Raspberry: when and how to prune

Raspberry: when to prune it?

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Summer raspberries fruit in June–July on last year’s canes. Straight after picking, in August, cut out those fruited canes; leave this year’s young canes standing.

In February, on summer raspberries, shorten the tips that have grown above the top wire.

Autumn raspberries fruit from August until the first frost on this year’s canes. Leave them standing over winter and cut them all down in February.

Not sure which you have? If the plant already bears fruit at the tips of the young canes in August–September, it is an autumn raspberry.

What else to prune in those months? February · August

Raspberry: how to prune it?

1. Summer raspberries: after picking, cut the fruited canes off at ground level. You can tell them by their brown, woody bark and the side shoots that carried the fruit.
2. Of the young green canes, keep the 6–8 strongest per metre of row and cut the rest off at ground level, including thin and diseased canes.
3. Tie the young canes to the wires, evenly spaced. In February, shorten tips that are too long to just above the top wire.
4. Autumn raspberries: in February, cut all canes down to just above the ground. New canes come up in spring and fruit in late summer.
5. Dig out suckers that come up outside the row with a spade, or move them in autumn to start a new row.
6. Cut canes with brown or purplish patches, or canes that wilt, off at ground level; diseased canes don’t belong on the compost heap.

How much to cut, and how often?

• On summer raspberries, all fruited canes go every year, and you keep 6–8 young canes per metre. More canes don’t give a bigger crop, just smaller fruit and more risk of grey mould.
• On autumn raspberries, all canes go every year. If you want a small early crop, leave a few canes standing when you prune: they fruit again lower down in summer, after which you cut them out.
• So there are two moments a year: after picking for summer raspberries, and at the end of winter for autumn raspberries and the tips of summer raspberries.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• The raspberry is native and an excellent bee plant: in May–July the flowers are busy with honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees.
• Blackbirds, thrushes and blackcaps love the fruit: put a net over the part you want to pick yourself, and leave the rest to the birds.
• The August prune falls partly in the nesting season (15 March–15 August): blackbirds and whitethroats sometimes nest in a dense raspberry row. Look between the canes first, as disturbing an active nest is against the law; after mid-August you are outside it.
• Some solitary bees, such as yellow-face bees, gnaw a nest tunnel into the pith of cut bramble and raspberry stems: stand a bundle of healthy canes upright against a post or fence in a sunny corner.

Common mistakes

• On summer raspberries, cutting out the young canes instead of the fruited ones: those carry next year’s crop.
• On autumn raspberries, leaving the old canes standing, so the row fills with thin, weak canes.
• Keeping too many canes, so the row becomes dense and damp and the fruit goes mouldy.
• Letting suckers have their way, until the raspberries wander all over the garden.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Blackberry
• Loganberry
• Redcurrant
• Blackcurrant
• Gooseberry

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Plant profile: Raspberry · Pruning calendar and basic rules