Care and Feeding of Raspberries - Help!

[NeedleCast]

Amateur gardener that I am, my general way of doing things has been to swing by the local nursery, look for things that I like, buy them and put them in the ground or a container, then wait for something to happen. Over the last three years - with good guidance from this forum and others - I've become pretty good at getting high quality peppers and tomatoes and learned enough about herbs to keep them alive and to keep my yard from being overrun by mint or catnip.

So today, we move on to the topic of raspberries. Two years ago in early March I bought two raspberry plants and (in normal NeedleCast fashion) stuck them in the ground, dumped good soil around, said "Okay, now make raspberries!" and went back inside until early May. The first year, the bushes developed a bit. One of them made a few handfuls of raspberries and that was about it. Winter came to Baltimore and they died back. I just kinda left them there (didn't cut them back or do anything else). This spring, I added some compost soil around them, fertilized a bit and said "how about enough raspberries for a bowl of cereal this year?"

So, much to my delight, they've done that. Things I've noticed: The "old" growth - the parts of the bushes that grew last year are putting out berries this year. There is also a LOT of new growth that is not making raspberries. From the very limited reading I've done on this, that's normal?

So what SHOULD I be doing that I'm not? Do I cut them back in winter? Do they need trellising/support like tomatoes? Should I just leave them alone?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Raspberries fruit on 2 year old canes

next spring, cut off the canes that gave you fruit this year. the old canes will look dry and lighter colored than the newer canes.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Your plants are normal.

All the canes with no flowers/berries this year will fruit next year. Don't cut those ones back. You will know which ones to cut out, after the second year when they fruit, those canes will be dead so they can be cut out. I don't have a trellis but grow mine along a wire fence and I do fasten some of the longer fruiting canes onto the fence to keep berries from being too close to the ground. I have noticed that canes that are on the ground will root at that point, and so I let the first year canes hang down to the ground if they chose.

[NeedleCast]

3. Thanks!

Thanks for the tips you two.

[Worried senior]

4. We have several raspberry bushes.

We have sticks in the ground with string to keep them contained and easier to pick.

Also when you cut out the old canes we've been told to destroy them as they can disease the plants.

We do nothing special with ours, we transplanted them from our previous home and once they are established they should do fine. My only complaint is they have suckers and can come up places that you really don't want them.

[NeedleCast]

5. Yeah, Have Read The Suckers Can Be An Issue

Mine are located between a small tree and my raised planter, but the biggest worry is they border a neighbors yard with only a chain link fence between us and I don't want them getting onto her property. She's a nice neighbor though so not a big deal. I did see a few suckers pop up near the core of the bushes early this year, so I'll keep an eye on it going into next year.