft at the end of the season.

Good. That's why I bought Joan Js. That and the fact that every time I say their name I hear "I Love Rock and Roll" playing in my head.

I'd assume that because the 2yo canes have been reduced a lot and that energy is also going to the 1yo canes they produce a smaller harvest that a dedicated summer cropper. I'd also assume that because energy is being diverted to the 2nd yo canes the autumn crop isn't as large as if you had pruned them back and grown them purely as an autumn crop.

Are my assumptions right? Does the total crop from both harvests match the harvest from a comparable summer only/autumn only plot? Does the summer harvest happen early, mid or late season?

I also have Tulameen which is a late season summer raspberry that seems to be able to grow as a two timer as well. I planted 2 plants last year and got a small summer crop of the existing 2yo canes and at the same time they pushed up a total of 5 new canes between them. I expected that these new canes you be the ones to produce fruit the following year (this year).

I decided that if they were barely replacing their canes it would take ages to fill the bed so added 2 more tulameen plants. These 5 new canes then decided to flower and provide a second crop of raspberries.

As these were ripening the plants also started to push up more canes, 20 or so, which will overwinter and give me the summer crop this year. These are budding up now and beneath them their younger siblings are poking out and raising their heads skywards so it looks as if they're going to do a repeat performance of last years double/extended harvest.

So it looks as I now have two 8' by 4' beds of two timing raspberries.

I'm the only one in the family who admits to liking raspberries.

This doesn't stop the raspberries "evaporating" as soon as they're picked.

Or stop my mother going to the plot during the harvest period carrying a pot of double cream. She also "doesn't like" strawberries as much.

I have random raspberries - they're a mix of summer and autumn. Since they're muddled together I prune them all the same way - by cutting out the dead canes and by cutting the fruited tops off live canes. It works for me and its simple............yes, I know