What type of Raspberries do I have?? And what should I do with them??

[Braceandy]

Hi all,

Last year I bought some raspberry canes. Half were summer fruiting and half were autumn fruiting but now I am not sure which are which.

This is terrible to admit but I kind of forgot about them and just left them to it after I planted them. We got some fruit from some of them, but apart from picking /eating it I didn't do anything else with them :-(no pruning, no training).

So, from what I have read the autumn ones should be cut down to ground level now to allow new growth to appear. The summer ones should be left I guess so fruit can grow on the canes the came up last year. But my issue is I don't know which ones are the autumn variety. How can I tell which is which and is there any other advice you can give me on what to do next?

PS - I looked at them closely today and one set have little green buds appearing all up the stem that look like they could be fruit buds, so I am assuming these are the summer fruiting ones??? The other set have no buds at all and actually look kind of dead at the moment, could these be the autumn ones??

Sorry for the long post I wasn't sure how else to explain my predicament!

[Scarlet]

You need to cut all the canes down that fruited last year.Can you remember which ones had fruit last year? They will most likely be the autumn fruiting variety as the summer fruiting variety bears fruit on wood in its second year.
You should be able to tell which are the old canes, the colour is very different and will be much more brittle that the fresh canes.

[veggiechicken]

Hi Andy and welcome.
I think you've answered your own question!!
My simple pruning method is to cut out anything dead and let the rest grow. The canes with buds will be summer ones, as you say, and the autumn fruiters will throw up new canes alongside the dead ones.

[Braceandy]

Thanks both, I wasn't sure before but your comments have confirmed my suspicions. Thanks for your help!