Summer Pruning Produces More Berries by Jeff Rugg on Creators.com

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Summer Pruning Produces More Berries

Q: We bought raspberry plants last year. They have looked fine and gave us some raspberries over the past couple of weeks, but the stems are dying. The leaves just turned yellow along the whole stem all at once. What is going on?

A: Nothing beats having fresh raspberries on your ice cream. Raspberries and blackberries are collectively known as brambles. Your raspberries are going through a normal life cycle. What color are your raspberries?

Red raspberries have suckers (canes) that come out of the ground. The first year, the cane is called the primocane. It starts growing in the spring, and at its tip, it may send out a cluster of flowers in mid to late summer. These berries ripen in summer into fall. During the next spring, the same cane is called a floricane. It sends out flower clusters along its length in the spring and produces fruit in early summer. When it is done producing fruit for the second time, the cane dies and needs to be removed for better air circulation in the raspberry hedge. Better air circulation helps prevent mildew and mold diseases from developing on the fall fruit produced on the primocanes.

Red raspberry canes are suckers that need to be managed as some will come up from the roots several feet away from the main plant. Some people mow the whole raspberry hedge down in the winter and only get fruit from the primocanes that come up each spring. This only works on varieties that produce fruit on primocanes.

Black raspberries do not sucker and are managed as a crown-growing plant.

Purple raspberries also have crowns, but they send up occasional suckers that need to be removed. On these raspberries, it is rare to have primocanes that flower. Normally, fruit is produced only on the second year of growth of that cane. These floricanes will die after producing fruit for the first time and should be removed.

Blackberries that grow short canes are called erect types, longer canes are semi-erect, and really long canes are called trailing types. All brambles do better when kept within bounds by a trellis, but that is especially true of trailing types. The primocanes of semi-erect and trailing types should have the tip of the cane cut off at the top of the trellis or at 3 feet to 4 feet high. This causes more lateral branches to form during the first summer, which means more flower clusters the second summer on the floricane.

Your raspberries have floricanes that are finishing up and need to be removed. At the same time, you can tie new primocanes to the trellis to keep them in bounds.

Since brambles are easily bruised, picking your own will help them last longer. They may need to be picked several times a week to keep the ripe ones from falling off the plant. If necessary, rinse in cold water only to remove dust, dirt and the occasional ant. Store them in high humidity and as cold as possible without freezing. They are easy to freeze by placing on wax paper and not touching in the freezer. Once frozen, place them in a storage container.

E-mail questions to Jeff Rugg, University of Illinois Extension at jrugg@illinois.edu. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.