Summer Fruiting Raspberries

David Thornton

Hello everyone. 
I've inherited some SFR's planted in the ground and in a cage. They were not pruned back after fruiting last year and are presently 5ft high and sprouting leaf. Any thoughts or advice? There are also Autumn fruiting plants, in the same cage of the same height too. 

pansyface

Anyone?????

Allotment Boy

The old fruited stems should have died back & gone a lighter brown. If you are not sure just tip prune & look to see if they are green or brown . If green this is the growth that will fruit this year if pale brown this is dead & you can trace that stem to the ground & remove it. The Autumn fruited ones are traditionally cut to the ground now & new growth this year will fruit in Autumn. You can leave the stems and get an extra crop but you will need to feed well as it will be trying to grow new stems to fruit late this year as normal

BobTheGardener

Hi Pansyface, nice to see you back!
David, are the summer fruiting ones single canes with sideshoots just developing or do they already have woody sideshoots?  If the latter, they probably weren't pruned after fruiting last year.  If you have a mixture of both, I would remove the fruited canes now and leave the straight ones as those will fruit this year.  The fruited ones may well fruit again but with low yield so remove to renovate and encourage new shoots to form from the base which will carry next year's crop.
Given the recent weather I think you have probably been lucky and can still cut the autumn fruiting ones to the ground (this is usually done in Feb.) as mine have hardy started sprouting from the roots yet.  This type grows from nothing and fruits the same year.  If you leave them, they will produce an early crop (probably earlier than the summer fruiting ones) but the 'proper' late crop will be much smaller.

David Thornton

Thank you Pansyface, Allotment Boy and Bob. I'll check all the plants later today. Much appreciated 😊👍