Proper pruning of raspberries is essential. Pruning increases yields, helps control diseases, and facilitates harvesting and other maintenance tasks. 
Pruning is Based on How Your Raspberries Grow
Raspberry plants have perennial roots and crowns, but biennial canes that live for two years and then die. Each spring, purple, black, and red raspberries produce new canes from buds at the base of the previous year’s growth; red raspberries also send up shoots from root buds.
In purple, black, and summer‑bearing (floricane) red raspberries, first‑year canes are vegetative only and referred to as primocanes. In their second year, they are called floricanes; they produce flowers and fruit, then die.
Fall‑bearing (primocane) red raspberries differ by producing two crops: a late‑summer or early‑fall crop on the tips of current‑season canes called primocanes, followed the next year by a summer crop on the lower portions of those same canes now called floricanes, after which the canes die.
Yellow raspberries are also available and, aside from fruit color, grow and fruit identically to red raspberries.
Summer-Bearing Red | Fall-Bearing Red | Yellow | Black & Purple
Pruning Summer-Bearing Red Raspberries
Spring (March or Early April)
- Remove all weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level.
- Leave the most vigorous canes, those approximately 1/4 inch in diameter when measured 30 inches from the ground.
- After thinning, the remaining canes should be spaced about 6 inches apart.
- Also, prune out the tips of the canes that have died due to winter injury. Cut back to live tissue. If the canes have suffered little winter dieback, remove the top 1/4 of the canes. Cane-tip removal or "heading-back" prevents the canes from becoming top-heavy and bending over under the weight of the crop.
- Red raspberries sucker profusely from their roots. To prevent the planting from becoming a wide, unmanageable thicket, red raspberries should be confined to a one- to two-foot-wide hedgerow. Shoots growing beyond the one- to two-foot-wide hedgerow should be destroyed using a rototiller or spade.
Fall (After First Frost)
- Remove all second-year canes that produced fruit in the summer at ground level.
- Leave all first-year canes to overwinter
Pruning Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Two-Crop System for Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Follow the same pruning procedures as described for the summer-bearing red raspberries. This pruning option provides both a summer and fall crop.
One-Crop System for Fall-Bearing Red Raspberries
Spring (March or Early April)
- Prune all canes back to ground level.
- While the plants won't produce a summer crop, the late summer/early fall crop should mature one to two weeks earlier. Also, total crop yield is typically larger when utilizing the one-crop system versus the two-crop system.
- Maintain the plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow.
Pruning Yellow Raspberries
The pruning of summer-bearing and fall-bearing yellow raspberries is identical to their red raspberry counterparts.
Pruning Black and Purple Raspberries
Spring (March or Early April)
- Remove the small, weak canes, leaving only four or five of the largest, most vigorous canes per clump or plant.
- Cut back the lateral (side) branches to 12 inches in length for black raspberries and 18 inches for purple raspberries.
Fall (After First Frost)
- Remove all second-year canes that produced fruit in the summer at ground level.
- Leave all first-year canes to overwinter
Be Sure to Clean-Up Well
When pruning is completed, remove the pruned material from the garden area and destroy it. Removal and destruction of the pruned material helps control raspberry diseases, such as anthracnose and spur blight.
More Information
- Pruning Raspberries
- How to Prune Blackberries
- Growing Raspberries in the Home Garden
- Your Complete Guide to Pruning Trees and Shrubs
Photo Credit: Nataljia Dorozkina/AdobeStock