Pruning raspberries the right way and at the optimal time is essential if you want a bumper crop of large, juicy berries. The tools and techniques you choose to employ in your berry patch can help to spur new and very specific types of growth, as well as prevent the spread of diseases like anthracnose and blight, among others.
Whether you grow summer-fruiting raspberries, fall-bearing raspberries, or both, making a few strategic cuts can greatly improve the quality of your harvest. And if you train and trellis potentially unruly vines, this also can help your raspberry patch to bear fruit.
Why pruning raspberries is importantPruning raspberries is important because, if left unchecked, plant growth becomes unwieldy, and the health of untrimmed plants also can suffer. The deliberate removal of certain canes allows more sunlight and fresh air to reach your plants. This, in turn, helps plants to dry more quickly after summer rains thereby reducing the chances of fungal diseases taking hold. It also affords insect pests less cover, so you can more easily find and remove them. Keeping only the most vigorous canes and giving them plenty of room to thrive can also contribute to an extra large crop.
Which type of raspberry are you pruning?Raspberries are perennial, shrubby plants originating from roots and crowns. However, the woody stalks or “canes” that get sent up from the crowns are actually biennial. In other words, they’ll complete a two-year process and then they’ll be replaced with new canes. First year canes are called “primocanes.” Second year canes are called “floricanes.”
With that in mind, when and how you prune depends on the type of raspberries you’re growing. The two main types include: