pruning boysenberries

laurafulcher7

My boysenberry did very well for 2 years but for the past 2 years has had hardly any fruit.I wonder if I'm pruning it wrong. it grows enormous runners/branches to about 10 feet which really get in the way of anything else. Can I cut these back before January?? And in January - there are about 20 branches so there are too many to lay out in an orderly pattern. Should I cut some of them down to the base and just keep maybe 10 to train on the fence?? 
Should I feed it to get more fruit. I had a fair amount of blossom on it I think....

BobTheGardener

Cut the old canes right back to the ground after they have fruited and train the new young ones to replace the ones you have cut down.  Boysenberry shoots grow one year and fruit the next, so don't cut down canes which haven't fruited yet but remove ALL of the canes which bore fruit last year.  If you still have new shoots left over after training the replacements, you can cut those down to the ground, too.

In essence, you don't want any part of the plant to be more than 2 years old.

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