"In the dead of winter, a raspberry bramble might look, well, dead. Once a dense thicket of soft, green leaves and juicy berries now stands dormant and skeletal, giving little indication of the harvest that was or could be. It's easy to assume that the plants are fragile in this state; that cutting them back could be disruptive, harmful, or pointless. But this stripped-down moment is exactly when fall-bearing raspberries are ready for intervention."
"Fall-bearing raspberries, sometimes called primocane-fruiting or everbearing, produce fruit on their new growth, called primocanes. By the time winter arrives, the canes that fruited in late summer or early fall have already completed their biological role. The plant pulls its energy back into the crown and root system. The sticks that remain above ground during the fallow time are no longer productive, now dormant scaffolding for the life to come."
"Even though pruning in the cold of January or February may feel premature, winter is a pause, not an ending. Just because what you see won't make fruit does not mean that it's permanently inert. In fact, your plants still have some growing to do come winter. Pruning won't hurt them either, as new shoots haven't begun to form yet."
Fall-bearing raspberries fruit on primocanes, and canes that fruited in late summer or early fall return energy to the crown and roots and become dormant. The remaining above-ground canes are nonproductive dead scaffolding during winter. Winter pruning is safe because new shoots have not yet formed, and cutting aligns with the plants' natural annual reset. Removing spent canes reduces congestion at the crown, improves airflow, and speeds early spring growth and vigor. For raspberries that fruit only once, after late summer or early fall fruiting, cut all canes down close to the ground to encourage renewal.
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