How to Prune Raspberries

Raspberries are surprisingly easy to grow considering how expensive they are to buy in the shops. By growing summer and autumn fruiting you can pick raspberries from June right through to October, even November if the weather is particularly good. Summer and autumn fruiting raspberries have slightly different pruning requirements, here I will explain how to prune both types, starting with the easiest.

How to prune autumn fruiting raspberries:

Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on the current years growth which means they fruit on canes produced the same year. Cut all canes down to ground level in late winter (February is a good time), this helps to encourage fresh new growth (canes) from the base in spring. These new canes will eventually produce fruit in late summer/autumn.

How to prune summer fruiting raspberries:

Summer fruiting raspberries fruit on canes produced the previous year. When it comes to pruning summer raspberries cut down fruiting canes to ground level after harvesting the berries to encourage new stems to grow from the base. Tie in fresh green growth to the frame support as they grow, these are new canes that will produce fruit the following year so don’t cut them down.

Apply a mulch in autumn or winter as above and try to keep weed free, which can be tricky with summer raspberries.