I dont know how to prune my Raspberry's ...

The house we moved into in June has a large (as tall as me) raspberry, which was just finishing fruiting when we moved (so I guess it's a summer fruiter).

Reading around, I need to prune it now, but the advice online says to prune the 'old' grey stems, and keep the new green stems. I can't tell any difference !! If you look at the photos, ALL the shoots there appear to be grey at the bottom and green after a foot.

Advice online also says to prune every stem which fruited ... how can I tell ? (in the midst of moving etc I didnt really take any notice ) I can tell some (most) stems are 'old' as the previous owner has cut them back at about the 3 foot mark.

Should I prune just certain stems (which ?!?)
Should I cut everything back to (say) 3 foot ?
Should I cut the lot back to the ground !

Thanks
EL

 

Hi Evil Len,

this is an old post about raspberries, but you will find a few more...


http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/edible-gardening/31083-more-raspberries.html

 

Hi ! Thanks for the reply. I did a search on the site, and came across threads like that one .. but they dont actually answer my question ... for example on that thread it repeats "cut those canes that have fruited" ... my question is, how to tell that (esp if there's no old fruit "nubs" left) Ta !

 

Aaaalso ... on that thread you yourself said "There are summer raspberries which give fruit on the same branch only every two years" ... which contracts the "remove the branch if it's fruited" advice :D

 

Len, the simplest rule is, if the stems have a silver tinge, then cut them out.

 

Silver tinge ... I'll have a close squint tomorrow in the daylight then, ta !

 

Len, if you can tell green from silver you will be fine. And if you cut the wrong one, then so what?:D:D

 

I think you mean "contrasts" but I don't see a contrast in the post.

 

I'm an idiot. No idea why I typed that, lol. I mean 'contradicts'.

I think I'm going senile !!! (what do you mean 'going' ??)

 

I was wondering if you have got several years worth of unpruned growth there as they look quite shrubby at the bottom. My raspberries grow new canes from the base of this years cane or they pop up as runners a few inches/feet from the old cane so I end up with a bed full of single upright canes (not branched like yours appear to be). All my old fruited canes are brown at the base and fairly smooth but this years new growth is mainly green (though some is going brown) but also has a covering of prickles, which seem to disappear over winter. Additionally my new growth looked lovely lush and green whilst the leaves on all the canes that had fruited started to go yellow/brown. Have to say I'm glad there are noticeable differences in my canes because otherwise I'd be asking the same questions myself especially now that my new growth is 6 to 8ft tall and I've had to chop the tops off before I find random giants looking for a stray beanstalk lol! (should get a really good crop again next year I hope!)

 

I have a bank of old rasberries that I planted five years ago. Two different types. They have run rampant and I simply cut them right down to 4 inch stems each year. Every Spring they come up again and we get a contunual supply of fruit troughout the summer. I.m sure that I am doing it all wrong, but it seems to work.
stony

 

I think cathysue is right ... the previous owners have just left all the old canes there, and chopped them off around 2-3'. Might follow stony's advice there ... lob 'em all off ! Okay might not get much fruit next year, but at least I'll be able to know whats old, new etc

Cheers y'all !