Pruning raspberry
Advice for October in the Netherlands
For raspberries, the fruiting type matters more than a fixed month. Summer and autumn varieties use their fruiting canes differently.
Which situation matches your plant?
Raspberry — Fruiting type unknown — October
Check this first
If the cultivar or fruiting type is unknown, do not cut everything to ground level. Observe which canes fruited and when; until then, only clearly dead canes can be selected without choosing a cropping system.
Pay attention to this
- Summer raspberries crop on last year's canes; autumn raspberries can crop on new canes.
- Do not remove all young replacement canes from summer raspberries.
- Choose a cropping system; the simple autumn method here is for one autumn crop.
Frequently asked questions
- Can every raspberry be cut low?
- No. With summer raspberries, that removes the canes needed for the next crop.
- What about two crops?
- Some autumn raspberries retain part of a cane for an additional early crop. That needs a different plan from the single-crop method here.
- How can I identify an old cane?
- Look for the remains of fruiting laterals and use what you observed during harvest. Colour alone is not a reliable reason to remove all canes.