Raspberries

[valB]

My Raspberry patch was a real mess last year so I read in my gardening book how to prune it right back. First prune since I started it three years ago but now I think I may have murdered them all as all I have now are sticks that are looking very sad   No sign of life at all so any advice would be great.  I cut all the previous years growth away and  last years growth  cut down to about 18" in height but we have had a very hard winter so maybe I should have left them as they were and NO I did not cover them as it did not mention that in my gardening bible.  [:(]

[Gardian]

I only put some canes in over here last year, but my experience from the UK should hold good.

As I'm sure you know, the fruit comes on last season's growth. I always used to cut that 'old wood' down to groundlevel after fruiting. With the season's 'new growth', I'd trim it off at about head height and make sure that it was securely tethered. You're right, it does look a bit sad over Winter, but you should get fruit buds in time (depends on the variety, I guess).

To me, 18" sounds a bit low, but I can only tell you what worked for me.

[valB]

That is good news, Gardian, so I am not a muderer after  all.   I am a novice where fruit is concerned but slightly better with veggies. Thank  you for your reply.

[andyh4]

There are two types of raspberry - summer fruiting and autumn fruiting.

Summer fruiting produces fruit on last year's canes. autumn fruiting produces fruit on this year's canes.

For summer fruiting treat as gardian has said (and yes cutting back to 18 inches sounds drastic 0 but it may give the canes a chance to build up for a real good crop next year).

For autumn fruiting canes everything is cut back to ground level in the spring and new growth comes from the roots.

I actually have one variety that claims to be both - cut most canes back to the ground in late winter but leave a few strong canes un pruned.  The latter produce some berries in early summer - having already cropped last autumn.

[valB]

Thank you for the info and I  am a little more optimistic now. As the saying goes " watch this space "

[Gardian]

[quote user="andyh4"]

For autumn fruiting canes everything is cut back to ground level in the spring and new growth comes from the roots.

[/quote]

That's really good info Andy - the ones I had in the UK were summer fruiting canes, but last year we planted some of both, so now I know what to do!  Thanks.