Pruning Red Raspberry Plants

Pruning Red Raspberry plants is necessary for an abundant harvest.

As I was taking my first inventory of what the yard and garden needed this Spring, the raspberries struck me as an immediate priority for my “to do” list.

The raspberries I grow are summer bearing Red Latham Raspberries from Longfield Gardens.

I planted them 3 years ago. The first season you really don’t get any for harvest. Although if I remember correctly, there were a handful or 2 that we sampled.

The last 2 years, however, I have had loads of them to harvest. There have been plenty to eat fresh, freeze for baking and smoothies, and to make freezer jam.

Here is a section of the raspberries and what they looked like before the pruning.

Pretty lifeless looking but . . .

It’s the Perfect Time for Pruning Red Raspberry Plants!

You can prune these in the fall once a cane has produced fruit, because it will not fruit again. But quite honestly, by the time fall comes around, pruning raspberries isn’t a very exciting thought. By then the garden is dying down and there is so much to clear off that the raspberries get ignored.

I have pruned them in the spring each year and they do just fine. I’m excited about the newness of the garden again and happily don my gardening gloves and long sleeve shirt or jacket and dive in to those prickly branches to clear away the leaves and old canes to make way for the new.

Yep! Looks like a prickly mess! Any of the canes that have previously produced fruit are cut to the ground. Evidence of those old berry cores are still on the canes. I also cut out any canes that are split or broken.

New shoots will come up from ground this spring and I thin those out so they don’t get too over grown. I pull up any new shoot that isn’t within about 6 to 8 inches from the original plant base.

Once they are thinned out they might seem like you’ve gone too far. But I promise, it’ll be fine.

Before you know it they will start looking like this . . .

Then this will happen!

Just think of all the deliciousness that awaits you in the coming months!

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