Raspberry maintenance

mcevoy9

Have inherited raspberry plants, some have fruited, others haven't, am I right that some raspberry plants fruit in second year they are now 5/6ft high, can I prune them back to 3/4ft to help control them. 

Pete.8

There are two types of raspberry - Summer fruiting and Autumn fruiting.
Summer fruiting raspberries form fruit on the canes that grew the previous year.
Autumn fruiting raspberries form fruit on canes that grew in the current year.

Summer raspberries are pruned after fruiting.
You'll see toward the bottom of the canes that there will be new green canes and older brown canes. The old brown canes (that provided fruit in the current year) are removed completely, leaving the new green canes to produce berries the following year.

Autumn raspberries are also pruned after fruiting (or late winter).
All canes are cut to the ground and new canes will grow and produce berries later in the year.

Summer raspberries are usually taller than autumn raspberries, but I don't think there's any way of determining which is which just by looking at them.
Summer raspberries fruit from June until mid/late August
Autumn raspberries fruit from July until the cold weather and frosts.

Some RHS info here-
https://www.rhs.org.uk/fruit/raspberries/grow-your-own

JennyJ

I was told (by Granddad) that the way to prune rasperries is to cut down to the ground any cane that has finished fruiting and to leave any that haven't fruited yet. It seems to work - I have a mixture of types and always forget which is which. When a cane finishes producing fruit, it gets the chop.