New Raspberry Plant - To prune or not to prune

vgoomany · March 2023

Hello, last summer, my wife gifted me a couple of potted raspberry plants (I cannot remember the variety) she bought from a supermarket. I am planted them in my garden and over the cold season, they lost their leaves which are growing back now. Both plants did not produce any fruits last year but they did grow bigger. My question is, do I need to prune to stalks now or just leave them as they are?

Thank you

Lyn · March 2023

My son gave me a raspberry plant a few years ago, it’s spread everywhere, comes up in the lawn, I have a 2 lovely big runs of them now, you need to know what type it is , pruning is a bit different for early and late fruiting, if you don’t know, leave it this year and see when it fruits.

amrees21rUYkznol · March 2023

Christine Walkden said on Gardener’s Question Time that you should cut all stems back in February, whether summer or autumn fruiting. I did it and now nothing is happening at all 😕

Lyn · March 2023

I suppose she’s right, she’s an expert but my early summer fruiting ones start to grow new stalks when I harvest the fruit, then I cut down to the ground every stick that’s had fruit on it leaving the others for next years fruiting.

There’s no way I would cut those new stalks down in February

Liriodendron · March 2023

I can't imagine Christine Walkden meant that you should cut your summer-fruiting raspberries down in February - she'd know that they produce their fruit on stems which grew the previous year, and if you cut those down there's nothing to bear fruit. I guess she was saying, if you haven't already cut down the old canes of your summer-fruiting raspberries which bore fruit last summer, do it in February rather than not at all, @amrees21rUYkznol . The right time to prune is, as @Lyn says, once fruiting has finished. You tie in the new growth produced that year, and it will bear fruit the next.

@vgoomany - I'm afraid, again as @Lyn says, without knowing whether your rasps are summer or autumn fruiting, we can't give you advice about when to prune.

amrees21rUYkznol · March 2023

GQT 17th February about 10 mins in!

robairdmacraignil · March 2023

I've had raspberries for years and just cut down the old stems that look dead and ones growing where I don't want them when I have some spare time and they still yield lots of fruit without a specific pruning routine. They got no pruning at all for the first few years.

Happy gardening!

Fairygirl · March 2023

I agree with what @Lyn and @Liriodendron have said re summer ones fruiting on previous year's growth, but if you cut them back in February @amrees21rUYkznol , I think you might be expecting a bit too much if you were hoping to see lots of new growth at this stage in March. You should see some activity in another month or so though.

JennyJ · March 2023

@vgoomany , as you don't know the variety, I suggest you don't prune them for now. Wait and see whether they fruit on the current canes (in which case they're summer-fruiters) or grow new canes and fruit on those (autumn-fruiters). Then you'll be able to start the correct pruning regime. In a nutshell that is to prune off old canes that have fruited, leaving any new ones that haven't.

Lyn · March 2023

Unfortunately the OP has already cut them down, never mind, they’ll grow later in the year, make stronger plants and hopefully be Autumn fruiting, if not, it will be next year.

JennyJ · March 2023

I missed that @Lyn. Was it in another thread? In this one he/she said "My question is, do I need to prune to stalks now or just leave them as they are?". I'm suggesting leaving them.

New Raspberry Plant - To prune or not to prune

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