Should raspberry canes be pruned to ground level or should they be pruned to six inches above ground level?
The only raspberries that should be pruned severely are the autumn-bearing varieties which produce their crops beginning in August, and only if you're trying to encourage a single harvest each season.
If that's the case, and for many gardeners it is, then you need to cut all of the canes down to the ground. They'll sprout up to about six feet next season and sport berries in the fall.
Autumn-bearing raspberries can also be grown as though they are “everbearing” by not pruning them at all and allowing next year's canes to produce several smaller harvests starting in June and continuing through September. In this case, the canes don't get pruned.
Regular June-bearing raspberries don't get pruned to the ground for any reason. Instead they're pruned in the fall to remove the current season's fruiting canes. Next spring, you have the option of leaving your canes unpruned and allowing them to produce a bountiful crop of smaller berries or clipping them at the six foot mark so that the canes produce fewer, larger berries.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
Originally published in the Creston Valley Advance on Spetember 9, 2010.
