Should I prune my recently-planted soft fruit?

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

I have just put in some bare-root soft fruit - gooseberries, black and red currants, and some Autumn Bliss raspberry canes.

I have several gardening books and they seem to say different things about pruning - is there anyone who knows whether I should now be cutting these things right down?

many thanks!

Pretty sure you should cut Autumn Bliss right down - but wait for an expert to come along and confirm before you take the secateurs to them! Can't remember about the others...

Thanks LittleFrog.
I hope I can prune them, I love pruning

Sorry no soft fruit experience, although fruit trees - which cannot be pruned now due to risk of frost damage.

(that is not in anway helpful )

Thanks for the bump anyway Marmaduke

Kathy I have done the same (planted bare rooted gooseberries, currants and rasberries s few weeks ago) & was equally confused as to what to do about pruning. I've kind of settled on leaving them this year as I thought disturbing the tops and the roots all at once would probably finish them off, but I'll watch this thread to see if anyone knows better.

Let's hope there are some gardeners around

The Autumn Bliss should definitely be cut down to the ground just now. It will grow new canes in the spring and fruit on them in the autumn. Autumn Bliss (unlike most other varieties of rasp) should be completely cut down every year.
(Most rasps grow primocanes one year, and then fruit on them the second year. So every autumn, you prune out only the fruiting canes, leaving the vegetative ones for the following year).

the gooseberries and currants probably shouldn't need any pruning this year, as they will be too little - just take off any branches which are crossing or rubbing each other.
In the future, prune back new growth to a few buds to keep the growth under control - I think i remember that the best crop comes from one year old wood.
Right enough I never actually grew gooseberries, so I'm extrapolating from known facts a bit.
Alternatively, if you want your currants to take up less space, choose one or two strong shoots and train them to be tall, trimming back the side shoots to one extra bud each year - that way you get a kind of pillar of fruiting wood rather than a bush - you'd need to support it or train it against a wall. HTH.

That is SO helpful Fromgirders, many many thanks!

Kathy, You've probably already given your fruit haircuts. I'd agree re the autumn raspberries. Chop them back to the ground and they'll grow new shoots that will fruit next Aug - Oct. Hope you planted loads, enough to eat fresh, make jam and this year i've tried raspberry vodka!

I'd also leave the others alone for now. The best thing you could do, although it's really hard, is to let them flower in spring and then remove the flowers before they start fruiting.
Give them time to establish a good root system and they will fruit beautifully the following year.

(You could leave a few flowers if you just want a taste)

Manure them well every spring and they'll love you forever.

MrsWalton - thanks - I did just that - pruned the raspberries and left everything else well alone.
Rasps are primarily for dh because they're his favourite fruit. Even if they crop well he will eat them all up (12 canes).

I might force myself to do what you suggest with some of them! The manure - yes, will do that. Lots of places round here where you can get it cheap.

This gardening lark is so exciting. Never really done it before.