[Red]

I planted some raspberries in spring of last year; they produced good growth but little fruit. How should I prune them to cause better fruiting in their third year, as id say im to late for this years fruit. how to go about pruning raspberry bushes and when? I promise I will start providing info to ye when I can. It seems all I am doing is asking questions.

[GPI]

Thats ok Red, feel free to add your input to any topic.
Now the irish raspberries.
Often the first season’s crop on raspberries and most soft fruit bushes can be quite tiny due to establishment of roots, however with correct pruning and feeding next seasons crop will be more bountiful.
Carry out the first pruning the following spring after planting, do this when new raspberry shoots start to appear from ground level.
At this time the old raspberry canes should be cut down to just above ground level with a sharp secateurs.
About a week or so later when the cut canes start to heal you can apply a granular fruit tree fertiliser which is high in potash to aid fruiting, apply this fertiliser which is readily available in garden centres according to instructions on package.
The next and subsequent years pruning of the plants depends on whether fruiting occurs in summer or autumn.
Summer fruiting raspberries canes are cut down to just above ground level after fruit picking, whilst leaving uncut seven young unfruiting canes.
If the raspberry plant fruits in autumn, simply cut down all canes to just above ground level in February.

There ya go.

[verge]

To help fruiting, mulch the raspberry plants. Just lay down a 1 to 2 inch layer of well rotted farm yard manure or garden compost after weeding around the plants. Do not allow the compost to touch the stems. A mulch will feed the plants and retain moisture in the soil. Giving you more fruit.

[sorcha]

I've just had quite a surprise, in that I've discovered what seems to be a raspberry bush sprouting in a neglected corner of my garden (the ripe berries caught my attention!) They are growing in behind the compost bin and a blackthorn tree and are not the easiest to get at right now, so I'm wondering if it would be possible to move them to a more convenient location, when the best time would be to do this (after they stop fruiting!) and if I need to do anything else to encourage them in the meantime?

At the moment, that little patch has a fine cover of creeping buttercup and some broken paving stones from the previous owner's DIY experiments.There seems to be a fairly healthy crop on it (am making raspberry sorbet at the moment!)

[GPI]

[sorcha]

Thanks GPI, that looks really useful - I'll bear it in mind when I go to move it (or them, as I've just spotted a couple of smaller canes as well, although those haven't even flowered yet...)