Beautiful shaping.
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@krismoriah … that would sure keep it simple.
I have been tipping my black rasp pcanes around 4 ft… and they normally get that tall in june…
But then they send out a mass of fruiting laterals that will grow 3 4 5 ft long by fall and some tip root (if i dont prune them more). That is sort of a mess…
Many of those thinner fruiting laterals did not survive our 3F low last winter.
I have already tipped mine this year… think i will just prune those fruiting laterals this fall to limit them to 3 per pcane… and keep them shorter… 12-18 inch or so.
I may try your method next year… i do like the neatness and simplicity of it.
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yes…not my photo… but i like to see how other people do things and get ideas.
I know alot of people are into tipping and pinching to increase laterals and all that… but if u look at the picture…that likely didnt happen. to me it just creates more work i think…and lesser quality berries.
Alot of folks dont understand laterals vs fruiting spurs/laterals… this is the best way to explain that… this guy cut half of the row at 4feet in early spring…vs not… the difference is clear.
So what TN hunter said is correct… if u want quality berries for home use… prune your canes hard in late fall/early spring and get a smaller crop but better berries…due to the fruiting spurs not relying on many fruiting spurs on many many laterals… just too much energy needed to provide a quality fruit set. (kind of like thinning peaches…but with alot less hands on)
This video explains that for the most part.
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A prelude to this video…here he is pruning in early spring. To achieve the above video. ( a little late for my taste…but a good example)
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I have to get control of my rasp patch. A year of no pruning (last year) and not getting around to a wire and they are just beasts. Fruit this year is heaviest ever and flavor is wonderful so hard to complain, except i know air movement isn’t optimal right now.
Should i aggressively thin in fall?
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I think that depends on your climate…and the nutrients and things that you add to the row… and this is my opinion from reading every possible thing that i can on the subject…
If you watch the video from Maine he suggests that you do not prune in Fall but instead wait until early spring… due to the sugars and nutrients still left in ‘spent’ canes.
The folks that love to prune as soon they are done fruiting are the folks that like the tipping and the laterals during the summer season… so removing those canes in Summer for them is what they like to do in order to get all of that bushy growth.
So in summary- some folks prune as soon as the fruiting is done in summer… some folks prune in Fall… for aesthetics. Some in Early spring…
My thought process is not to cut or injure any plants during the times when bugs are active… also diseases are present during those times.
So i like to cut when its cold…when bugs are not a factor and less chance of disease spreading or open wounds for bugs to lay eggs in.
Plus its hot…who wants extra work when its hot.
So if you think that your canes are entirely spent in Fall then remove them… if not spent…then you are just throwing away free nutrition.
Your choice on any of them…there are no wrong answers.
Remove in Summer
Remove in Fall
Remove in Early Spring after Winter.
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I use aged chicken manure composted with leaves and green stuff.
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The armadillos haven’t reached us yet, but I’m expecting them to within the next few years.
Have you noticed any impact on fire ants? I’ve been hoping they might help, we’ve got fire ants so bad, seems like they really love making new secondary mounds any place I plant a particularly special plant… And for some reason they love dahlias, I’ve never seen a dahlia here that didn’t have a fire ant mound at the base of the stalk.
Anyway. Wrong thread I guess, but I was curious what your experience has been.
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We have fire ants and armadillo… but when i was younger… mid 90s… neither were here.
Best i remember the fire ants showed up first… mid to late 90s… and then a few years later the dillos.
When the fire ants first showed up here they spread like crazy… mounds everywhere… i got my first stings turning my compost pile… but then a few years later they slowed down considerably. I guess their own prey followed them here… and perhaps so did the dillos.
They are both still here… if i could choose just one to dissapear… would probably get rid of dillos. They dig up my yard and borderless raised beds regular.
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…and for those with limited space, there is my Jungle approach. Portland, OR.
Patch size: 8x10 feet, 3 10-foot rows spaced at 4 feet. Established 1997.
Trellis: 9 metal T-stakes top-connected with 2x2 wood at 5 feet above ground. Wire at 2 feet and double wire at 4 feet.
Varieties: Triple Crown (right row), Columbia Star (center row), Jewel black-cap and Boysen (left row), Logan (scattered around).
Far right in background: partial view of 12-foot long row Meeker red raspberries in a cinder block raised bed. Last year, ~40 canes yielded ~40 pounds. This year–approaching mid-harvest.
There is actually room to stand sideways between rows and harvest with the aid of a 3-step ladder.
I limit harvest in the 8x10 patch to ~50 pounds per year, mostly by removing excess Triple Crown clusters at green or red stage.
29June: Logan, Jewel, Columbia Star (first small 2023 picking of Star)
My biggest Logans are 5 grams, average 3 grams. I suspect this is much smaller than the TNHunter fruit. I harvest the black-caps fully or even over-ripe as the flavor is deeper for processing to juice.
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Anybody seeing Jap Beetles yet? I have found about 5 so far. Seen some pictures on social medias of big numbers in other areas.
I saw where the PNW is now getting them…they were free of them for a long time. 3 were found in Washington state in 2020… 2021- uncountable numbers. They are also now in Oregon. etc.
This will cover all fruits coming from the PNW… Jap Beetles will impact fruit production…and the PNW grows alot of fruit for the nation.
I’ve so far killed a few hundred of them probably… I spread milky spore last fall but it’s too early for it to make much of a difference. Hopefully by next year it will though!
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Nice berry patch and harvest… love those blacks. @LarryGene
And Yes on the Jap Beetles here in TN… for a week or two now have been seeing them.
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they haven’t gotten this far north yet but SWD just started to show up 2 years ago. im sure the beetles aren’t far behind. the forest tent caterpillars or what Mainers call them, Army worms, have decimated our hardwoods up here. they are pupating now and the trees are putting out new leaves. predicted to be worse next summer. its been a chore keeping them out of my new orchard. definitely dont need the jap. beetles right now.
Do you have actual army worms there? We unfortunately have both… Tent caterpillars mostly mess with my trees, army worms often attack my wife’s flowers. In particular Alyssum, it’s amazing how quickly they can strip ever last bit of flower and leaf and leave nothing but a twig.
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possibly. we always called them army worms because of the way they strip the forest of leaves enmasse. what does your army worms look like?
Are u saying that u havent seen them show up yet this year? Or saying that there are no Jap beetles where u live?
never seen one. we just have the regular junebugs here and they dont do any damage i can see.
u should contact the U of Maine i think… u may have something going on that nobody else does. Jap beetles have been in Maine since the 1940s and thats how they got spread to eastern Canada.
U of Maine says that they are everywhere in Maine 
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We typically don’t have enough junebugs to do a lot of damage. Unlike japanese beetles which come in droves and devour everything. As far as fruit the junebugs probably only really ever mess with blackberries. They don’t damage all that many of them, I can tolerate their existence. Japanese beetles though, no it’s all out war on those…
The end result is similar for any of the various tent caterpillars, or army worms. When there’s a bunch of 'em on a plant, they’ll strip it of basically all foliage…
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