With most raspberries you cut down the old canes, to the ground at the end of the season or in the spring, and leave the new canes. It should be easy to distinguish between the new canes and the old. The old canes donÂt do anything in the second year.
If the new canes are getting too congested they can be thinned to about 6 inches spacing.
If the new canes are too tall they can be trimmed to keep them manageable.

There are some new varieties, which set fruit in the same year that the new canes grow, and those can be mowed down to the ground each year.

Ian

For 'double crop' types (early summer crop and then another crop in the fall), the old canes become so dry, they will snap right off at the base now (from your early summer canes) or in the spring (from your fall bearing canes). Cheers.

Jim, raspberries will spread on their own. I planted a single row 10 years ago and have left them to spread on their own in my garden. The most outside plants are now about 30 feet apart, with hundreds of plants inbetween. I have one wide path in the center now and many friends come to pick here in the summer.

I do not mow down all the canes in the fall. I have the Boyne Raspberry which bears for me in the middle to end of July. Mowing down this raspberry in the fall would give me no fruit next year.

Do you know which kind of raspberry you have? Most people do not have the mowable kind since that is fairly new to the market. In all likelihood you have one that needs to bear on this year's new growth. So, just leave the bushes and they will definitely spread (I can vouch for that) and only cut down the old canes this year. If in question which one is old and which one is new...wait until spring and then the one that is old will not have leaves on it and will be very brittle. I usually wear gloves for that job...you may wish to also :)

For spreading them quicker, what I did was in the early spring, I waited for the little sprouts (I had about 50 of them to the one plant I put in the ground the year before). I took a square shovel and cut out 10 inch squares, about 10 inces deep too, or whereever you see sprouts popping and moved them into new areas (about 12" appart). A few months later all those little guys grew into nice looking shoots. There were a few that died but I got about 10 or so new patches. It helps if you have good soil to put them in like digging out the clay and putting in good top soil.

Otherwise, for wintering them, just leave them for winter to hit them and the leaves to fall off - saves you from getting pricked when pulling branches around. During the winter and snow, you'll have a good day to walk around and cut back the old-old canes. In early spring you'll notice the babies popping up before everything else does.

The best raspberries I found were the ones from home depot. They were the huge type and kept on producing.

Hi everyone, my first post. I have a large perennial garden, a larger Veggie garden and I'm trying to get rid of a nasty looking raspberry patch which is growing amongst thistle. This used to be an old shed and I used the floor to keep my mulch. It was really easy to pull the raspberries out and I'm considering a special patch for them. I have 3 acres with the sea as a back drop. I've never done this and was wondering how big a space I need to open lets say for about a douzen plants and what will these buggers need. They're wild raspberries but have always produced and this is one of the reasons I'm considering actually giving them some space and tender loving care. Any suggestions. With the periannials overwhelmed with weeds and the veggie garden coming up for planting and soil amendments, I'm short on time. They certainly aren't on my priority list right now but.....but frest berries are kind of nice.