Tips for Growing Productive Raspberry Bushes at Home
Raspberries aren't just delicious and nutritious — they're also surprisingly easy to grow at home. With the right care, they can be extremely productive berry bushes in your yard. Maximizing your raspberry harvest depends on properly pruning your bushes. Some of the most important tips to keep in mind when pruning include preventing overcrowding, using the right tools, removing canes after two years, and encouraging branching for varieties that require it.
Overcrowding is a common reason raspberry bushes underperform, which is why it is so important to stay on top of pruning your plants. If the canes grow too closely together, the plants won't receive enough airflow and sunlight, leading to sickly plants and lackluster harvests. Red raspberries are especially prone to overcrowding issues as they sucker from the roots, unlike black and purple raspberries, which form new canes from the base of the previous year's canes and don't spread as aggressively.
While some varieties of thornless raspberries are available, most raspberries have sharp spines along their canes, so be sure to wear heavy leather gloves when pruning them, just as you would when pruning roses. Also, use clean and sharp pruning shears that work well so they don't damage the plants. You should remove any obviously dead, diseased, or damaged canes in early spring while the plants are still dormant. These canes will be brittle and gray or white colored. This will help your raspberry plant grow well and stay healthy, both by preventing disease and by giving the new canes more space. If any of the canes' tips have been damaged, those should be cut back as well.
Then, choose four or five of the healthiest second-year canes on each plant to keep and prune off the rest. These second-year canes, called floricanes, are where the fruit will develop on the bush. In the fall, after you have harvested all of your raspberries for the year, you can remove the canes that bore fruit.
If you want to maximize the yield of your purple and black raspberries, make sure to encourage the formation of branches. These branches serve as the development site for the berries, so the more branches, the more berries you'll get. One way to promote branching is by trimming the tips of the cane by a few inches. Keep in mind that this step is specific to purple and black raspberries and is not necessary for red or yellow raspberry plants.
