Red raspberries also produce new shoots from buds located on their roots. The individual canes live 2 years and then die. The shoots of purple, black, and summer-bearing red raspberries are strictly vegetative during their first growing season. The following year, these same canes flower, produce fruit, and then die.

What to do with raspberry canes after fruiting?

Prune the rest of the canes to ground level as normal. The half-pruned canes will produce a modest, but valuable earlier crop. They should then be cut down to ground level straight after they finish fruiting the following summer.

Do raspberry canes die back?

Cane blight is a disease of raspberries caused by the fungus Paraconiothyrium fuckelii, which infects the developing canes through wounds, causing them to die back. The disease is often associated with attacks by raspberry cane midge. … Blackberries can also be affected, but on them the disease is of little significance.