Directly from the plant, in jam, in a pie or as a garnish for a salad, raspberries are delicious. We love their sweet and slightly acidic side that goes well with both savory and sweet dishes. Plus, since these berries are full of vitamins and antioxidants, they can be enjoyed from morning to night! To ensure a bountiful raspberry crop, you’ll need to prune your raspberry bushes before the fall frosts; Thanksgiving weekend is ideal for this task.
Here’s how to prune your raspberry bushes:
- Arm yourself with a good sharp pruning shears and gloves, raspberries are soft in the mouth, but hard on the hands with their thorns!
- Cut off all branches that have borne fruit at ground level, they will no longer produce. They are easy to identify: they are brown and dry. Keep them as short as possible.
- Then cut off the small, stunted shoots at the bottom of the plants and clean the soil to remove debris.
- Next, thin it out: keep only 4 stems per square foot. Keep the strongest and the most beautiful, remove the others… yes, even if they are in perfect health.
- Then prune the branches to chest height (about 1.2 m). For the shorter ones, cut only the head.
- Take this opportunity to add a good layer of mulch to limit the growth of weeds.
Other than annual pruning, your raspberry bushes don’t really require much care. Make sure they do not lack water, especially for the first few years after planting. In the spring, prune out any dead or winter-damaged wood and simply add a little compost or fertilizer to the base of the plants.
Raspberry bushes maintenance in the fall is as simple as that! All you have to do is be patient, wait to see your beautiful red fruits appear and enjoy them!