Winter Pruning

All blackberries and raspberries must be pruned and trained. Annual pruning helps keep the plants manageable, healthy, and productive. Below is a quick checklist of winter pruning tasks for caneberries.

• Make trellis repairs after plants have defoliated but before pruning and training.
• Pruning Erect Types
  • Prune out the spent floricanes
  • Tie canes to wires in a fan shape
  • Cut lateral branches back 8-12″
  • Thin canes to 6-8 canes/hill (4ft spacing)
• Pruning Trailing Types
  • Prune out the spent floricanes
  • Tie or weave canes to wire so that they do not overlap
  • Prune side laterals to 12-18″
  • Thin canes to 6-8 canes/hill (6-8 ft spacing)
• Pruning Primocane Fruiting Raspberries and Blackberries (Single-Crop System)
  • Prune (mow) primocane fruiting types to ground level

Video of Blackberry Pruning with Gina Fernandez, NC State Extension Small Fruits Specialists