Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Pruning Fall Gold Raspberry bushes

Before pruning
 
I knew that the yellow leafed canes probably meant it was time to prune the Fall Gold Raspberries. I found a post by Tom at Tall Clover Farm that detailed raspberry pruning. Coincidentally we grow the exact same type of raspberries, so even easier.
Fall Gold is a fall fruiting raspberry that will fruit in late spring as well. So it is also called an ever-bearing raspberry. As you are harvesting the early wave of fruit in the spring/summer, you will notice them fading gradually and the leaves turning pale and yellow. At the same time you will have all kinds of new beautiful green canes growing now. You can really see this in the picture above. I already see little buds forming on the ends of some of these new canes. Those will be the fall berries. That means the yellow leafed and brown canes are ready to cut out. They will bear no more fruit. Cut low.
 
After pruning
 
After pruning
 
When the fall wave of fruit is done, you will leave the canes. They will bear the spring/summer fruit next year. Then when they are done in the spring, they will be yellowish and brown caned. And we have come full circle. Rinse and repeat.

 

3 comments:

Dori827 said...

thanks for this...I pruned back after the spring harvest and now all that is left are the "dead" canes from the fall harvest. You are saying I leave those without any trimming/pruning at all?

Dori827 said...

I have these exact ones and after the early summer harvest I pruned back those canes. Now I have all the "dead" canes and you are saying I just leave them? Or do I cut them back a bit?

Erin said...

Hi Dori
With this variety I just cut out the dead canes when the new started to grow in. I have moved and don’t have Fall Golds any more, but that is my memory of how I did it. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. I think yours will bounce back. They are tough plants.
Erin