Popular in backyard gardens in regions with cool climates, raspberries come in four colors: red, golden yellow, black and purple. Red cultivars are the most common raspberries grown in Western gardens. The roots and crowns of raspberries are perennial, but the canes are biennial, meaning they bear fruit when they are 2 years old and then die. New canes appear and the cycle starts again. With proper pruning, a raspberry plant can be prolific for many years. If uncared for, the plant can grow unwieldy and eventually take over a garden.
Prune raspberries regularly to contain plants to a 12- to 15-inch-wide row and discourage suckers from sprouting. For summer-bearing red raspberries, use lopping shears and hand shears to remove weak, damaged or diseased canes while the plants are dormant and prune again after you’ve harvested all the fruit. Cut the canes down to 6 feet tall and thin to four or five canes per foot. For fall-bearing red raspberries, cut the plant down to the ground in late winter before new growth appears, keeping the canes contained to a 12- to 15-inch-wide area. Thin the canes to four or five of the strongest left at 6 feet tall after you’ve harvested the fruit in the fall.
Remove all suckers that sprout. Use a spade to dig down to ensure you get all the sucker’s roots. For particularly stubborn suckers, spray a herbicide directly onto the foliage.
Use a shovel to dig a trench at least 8 inches deep around the raspberry plants that you want to keep contained and insert a root barrier. Fill the soil in around the barrier, leaving at least a half-inch of the barrier above the soil line so the raspberry plant’s roots won’t grow over the barrier.
Things You Will Need
- Lopping shears
- Hand shears
- Root barrier
- Avoid spraying herbicide on a windy day. Drift can cause it to land on other plants, potentially killing them.
- Master Gardeners Santa Clara County: Blackberries and Raspberries
- University of California, The California Garden Web: Growing Berries in Your Backyard
- University of California, The California Garden Web: Raspberries
- North Dakota State University Extension Service: Questions on: Raspberries
- Iowa State University Extension: Pruning Raspberries
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