Untouched Raspberry canes

[ZeroMac]

I have just taken on half a plot from an eldely couple who used to grow a lot of fruit.

A large part was dedicated for Raspberry canes, but they haven't been able to keep up with the work on the plot and didn't cut out the old wood last year so their is quite a lot there.

Is it best just to cut all the canes right back or do they just need thinning out?

I haven't grown raspberries before and I'm after all the advise I can get as I would like to keep some of them if possible.

[Nicos]

Yikes...I too get confused over cutting back raspberries!!!

I'd have thought with so many plants some of the will be Autumn fruiting - and they need different pruning to the summer ones.
Unless 100% sure of what you're doing, why not leave them until the leaves come out and cut back anything with no leaves on them. By October, you'll know for sure which ones are summer fruiting and which are autumn fruiting!

I'll watch carefully the other replies- as I too need to learn more about this!

Alternatively you could always ask the previous tenant if you know where to contact him/them!

[flighty1]

Hi Zeromac.
You may have a mix of varieties/fruiting times, however they all need treating the same way. i.e. any cane that has fruited should be cut out. I would suggest you have a look at the canes & if you can find any sign of fruiting for example old shriveled fruits then these should be cut out. After that its probbly best to leave well alone until they fruit.

[organic]

I've just bought my first soft fruit canes (they aren't even in the ground yet) but it's my understanding that Summer fruiting varieties fruit on year-old shoots wheras Autumn fruiting ones fruit on new shoots.

So when the summer ones fruit, you cut just those shoots back, and just hack the Autumn ones back completely in the winter. Of course, you probably won't know which is which for the few months and I've got no idea how to figure that out. There may be a way, but I don't know it. I suppose you could cut them all back and resign yourself to no summer crop this year and know what's what from that point on.

I'd suggest listening more closely to others though becuase all I've said here is rather theoretical and with no real experience to back it up.

[SarzWix]

We had the same thing on our old plot, and I just left them alone until they started to leaf up a bit. Then it was obvious which ones were dead, and I cut those out. It needed 2 people, because at ground level it was still difficult to differentiate, so the OH waggled the top of the dead stem so that I could tell which one to cut
By the end of this season, you should be able to tell which is which for pruning purposes - I'd suggest that you put canes & strings round each group when they start cropping for easy identification later

[binley100]

We had the same thing on our old plot, and I just left them alone until they started to leaf up a bit. Then it was obvious which ones were dead, and I cut those out. It needed 2 people, because at ground level it was still difficult to differentiate, so the OH waggled the top of the dead stem so that I could tell which one to cut
By the end of this season, you should be able to tell which is which for pruning purposes - I'd suggest that you put canes & strings round each group when they start cropping for easy identification later

Wot she said. We inherited the same our plot hadn't been touched for two years, I left them till you could see which were obviously not doing anything .
Ours are all summer fruiting so cut them down after they fruited.

[ZeroMac]

Thanks for the help,

I think i will ask the people in the plot next to me if they now when they last fruited.

If they don't I'll leave them alone until they strat to fruit and then go from there.

[bobleponge]

Got to this a bit late, but I learned what worked for me after making my own mistakes. All new to gardening and excited, so I bought loads all at once and planted them, and then lost all the labels and as I was a gardening newbie I just left everything to grow, unaware of such things as pruning etc.
3 years down the line I realised I should prune rasps, but didnt know which was which. I left them all to grow during spring and summer and could see which was which.
I then dug out and moved differing types so all summer fruiting were at one end of Raspberry road and all autumn fruiting were at the other.
Worked ok for me, although probably not the best way of doing it.

[gojiberry]

I don't have to much problem with mine as the autumn fruiting one is the only variety I have with spines so is easy to identify. Not sure if this would work with all beds as I don't know if any summer fruiting have spines or if any autumn fruiting don't have spines.

Ian

[chris]

I did the same as gojiberry ! - My Autum fruiting ones (all gold) have spines, and my summer fruiting ones (glem ample) which are spineless (bought so these are next to the entrance to the garden).. I did the same with blackberries too, as I'm going to train this up and over a fence leading to the garden! (wouldn't want our little one just willy nilly picking them and getting hurt !)

[organic]

I dunno - some of my best memories as a young'un involve picking berries and getting spiked by the thorns.

[chris]

She's getting her first two bottom teeth come through now. She's crying a lot. She's very loud. Once she has her teeth, I'm going to wrap her in bubble wrap as I don't want to her such piercing screams again. Ever. Thornless fruit is the way forward

[organic]

Nicely put!
I think the secret is to put the throned fruit far enough away from the house that by the time she gets in she's stopped crying.

I know that assumes a rather large garden, but you live in Wales, Wales=countryside and countryside=loads of space, so that's fine.

[Scarlet]

I'd buy the ones with thorns every time - my two boys eat every plum on my tree before i can get a look in and I didn't even smell a strawberry last year!