Every year, one of the plants we look forward to most in our garden is the raspberry. In fact, our love for berries is part of the reason we chose the name BerryBee.
Here in Calgary, Alberta, our raspberries face long, cold winters, strong winds, and temperatures that can sometimes fall below -30°C (-22°F). Yet, with very little winter protection, our raspberry plants come back every year and reward us with sweet and slightly tart berries in summer. For us, raspberries are one of the most rewarding perennial crops in our garden.
When Should You Prune Raspberries in Calgary?
By late August or early September, our summer raspberry harvest is usually finished. This is when I like to clean up the raspberry patch.
After many years of growing berries in Alberta, I have found that fall is a simple and convenient time to remove the old canes, especially for summer-bearing raspberries. There is also a practical reason for doing this work in the fall: it makes it much easier to see which canes should stay and which ones should be removed.
Raspberry Canes Have a Two-Year Life Cycle
One of the most important things to understand about raspberries is that their canes have a simple two-year cycle.
During the first year, new canes grow from the plant's roots. These young canes are usually green, flexible, and healthy-looking. They normally do not produce the main summer crop during their first year. Instead, they grow and prepare to produce fruit the following summer. These are the canes we want to keep.
After a cane produces fruit, its job is finished. The old fruiting canes often become brown, hard, and woody. They will slowly dry out and die after fruiting. These are the canes we remove.
An Easy Way to Remember:
• Green cane: Keep
• Brown, old fruiting cane: Remove
Why Prune Old Canes in Fall Instead of Spring?
This is one of the main reasons I prefer fall pruning in our Calgary garden. In spring, new raspberry shoots begin coming up from the roots. At first, these shoots can be small, soft, and easy to break. If I wait until spring to remove the old canes, I have to reach into the patch while many new shoots are already growing, which can accidentally damage them.
Fall is different. By late summer and early fall, the new canes have had the whole growing season to develop. They are stronger and easier to see. At the same time, the old brown canes are easy to identify because they still show signs of the fruit they produced during the summer.
How I Prune Raspberries in Fall
The process is simple:
- Finish the harvest: Wait until the summer harvest is finished. Remove any remaining ripe or damaged fruit.
- Find the old brown canes: Look for canes that produced fruit this year, are brown or gray, look dry or woody, or have old fruit stems.
- Cut the old canes at ground level: Using clean and sharp pruning shears, cut the old fruiting canes as close to the ground as practical. Do not leave tall stubs.
- Keep the strong green canes: Leave the healthy new canes that will produce next year's crop.
Prepare the New Canes for Calgary Winter
After removing the old canes, I focus on protecting the canes that will produce next year's berries. Calgary winters can bring strong winds and heavy, wet snow.
I gently gather the healthy canes and secure them to a support or trellis. The goal is simply to keep the canes supported so they are less likely to bend, break, or spread across the ground during winter.
What About Fallen Leaves?
Fall leaves can be useful in the garden because they add organic matter. However, I do not recommend simply piling large amounts of fallen leaves directly around raspberry crowns if the leaves are wet or diseased.
Instead, remove obviously diseased plant material and use clean leaves as part of a light mulch layer or compost.
A Simple Fall Raspberry Checklist
- The summer harvest is finished.
- Old brown fruiting canes have been removed.
- Healthy new green canes have been kept.
- Strong canes are supported against winter wind and snow.
- Diseased plant material has been removed from the garden.
What I Have Learned Growing Raspberries in Alberta
One thing I have learned from gardening in Alberta is that good timing can save a lot of work. Raspberry pruning does not have to be complicated. The most important thing is to understand the plant's growth cycle.
When spring arrives, the young shoots can grow without old canes getting in the way. And a few months later, those green canes may become the source of another basket full of sweet, red raspberries. Happy fall gardening from BerryBee!
This article is based on our hands-on experience growing raspberries in the Calgary, Alberta area. Growing conditions can vary by raspberry variety, garden location, soil, and winter weather. The pruning method described here is intended mainly for summer-bearing raspberries.
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