Do I prune fall-bearing raspberries the same way I prune June-bearers?
How you prune your “fall-bearing” raspberries is largely dependent on whether you're interested in harvesting a single, large crop of berries in the autumn or two smaller crops, the first in June and the second in autumn.
If you want to grow them the traditional way and get a single fall crop, then pruning couldn't be simpler. Next March head out to your raspberry patch and cut all of the canes down to the ground. A fresh batch of primocanes (first year canes) will sprout from the ground and your crop of berries will mature at the tops of those canes come autumn.
The above method is the recommended one, but for many gardeners the opportunity to get two berry crops in a single season is hard to resist. You achieve this by neglecting the March pruning and allowing the canes to grow untouched until they produce their first crop of berries in June. Once you've collected the last of the June berries, you cut out the canes which produced them.
Your second crop will ripen on the tips of the canes that didn't bear fruit in June. Once this fall crop has been harvested, you then cut off those berry-producing tips, leaving the bottom portion of the canes. Those canes will produce your June crop next season.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
