Summer fruiting Rapberries

[Greentea]

I bought 10 Primocanes last year - I wasnt going to wait another year to get some frruit. they've done fantastically well. my husband says they were the best raspberries he's ever tasted

[Lamboluke]

3 long cane for 4 quid at aldi the other week.

[starloc]

I planted the Aldi long canes last year and got a lot of fruit on them..lots and lots of fruit, I bought some more to plant this year, I never bothered much with summer canes before as autumn ones fruit early enough

[Lamboluke]

I planted the Aldi long canes last year and got a lot of fruit on them..lots and lots of fruit, I bought some more to plant this year, I never bothered much with summer canes before as autumn ones fruit early enough

Did they fruit the same season you planted assuming you bought them late winter as I have this year?
After fruiting what did you do with them? Did you cut back.and have new shoots/canes come up?

[starloc]

Bought them Feb 2014 from Aldi, planted into morrisons flower buckets a couple of weeks later, then a couple of weeks later I took them to Bulgaria. Mid March I planted them in the garden ,

No chopping of anything, i didnt even spread the roots out as I just stuffed them into a bucket for the drive over and then planted the whole lot as the roots were over the outside of the pot I didnt mess with them

I left Bulgaria at the start of May and returned the last week in June and they were full of fruit

New canes have grown last year as well that will fruit this year, I am just about to chop the original fruited canes down this week

I did sprinkle some fertilisers round them in the summer while they were fruiting and thats when the new canes shot up to a massive size, they were already growing though

[Lamboluke]

Ah I see. What a journey for you and the Canes!
So the canes I have planted now will fruit this year, and I'll get new canes this year which fruit the following year?
Is it best to cut down this year's canes this time next year once the new growth is established?
Thanks

[Kristen]

Did they fruit the same season you planted assuming you bought them late winter as I have this year?

Autumn fruiting varieties are capable of fruiting in the first season, but the books say not to let Raspberries fruit in the first season at all to encourage them to make a good root system for better harvests in future years.

People do take a harvest in the first year (and certainly worth allowing a few berries to ripen so you can check that you have got the variety you thought you had bought! and that it tastes good - otherwise save yourself a year and rip them out and plant a different / better one, which you like better), however, the fact that people successfully get some fruit in the first year isn't the same, in my mind , as a side-by-side test - half cropped in first year, half not - to see how well they then perform in following years so when I planted mine I didn't allow them to fruit until the second year.

After fruiting what did you do with them? Did you cut back.and have new shoots/canes come up?

Cut down any cane that has fruited. For Autumn fruiting varieties that will be all of them, for Summer fruiting "half" of them. If you do this relatively soon after fruiting (rather than leaving it until the following spring!) you should be able to see the core of the berry still attached to the canes, making it easy to spot which fruited (older canes), and which didn't (young canes)

There are alternative pruning strategies of allowing Autumn fruiting varieties to fruit on old canes (an early crop), and re-fruit in the normal Autumn fruiting season (August onwards, depending on Variety)