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Pruning Raspberry CanesBy Darcy Maulsby |
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To obtain maximum yields, raspberries must be pruned properly.
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Pruning summer-bearing red raspberries. In March or early April, remove all weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level. Leave the most vigorous canes. When finished, remaining canes should be spaced about 6 inches apart. Also prune out the tips of the canes that have died due to winter injury. Cut back to live tissue. Maintain plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow using a rototiller or spade. After the last harvest of summer, prune off the old fruiting canes at the soil surface. Remove the pruned material from the garden and destroy. Because raspberry plants are susceptible to disease, do not compost the pruned material. |
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Pruning fall-bearing red raspberries for one crop. In March or early April, prune all canes back to ground level. This eliminates the summer crop, but the fall crop matures one to two weeks earlier. Maintain the plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow. No summer pruning is necessary. |
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Pruning black and purple raspberries. In March or early April, remove all of the small, weak canes, leaving only four or five of the largest, most vigorous canes per clump or plant. Cut back the lateral branches to 12 inches in length for black raspberries and 18 inches for purple raspberries. Starting in late May — or when the new growth reaches a height of 36 to 48 inches — pinch out or cut off the shoot tips, removing about 3 to 4 inches. This pinching encourages lateral shoot development and increases the fruiting surface area, resulting in higher yields. Since all the new shoots will not reach the desired height at the same time, it will be necessary to go over the planting about once each week from late May to late July. Shoot tip removal can be discontinued at the end of July. Canes that develop after July will be small, weak, and unproductive and should be pruned out the following spring. After the last harvest of summer, prune off the old fruiting canes at the soil surface. |
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Source: Richard Jauron, Pruning Raspberries |
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