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Help with planting new primocane raspberry

traceyegeevestraceyegeeves Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
I've just picked up a brand new Autumn Bliss which I had intended to plant today.  I thought I was prepared, but I've just read some new information which has thrown me and I just wondered if anyone could clarify the planting instructions.
I've bought the canes which have come as a set of 5 already potted up in a 3 litre pot.
Once planted, I've read that these need to be trimmed back to about 25cm.
However I thought this was all the cutting back they would require, but I have just read instructions elsewhere that, once the new shoots start sprouting and have grown up from soil level later this spring/summer, I need to cut back the original cane to soil level.  Is this correct?  This is not a step I was expecting as had read quite a few articles about planting and pruning and I hadn't come across this before.
I know that after fruiting, the old canes need to be cut down to ground level late winter, but i wasn't expecting to have to do that for newly planted ones.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited March 2021
    Yes, the old cane acts a reservoir of nutrients over winter which the plants will use to form new roots.  Once the new shoots start appearing from below ground, the old cane has done its job and can be cut back.  If you don't do that, the old section of cane may develop side shoots which will take food away from the new shoots, which are the ones which will bear the autumn crop so want to be encouraged.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • traceyegeevestraceyegeeves Posts: 2
    Thank you for that explanation Bob.  So many articles ad instruction I read didn't even mention that step.  Seems quite obvious when you explain it!  How many new shoots appearing at ground level are kept?  Does each cane only produce a few or are there several and I have to select the ones to keep?
    I had read about pulling some up that were too far away or outside the 'boundary' but obviously don't want to take off too many but also don't want to leave too many.
    Sorry, I thought i'd actually read enough to understand what I was doing with this!  Probably should have just stuck with the strawberries until I got a bit more competent!
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    I keep all of the new canes unless they appear outside the raspberry bed, when they are then dug-up.  Raspberries produce underground 'runners' and new canes can appear in unwanted places.  Annual pruning is simple; cut all the canes right back to the ground in February each year.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • babs6nQTSKTUbabs6nQTSKTU Posts: 8
    Is this the same for loganberries? I bought 2 plants last year from a NT garden shop. They grew well and produced a few berries. However the squirrels and birds had a field day so this year I'm intending to make a fruit cage with canes, plastic cane supports and netting...
    Currently the canes are about a metre long in each direction. What do I need to do to promote productive fruits please.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Loganberries fruit on the canes which grew the previous year, so after picking all the fruit from a particular cane, you cut it back to the ground, but leave the new canes which grew but didn't flower.  I find the canes which bore the fruit tend to die-off themselves anyway, so it's easy to tell them apart.  RHS advice here:

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Kirsti PetersKirsti Peters Posts: 19
    Are tayberry the same, I bought them last year, and they were just like a long twig, planted them not long ago and there are like 4 long twiggy branches now... (are these canes) some have leaves on.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    Yes, see the RHS link above. :)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
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