Raspberry bushes : how to prune them?
If you have raspberry bushes in your garden, you should plan to prune them once a year. It is a shrub that can grow up to 1.50 m above the ground, with small thorns on the stems. The fruit is usually red, although there are varieties with other colours depending on the variety. Pruning raspberries is an important operation in the development cycle of the shrub, and in particular helps to increase the productivity of the fruit from one year to the next.
Differentiating between remontant and non-remontant varieties
The raspberry tree is a very hardy plant, and as a result, it adapts to practically all types of soil. In addition, it has the particularity of producing suckers, which corresponds to its propagation method. The new shoots emerge directly from the ground in spring to produce stems that can bear fruit very quickly, depending on whether it is a remontant or non-remontant variety.
- Theremontant raspberry , also called biferous, is characterized by its ability to produce fruit twice a year. The first fruiting occurs between June and July, and comes from the previous year's mother stem. The second production takes place from August to October and comes from the suckers that appeared in the current year, on the upper part of the branches. These suckers will still produce raspberries in June and July of the following year, before dying off.
- The non-surmounting raspberry tree will only produce raspberries once a year, between the months of June and July. The raspberries produced are then from the shoots that appeared the year before. It is a good idea to grow different varieties in your garden, so that you can enjoy harvests that are spread out from June until the frosts appear.
Pruning raspberry bushes according to their type
Pruning raspberry bushes in the vegetable garden is useful for several reasons, namely to clear the dead wood from the plant and to limit the extension of raspberry bushes that tend to become invasive. It also ensures better production and helps to strengthen the plant.
To prune raspberry bushes efficiently, you first need a sharp pruning shears that you will take care to disinfect well with alcohol for example. In this way, the spread of diseases by contact is avoided.
The procedure is different depending on whether you are dealing with a remontant or a non-remontant variety.
- If you are dealing with a non-remontant raspberry tree, i.e. one that produces only once a year, you have two options. You have the choice of pruning the branches in autumn or in spring. You should then remove the dried out branches that have borne fruit in the summer, cutting them down to the ground. On the other hand, the same procedure should be applied to the twigs that seem to be more stunted, and those that are more vigorous, which promise good future harvests, should be left in place.
- In the case of an evergreen raspberry tree, which produces several times a year, pruning operations will take place during the winter months. However, it should be done when temperatures are mildest. The branches that are completely dry will be cut off at the base. For those that have produced raspberries from August to October, they should be cut at about 80 cm from the ground.
In addition to these so-called fruiting prunings, you can enrich the soil in autumn by adding manure, and apply fertiliser adapted to the raspberry tree in spring.
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