Pruning Raspberries - Very Confused

I got my Allotment in June last year and amongst all the weeds was a Raspberry
bush about 3 foot high and I guess about 12
inch's wide...........I can remember there were 1 or 2 berries on the bush
at that time and there were a lot more (but maybe only about 20 berries) in late
September, so I guess I have a Autumn fruiting bush but not 100% sure

My question is should I be cutting this back to ground level or leave them a few
inches high? also all the canes look the same, they are all the same brown colour
and you cant tell which is last years wood, which again points to Autumn Fruiting
bush, maybe?

Should I prune this bush back to the ground? I suppose the worst that will happen is
that I wont get any fruit this year?....thanks for any help you can give.

 

Normally, when you harvest a Raspberry, you leave a little white cone behind on the stem, in time this turns black but remains on the stem.

You can safely cut back any that had fruit on last year, signified by the little black cones. If that leaves you with just two or three stems then cut all of those back too as you will not lose too much fruit. Any stems that only grew last year, to fruit this year should have some green on them, the fact that you say yours are brown means you can cut them off.

I cut mine as close to the crown as I can.

Steve...

 

Thanks m8, I think the plot has been neglected for a while, so I don't suppose the canes
have been cut back for a while and the fruit I saw last September was probably
growing on old canes (is that possible).......old picture showing the Raspberry Bush
when I took the plot over , going to take another photo tomorrow (before I cut it back)

 

Got up bright and early and took a another photo this morning, the only difference
between the canes seem to be that some are thicker then others (photo 2 shows this
better) - so I guess these are the older canes, also noticed that one or two have shoots
on the tips of the canes.

 

I can see in the first shot 5 or 6 canes that are past it, which does not leave too many canes behind once they are pruned. I'd say take the lot off and mulch it.

If it is Autumn fruiting as you know you will get new stems and fruit this year. But one plant will not give you a great crop, a couple of handfuls.

Why not buy 6 or 12 new canes and get them planted?

Steve...