For years, Martha has been growing all kinds of berries on her farm, using them for homemade jams and jellies, pies and tarts, and juices in the summer. Martha says some berry bushes should be pruned regularly to ensure they stay prolific. In a recent blog post, she walked readers through her process for pruning raspberry, gooseberry, and currant bushes.
Winter is the best time to prune and groom berry bushes because the branches are bare and easier to access. “Pruning produces larger berries in greater volumes and helps to control diseases that might otherwise spread,” she says in her blog.
Martha’s gardeners start by cutting all the dead, diseased, damaged, crisscrossing, or deranged branches off her gooseberry and currant bushes. The center of Martha’s currant bushes are also thinned out so light and air can circulate properly.
Next, Martha’s red, golden, and black raspberry bushes are pruned. “Just like the currants and gooseberries, the raspberry canes cut first are those that are dead, diseased, damaged or deranged,” she says. “Unpruned raspberry bushes will still grow, but won’t yield more berries. Leaving them unpruned also makes them more prone to disease.”
Martha ensures her gardeners use sharp tools for clean cuts when pruning her berry bushes. “If the pruners cut messily through the stems, the wounds won’t heal as quickly or as neatly,” she says.
The branches and canes cut from Martha’s berry bushes are driven to the compost pile on her farm. There, they will be made into mulch. “There is a lot of work to do around this busy farm all year round, but one by one the tasks are well completed,” Martha writes.
