inherited raspberry canes

[fayeme]

Taking a look at our new allotment today we realized we'd inherited an awesome row of Raspberry canes. They're really over grown and tangled with long grass, wondering whether to weed out the grass and see if we get any fruit this year or if we'd get a better yield all round if we cut back and waited for next year. All tips appreciated!

[Scarlet]

Weed out the grass and cut out the "old" canes. They are really easy to spot, they are much darker and will snap easily. Give them a good mulch.

If the "new" canes are really congested you may want to dig some out and possibly start a new row somewhere else. Summer Raspberries will fruit on last years wood, autumn varieties will fruit on new wood.

Be careful digging out the weeds as raspberries are very shallow rooted

[GardenGayle]

Do you know whether the canes are summer or autumn fruiting? the two get pruned differently.
Summer fruiting raspberries will fruit on canes that grow this year next summer and the canes that have fruited get cut down with new growth being left to grow.
Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on this years growth and all get cut down to the ground in late winter or early spring.
All my raspberries are autumn fruiting but if in doubt prune out anything that's already fruited and leave anything that hasn't to grow.

Hope that helps!

[Scarlet]

You'll know soon enough if they are Autum canes as they will start throwing out canes that will fruit late August through to September. If they are summer fruiting canes, the new canes that come through this year will fruit next year.

[fayeme]

Thanks guys. I guess we'll just get pruning and then wait and see which variety they are!

[DiggerSean]

Good advice above. I would add too late now but this autumn you could dig them all up, and either plant them somewhere else on your plot or weed the area over to remove all weed roots and replant there. Re-homing them is probably the better option.