How to Prune Raspberries (Summer and Autumn)

Pruning raspberries sounds fiddly, but it comes down to one decision: which type do you have? Summer-fruiting and autumn-fruiting raspberries are pruned in completely different ways and at different times of year. Get the type right and the rest is genuinely easy — get it wrong and you can accidentally cut off the very canes that were about to fruit.

So before you pick up the secateurs, work out which kind you're growing. Everything else follows from that.

Identify your type first (summer vs autumn)

Raspberries grow on long stems called canes. The whole pruning question hinges on when those canes fruit.

• Summer-fruiting raspberries fruit on canes that grew the previous year. So a cane grows one summer, sits through winter, then fruits the following June or July — and dies afterwards. These are the traditional types: 'Glen Ample', 'Malling Jewel', 'Tulameen', 'Glen Prosen'.
• Autumn-fruiting raspberries (sometimes called primocane or everbearing types) fruit on canes that grow in the same year. A cane shoots up in spring and fruits at its tips from late August into October. Popular UK varieties include 'Autumn Bliss', 'Polka', 'Joan J' and 'All Gold'.

If you're not sure which you've got, the easiest tell is when they crop. Berries in June and July mean summer-fruiting; berries from late August onwards mean autumn-fruiting. If you genuinely can't remember and missed the harvest, watch them for one season and label them — it's worth the wait to prune correctly.

For the full picture on planting, feeding and harvesting, see the main guide to growing raspberries. This article focuses purely on pruning, but the two go hand in hand — well-pruned canes are healthier, easier to pick and far more productive.

Pruning autumn-fruiting raspberries (the easy one)

This is the type to grow if pruning makes you nervous, because there's almost nothing to get wrong. Autumn raspberries fruit on canes that grow the same season, so you simply start fresh every year.

When: late winter, typically February in most of the UK. Leave the old canes standing over winter — they give a little frost protection and somewhere for ladybirds and other beneficial insects to shelter.

What to do: cut every cane right down to ground level. Use sharp secateurs (or shears for a big row) and aim for cuts about 2–3cm above the soil. That's it — you're not choosing which canes to keep, you take them all.

In spring, a whole crop of fresh new canes will push up from the base and the roots. These grow through summer and fruit at their tips from late August. Because you clear the bed completely each winter, autumn raspberries also tend to suffer less from pests and diseases that overwinter in old wood, such as raspberry red mite.

A couple of optional refinements once you're confident:

• If your row is getting too dense, thin the new spring canes to roughly 10cm apart so each one has light and air.
• Some growers leave a few of the strongest old canes uncut to get a small early-summer crop from them, then cut those after they fruit. This "double cropping" works, but it's fiddlier and spreads the harvest thin — most beginners are happier just cutting everything in February.

Pruning summer-fruiting raspberries

Summer types take a bit more thought because, at pruning time, you have two kinds of cane on the same plant: the older canes that have just fruited, and this year's new green canes that will fruit next summer. The job is to tell them apart, remove the spent ones and keep the new ones.

When: straight after they finish fruiting, usually late July or August, once you've picked the last berries.

How to tell the canes apart: the canes that have just fruited look older and woodier — often a grey-brown colour, sometimes with the dried remains of fruit stalks. This year's new canes are greener, fresher and more flexible, and they won't have carried any fruit. Those green ones are next year's crop, so they stay.

What to do, step by step:

1. Cut out every cane that fruited. Take them right down to ground level. Removing the spent wood opens the plant up, reduces disease and stops the bed turning into an impenetrable thicket.
2. Keep the strongest new green canes. Thin them to about 6–8 sturdy canes per plant (or one strong cane every 8–10cm along a row). Pull out or cut any weak, spindly or overcrowded ones, and remove suckers straying too far from the row.
3. Tie the keepers in to your support wires (more on that below), spacing them evenly so light and air can reach every cane.
4. Tip the canes in late winter. Around February, snip the very top off each cane, just above a healthy bud, taking it down to roughly 15cm above the top wire. This tidies whippy tops and encourages fruiting side-shoots.

Supports and tying in

Both types crop better with a bit of support, but it matters most for tall summer-fruiting varieties, whose laden canes will flop and snap in a summer downpour without it.

The standard UK method is a post-and-wire system: a sturdy post at each end of the row, with two or three horizontal wires stretched between them at roughly 75cm, 1.05m and 1.5m high. Tie the canes to the wires with soft string or twine, spreading them out like a fan so no cane is shaded by its neighbours. Good spacing isn't just tidiness — it improves air flow, which cuts down on fungal problems and makes picking far easier.

Autumn raspberries are shorter and more self-supporting, so many growers get away with a single wire at about 1m, or even a simple double row of string down each side of the bed to stop the canes leaning into the path. In an exposed, windy garden, give them a wire anyway.

Tie summer canes in as you thin them in late summer, then check the ties again in late winter when you tip the tops. Loosen any string that's biting into a thickening cane.

Tidying and feeding after pruning

Pruning isn't finished until the bed is clear and the plants are set up for the next season.

Clear the debris. Gather up all the cut canes and fallen leaves and either shred them for the compost or bin diseased material — don't leave old wood lying among the plants, as it harbours pests and disease over winter.

Mulch and feed. In late winter or early spring, spread a generous layer of well-rotted manure or garden compost along the row, keeping it a few centimetres clear of the canes themselves. This feeds the plants, locks in moisture and smothers weeds. A scattering of a balanced general fertiliser at the same time gives them a steady start; raspberries are hungry, but they don't need anything exotic. There's more on soil and feeding in the main raspberry guide and in our advice on improving your soil.

Manage the spread. Raspberries send up suckers and will wander out of their row given the chance. Each spring, simply pull up or hoe off any canes straying too far. Keeping a defined row makes every future pruning job quicker.

If you're building up a soft-fruit patch, the same calm "right cut, right time" approach applies to other bushes too — see how the rules differ for growing gooseberries, which are pruned as a permanent framework rather than renewed each year. You can browse the full range in our grow fruit section.

Get into the rhythm of these two jobs — one cut for autumn types, a tidy-and-tie for summer types — and your raspberries will reward you with bigger, healthier crops year after year. It really is one of the most forgiving fruits a beginner can grow.