Autumn rasperries. What to do with new suckers?

Hi All,

Me again. I planted some autumn bliss & allgold rasperries in Nov 07. Now they've all grown, and produced some fruit, not huge amounts but a crop nevertheless. Now, througout the year they've produced many suckers next to the main plant as expected. Now (end Sept 08) it'd getting nearer the time I need to prune I'm a little confused.

Autumn varieties produce fruit on this years' growth and should be cut to ground level after fruiting (I think!) but what about all the suckers which haven't fruited? Should I chop these too? Or leave them? Some are 1m tall and others are 8ins.

Hope you can save my confused mind!

 

With Autumn raspberries you need to cut all canes back to about 3 inches in height in February (which is what I do), including the short canes. It's not accurate - I've seen canes cut almost to ground level and somewhere between 6 and 9 inches high.

If the short canes are really short, I can't see there being any problem if you leave them.