Raspberry help!

[Durumwheatmywords]

I've just taken on an allotment and have inherited a fruit cage which has 3 raspberry bushes in it (thank you Google Lens!) amongst other things.

Any tips on figuring out if they are autumn or summer fruiting varieties when there's no fruit and not much foliage on the canes anymore? Just so I can prune correctly. Or shall I just leave them unpruned and figure it out next year. Presumably not pruning them isn't ideal but won't cause harm either?

Thank you :)

You could just leave then and see what happens next year - or alternatively cut them all down and see what happens. I find raspberries quite random, my summer fruiting ones had some fruit the first year I planted them (so on new growth).

My summer and autumn ones look quite different though. The summer ones are very tall individual canes and my autumn ones are small bushes. If yours look like bushes rather than tall individual canes then maybe they are autumn ones?

My raspberry motto is: if it's brown, cut it down.

Ie -you should be able to see if it has fruited, it will have bits of stem or old flowersmon. And the stems will be browner. Whereas a summer raspberry's first year growth will be fresh and green, and will not have bits of old fruiting stalk or flowers.

I like this. I forgot to prune my summer raspberries, all canes now look brown, so it will be easiest to cut them all down and cross my fingers for next year.