Cut back my rasp canes, or is it too late?

[Cyberus]

I took over an allotment late summer last year (July). I had my raspberries crop through into October, but it was still quite warm there here in Kent - so I have no idea if they are Summer or Autumn fruiting variety (could they be a mixture perhaps?)

I haven't cut them back yet, but one of the guys at the allotment (who used to be a farmer) said that they should have been cut back before winter.
I understand that if they are indeed Autumn fruiting variety, I could get away with cutting them back now.....

The canes are just over three foot high, and bare as far as I can remember from my last visit at the weekend. So I guess I just leave them, rather than risk cutting them all the way down?

The effect of not cutting them back will be weaker stems, or a bad crop???

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[PAULW]

CY
Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on the new cane grown in the summer whereas the summer fruiting type fruit on last years cane so if they are the autumn type it is of no use to leave last years canes standing, you will see the new shoots appearing at the base of the old canes.

[Cyberus]

CY
Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on the new cane grown in the summer whereas the summer fruiting type fruit on last years cane so if they are the autumn type it is of no use to leave last years canes standing, you will see the new shoots appearing at the base of the old canes.

Thanks for your reply. Just so I understand:
So if they are summer fruiting ones, new shoots should be visible. If they are autumn fruiting ones, they will have no new growth yet?

I read that I need to cut them down to 6in from the ground.


That seems very drastic!

[PAULW]

I am down in Dorset and my autumn rasps have new shoots just appearing I had cut the old canes back to the ground, the new shoots that are growing now will produce fruit in the summer/autumn.
With summer types the fruit is produced on old wood so the new shoots that grew last year are the canes that will produce the fruit this year, the canes that produced the fruit last year are the canes you cut out
hope this helps

[smallblueplanet]

I understood that if you left some canes of autumn fruiting rasps rather than cutting them all down you got an earlier crop of those stems?

[Cyberus]

Thanks

Thanks for your replies. I guess I will have another look when I next go up there. I am still not sure if I am meant to be cutting them back or not!

[GeordieVik]

reminder please?

Hi all,

my raspberry canes (newly planted in late October, instructions said to cut down to 18", but they were that long anyway, so I left them) are now starting to show leaves - I'm sure I read somewhere on the Vine when this happens, to cut the old cane down to X inches (1", 2", ground level?) so that the plant puts its energy into growing new canes instead of the old one.

I have had a good search, and can't find the thread where it was mentioned

Please help!

Thanks

Vik

[Alison]

I understood that if you left some canes of autumn fruiting rasps rather than cutting them all down you got an earlier crop of those stems?

You do, I found this out by accident when I had a bit of a busy year and didn't get around to cutting the previous year's growth back. You're still as well to cut at least half of the canes back though otherwise it all gets conjested and I guess wears the plant out so you would only get two low crops. The previous year's canes will then crop in about June (geography / climate change dependant) and the new growth in the autumn as usual.

[Protea]

regarding cutting autumn fruiting varieties down - it depends on the variety! Some autumn varieties are so vigorous you can get 2 crops off them (early summer, and autumn) without doing any harm to the plant or yield, others will perform better if you don't let them have a sumer crop (therefore cut old canes down in winter).

I let my autumn varieties crop twice because they are suitable. On a previous allotment i inherited some rasperry canes (more of a thicket TBH!) and as i wasn't sure what they were i cut half of them down to the ground, and just 'trimmed' the other half, taking off the top foot or so that was spindly. It turned out they were autumn fruiting and were fine.

I would sugest that your raspberries are autumn fruiting if they went through to October (or else a very very late summer variety). Have a look at the soil around the base of the canes - if you can see new shoots poking through they're probably autumn - try cutting down half of the canes to see what happens. If on the old stems you can see new buds or even new leaves forming on the stems (and no new shoots from the soil) probably more likely to be summer fruiting (so leave the canes un-cut).

Ken Muirs website has lots of helpful tips on fruit growing - go to 'ask Ken' and select Raspberries from the list. http://www.kenmuir.co.uk

[TPeers]

As an extra to look at, one year old, unfruited canes will have no sidebranches, they will be straight canes - leave those, they are more likely to be summer fruiting and will therefore branch this spring to produce this summers crop. Any cane which looks like it has side shoots and would therefore have given fruit last summer can then be cut.