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What kind of stalks are these, please?

Skylark001Skylark001 Posts: 75
in Plants
We've bought a property with a scrubby area which gets no sun in winter, but it's getting sun now.  It's messy so I was thinking of cutting it all down at ground level.  The area (about 16 square metres) consists of stalks, about 5 foot tall.  Can anyone tell me what they are?

Below: from a distance, the area of stalks, left over from previous years.


Below: close up, the bottom 9 or so inches of each stalk is prickly, and the stalks are often in clusters of five or six.


Below: the top 18 inches or so of each stalk is currently budding, with a bud every 4 or 5 inches up the length of the stalk.  There's no smell to the bud at present.  See also that the top part of the stalk is smooth (no prickles).



Below: to take a steady close-up of the bud I went to break off the top 6 inches of a stalk, but found it very difficult to break by hand.  The pic below shows the break I made. 


Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited March 2022
    Those look to me like raspberry canes that've been allowed to run wild..

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Mrs-B3-Southampton,-HantsMrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants Posts: 732
    I agree.
    Southampton 
  • BigladBiglad Posts: 3,265
    A raspberry jungle? Marvellous!
    East Lancs
  • Skylark001Skylark001 Posts: 75
    Dovefromabove said:
    Those look to me like raspberry canes that've been allowed to run wild..

    Thanks, Dove.  So it wouldn't be too late to cut them at ground-level to encourage a good raspberry crop?  But I believe there are two different kinds of raspberries and one of them shouldn't be cut at the ground level.  Are you able to tell which kind these are? 

    Perhaps I should just cut 4 or 5 clumps at ground level,  cut another 4 or 5 about 18 inches from the tips, and leave the rest of the patch intact, just to see what has happened by the end of autumn?

    What do you think?

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    If you cut them down now, you will lose all this years fruit.  Wait until after fruiting, and then cut out all those that have fruited.  You will by then know whether you have summer fruiting or autumn fruiters. Autumn fruiters flower on the new wood, so can be cut to the floor in January.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Start saving jam jars.
  • Skylark001Skylark001 Posts: 75
    fidgetbones said:
    If you cut them down now, you will lose all this years fruit.  Wait until after fruiting, and then cut out all those that have fruited.  You will by then know whether you have summer fruiting or autumn fruiters. Autumn fruiters flower on the new wood, so can be cut to the floor in January.
    FidgetBones, thank you so much for that advice.  I have copied and pasted it into my into my annual gardening to-do list!  😁
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