Raspberry growing

I am a little confused about their behaviour and wondered if anybody could explain.

I bought a cane last year and planted it and found it started to grow in the Autumn/Winter when everything else was dying back. It yielded a few berries but this year nothing, if fact it never grew back until now and I can see a few shoot appearing from the soil. Is this normal raspberry behaviour?

 

Don't supose you still got the lable?

There are summer and autumn fruiting types that are pruned differently

 

As Zigs said, there are Autumn and Summer fruiting raspberries, normally the label will tell you or if you know the variety then that can be looked up. They both grow slightly differently, and are therefore pruned in different ways.

Summer fruiting: Summer fruiting raspberries, fruit on the canes that grew the previous year. So if you planted one at the start of 2014, the canes would grow throughtout this year, you would tie them into some supports and you would expect fruit from them next summer, when they have finished fruiting you cut those canes out at the base of the plant BUT ONLY THE CANES YOU GOT FRUIT FROM, other canes will start growing next year, they will give fruit the following year. So its a continuous cycle.

Autumn fruiting: These plants are a little easier to understand as at the end of the year you cut ALL of the canes down to the ground. They staart to grow new canes next spring, those canes reach full height and then produce fruit on them in the same year. Then after they have finished fruiting you cut them down again, all is done in the same year.

Advice: If you have not got canes that are 3 foot+ tall now, my advice would be to cut them all to the ground now, to start fresh next spring then if your canes grow to full height next year and you get fruit, you know you have autumn fruiting variety, if you get no fruit next year, tie the canes into some support and expect fruit the following year, because you willl know you have summer fruiting variety.

TIP: You can always tell when a cane has fruited or not because it leaves a little conical bud behind when you take the raspberry off, canes without these have not fruited.

Hope this helps.

Steve...