Raspberries
Chris1984
Posts: 5
I took on an allotment last year which it turns out had a huge number of raspberry canes spread over two areas.
It's taken a long time to create some organisation as the plot was so overgrown, but last year it looked like one area was summer and the other autumn fruiting.
Last autumn I pruned what I thought were the summer varieties back to about 12 inches from the ground (rightly or wrongly) and then in the late winter took the Autumn ones right down to the ground.
As there were no rows or name tags its taken a fair amount of work to prune them all back and remove enough to form some rows/organisation, but it has meant this year the canes are a lot easier to deal with and clearer to see.
This year what I thought were the summer canes fruited from June time and haven't stopped, in fact they are fruiting now with more vigour than ever!
What I thought were the Autumn fruiters, fruited through early August and have now stopped.
Does anyone have experience of Raspberries fruiting all summer like this?
I'm conscious that the two types need pruning in very different ways, I want to prune them again but with such a variance in when they are fruiting I'm unsure as to which are which?
It may be that there is a mixture of varieties in the Summer group but from what I can tell the same canes seem to have been producing all summer?!
Posts
If they've produced fruit on this year's growth then they must be autumn fruiting varieties. Summer fruiting varieties produce fruit on last year's canes but not on this year's canes. Autumn fruiting varieties will fruit on last years canes if left unpruned and will also fruit on this year's canes.
If you left some canes unpruned (or pruned the ones you thought were summer ones early enough that they produced more canes last year?) and they were fruiting on these second year canes then they could be either summer or autumn fruiting.
Ok so all the green canes which are currently fruiting would be this years growth on Autumn fruiting varieties?
I guess the thing that had thrown me is that there is still a lot of new growth coming through which was making me think what was currently fruiting was last years growth, but I'm pretty sure I pruned all of that back so it would all be new year growth which is fruiting now.
Would Autumn varieties start fruiting in early summer if they had been pruned incorrectly? If I'd pruned everything back then surely the summer varieties wouldn't have fruited at all?
Exactly - if you pruned everything back over the winter then any summer fruiting ones shouldn't have fruited this year. But you said you pruned them in early autumn so perhaps they grew some canes before winter set in which would then count as 2nd year canes?
I only have autumn fruiting varieties but I let half of them "double crop" which means that I don't cut them down over the winter so they fruit in July on the old canes and then in autumn on the new canes. The half that I did cut down have been fruiting for a few weeks now but certainly not as early as June so I'm a bit at a loss about that, I'm afraid!
Ok brill that clears things up then, if I make sure I cut everything back to the ground this winter then anything which doesn't fruit next year is summer, otherwise its Autumn. Next year I may use your double crop plan!
Thanks Singing Gardener!