You have to be careful when pruning your summer raspberries. You are only allowed to cut the harvested, two-year-old canes. Otherwise you will wait in vain for new fruit next year.
How do I cut summer raspberries correctly?
When cutting summer raspberries, you should only cut off the harvested, two-year-old canes directly above the ground. Remove excess canes afterwards, shorten them a little in the spring and continually cut out sick or weak shoots.
Summer raspberries bear on two-year-old canes
The most important thing you need to know about your summer raspberries is that they only bear fruit on the two-year-old canes.
You must not cut off the annual canes, the shoots of the current year, if you also want to harvest raspberries the following year.
This is what distinguishes the summer raspberry from the autumn raspberry, where the fruits grow on the one-year-old shoot.
How to tell the difference between one-year-old and two-year-old rods
At first glance it is not so easy to tell the age of the shoots. The size alone is not important.
Biennial canes differ from annual shoots by the darker brown color of the stems. You can recognize young canes by the light green tone of the stem.
You can be sure that these are two-year-old canes if they have fruit growing on them.
Cutting back summer raspberries
- Prune two-year-old shoots after harvest
- Remove excess rods afterwards
- Short the rods a little in spring
- Constantly cut out sick and weak shoots
How to do it right
Cut back the summer raspberries as soon as they are harvested. Once you have harvested a cane, grab the scissors (€14.00 on Amazon) and remove it.
Cut the shoots directly above the ground. This will help you prevent illness.
Care cutting in the garden year
If the raspberries grow too lush, you should thin them out every now and then. The more airy the shoots are, the less often they suffer from fungal attack.
You can shorten rods that are too long at any time. This makes the shoots stronger. You should only avoid pruning directly during flowering.
Cut off diseased canes immediately. They transmit diseases to other shoots and should therefore be removed from the garden immediately.
Tips & Tricks
With optimal pruning, you don't leave too many rods standing. Then you get bigger fruits. Gardeners recommend leaving only the strongest canes on the bush at a distance of ten centimeters. There should never be more than 15.
