Climate Confused Raspberries

Nollie

My new Joan J autumn raspberry canes, planted in February, have gone through their growth/first fruiting cycle pretty rapidly, the old canes have flopped over and are dying back and new, vigorous young canes (like you would expect to see in early Spring) are already popping up. 

I cant decide if I need to chop the old canes down to the ground now, which is rather earlier than usual, plus what the impact will be - autumn fruiting raspberries in April, perhaps?!

What do you think? Leave the old canes to flop or go for the chop?

Plashing

Are they the Primo canes that you can by now which can produce two crops in a season,I bought some from you gardens they are doing the same, the new canes are starting to produce now that the old ones have stopped fruiting, I will not prune mine till next February,and see what happens.I don't know about you but it has been the best year for autumn fruiting raspberries I have had.

Allotment Boy

I think the extreme heat this year has confused a lot of plants. As Peter says you can "push" Autumn rasps by leaving the canes till next spring when they will often fruit again, but it does weaken them in the long run. As yours have flopped over (maybe a lack of water) I would prune the old ones down, and let the new growth come next year as normal. Water very well and mulch heavily but with compost not manure as this is too rich.

Nollie

Hi, thanks for your advice. These were new plants this year, so I didn’t expect much from them but did get a reasonable first crop. 

They did get watered deeply and regularly so I suspect the old canes flopping and dying back early are more a response to the severe heatwaves we had in summer. I think I will chop the old canes right back and maybe leave the new growth already popping up to see what happens.

It’s all a bit mad climate-wise!