Berries are one of the easiest (and tastiest!) perennial crops you can grow in your garden. Once established they typically require very little care throughout the season, and they are not often bothered by pests and diseases. Even in our hot humid climate, they are one of our most reliable fruit producers. If you have had blackberries or raspberries planted in your yard for a while, you might be wondering how to prune brambles. Left to their own devices they get out of hand quickly. Today we are going to discuss the basics of pruning the various different brambles. The principles are the same for all brambles, but the execution varies some based on growth habit.
The first thing that is important to know is that brambles, which are perennials, produce biennial canes. This means their above ground portion lives for only 2 years. Most brambles produce canes one year, set fruit on those canes the following year, and then they die. So we need to keep this in mind as we are pruning. One year old canes are called primocanes, two year old canes are called floricanes.
Brambles do best in beds where their outward spread can be contained by mowing or edging. Additionally, most do best with a trellis to help support them. This is particularly true of black berries and black raspberries. If you do not contain them, they will quickly create a briar patch that is difficult or impossible to prune and pick.
Let’s start with red raspberries.
Red raspberries are very straightforward to prune once you know what kind you have. Red raspberries are split into what are called primocane and floricane varieties. Primocane varieties produce a large fall crop on the current season’s growth. They will produce a smaller floricane crop on the 2nd year canes if allowed to. Floricane varieties only produce fruit on the second year canes.
If you do not know what type of raspberries you have, there are a couple ways you can make this determination. Firstly, your primocane varieties are mostly the fall raspberries; whereas floricane varieties are the summer varieties. You can also observe your plants this season to see whether this year’s canes set fruit or not. If you are still in doubt you can cut your plants to the ground and see if they produce fruit the following season. If they do they are a primocane variety.
Because primocane varieties produce their large crop on 1 year wood, they are easiest managed by simply mowing them to the ground during the winter. If you wish to harvest a floricane crop from them you will need to manage them like floricane varieties. Most people don’t bother though. Floricane varieties will produce a better summer crop.
Floricane varieties are the summer bearing raspberry varieties.
These plants do not produce fruit until the cane’s second season. Thus, you cannot mow them down in the fall. To prune these berries you must go through and remove all the dead canes by hand. In the winter use pruners to selectively trim the canes that have previously fruited down to the ground. Once you have done that you can thin out any damaged, spindly or overly densely spaced canes.
When you are done pruning, you should have good spacing between your remaining canes. This will allow airflow, provide space for the new canes to grow up, and make it possible for you to find the fruit to pick. If you have a very dense overgrown raspberry patch that hasn’t been cared for in many years, you are probably best off to mow the patch to the ground. Then start pruning them yearly when they regrow.
Blackberries and black raspberries are a bit more difficult to prune.
Unlike red raspberries, black berries and black raspberries grow very tall, long, floppy canes that tip root. Therefore, trellising is particularly important for these varieties. You can see an example of an easy, inexpensive trellis in the photo below. It is simply T-posts on the corners with several strands of flexible wire strung between them to hold the vines upright.
Blackberries and black raspberries are more clump forming in growth habit than red raspberries and benefit from some summer pruning. There are very few primocane varieties, so you will almost always have to manage them as floricanes.
The principle of pruning these varieties is the same as floricane red raspberries. In the winter you want to go through and trim out all the old dead wood that has fruited. And again you want to thin out any weak or damaged, or overly dense growth. You only want to leave canes that are going to produce quality fruit. Get rid of any that won’t, and make way for the new canes to grow.
Where pruning blackberries deviates from red raspberries is that their canes also need top pruning.
Ideally, you start this process in the summer. Otherwise you will have a giant mess of new tip rooted plants all over your yard. During the summer months top your new blackberry canes at a reasonable height. We usually try to do so at about 4’ high. Ideal height for you will depend on your trellis. The topped canes will produce side shoots. You can top these side shoots also if needed to keep them from drooping down and touching the ground. Doing this will help keep the plants more manageable and will help maximize your fruit production.
In the winter while you are pruning you want to do the same thing. Tip back all the side shoots to about 6-8” from the main stem. These side shoots are where the fruiting shoots will sprout. You want to leave several buds to grow fruiting shoots, but not so many that they are weak and likely to break.
Following these guidelines you should be able to keep your brambles manageable, productive and easy to pick.
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