Pruning grape vines
Grapevines are exuberant climbers, so if you plant one for its fruit you will need to keep it under control. Training methods are based around one or more permanent stems from which fruiting sideshoots arise annually.
In mid-winter, prune some sideshoots back to one bud and others to two. Cut back developing main stems by half their new growth and established ones to a single, new bud.
In summer, shorten non-flowering laterals to four or five leaves and sideshoots growing from these to one leaf. Prune laterals carrying flowers to two leaves beyond the first truss and remove any extra trusses.
Pruning gooseberries
A gooseberry bush becomes tangled and unhealthy without pruning. Good management means keeping the centre open to air and sunlight, leaving a few, regularly-spaced, main branches.
In winter, prune out dead or diseased stems, and any crossing in the centre. Cut back to a young shoot. Thin overcrowded areas and prune drooping stems to an upright sideshoot. Shorten new growth by half to maintain an acceptable size.
Pruning blackberries
Blackberries and hybrids such as loganberries and tayberries are all pruned in the same way. New canes grow one season and fruit the next, after which they are exhausted and can be removed. The problem is that generations overlap, so a plant will have one-year-old canes bearing fruit, mixed with the next season's stems making their early growth.
To prune the plants, cut out the fruited canes at ground level and replace them on the wires with the new ones. If there are not enough of these new canes to cover the whole area, retain the best of the old canes, shortening any sideshoots to one leaf.
Pruning blackcurrants
Blackcurrant bushes need constant renewal to ensure heavy crops. Older branches will bear fruit, but quantity and quality decline with age. For this reason new bushes are planted deeply so that the plant produces vigorous young branches annually from below ground. These are then used to replace older ones cut out after harvest.
Each year remove about one third of the oldest stems - the bark is very dark to the point of being black - and any that are weak or very low. Always cut back to ground level or to a strong new shoot. You can combine pruning with picking the fruit, or wait until winter.
Pruning strawberries
Although not normally associated with annual pruning, strawberry plants produce a number of runners bearing young plantlets. These should be cut off to conserve the plant's energy unless you want to propagate new plants.
Pruning raspberries
Summer-fruiting raspberries behave like blackberries, fruiting on one-year-old canes that are cut out after harvest and then replaced by the young canes. Autumn-fruiting varieties, however, are cut to the ground in late winter to make way for new canes that will grow from the base and fruit the same year.
Soft fruit to try
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