You’ve done a great job on your website, and I appreciate all the efforts you’ve made to get Gordon Wells’ info out to the public, with all the wonderful detail, too. He gives so much information in his classes. To have it in online is a great thing, especially for the newcomers to gardening. Thank you!

At risk of sounding ancient, I’ve been gardening with mounded rows like this for 16 years, though admittedly my rows are a little taller than. Bro. Wells’ rows.

I predict that by the end of the summer, you’ll be wishing you’d cut your paths a bit wider. My first year at this, I did my walking path a shovel’s width, just like your paths. I didn’t want to waste space on pathways. Alas, walking around the garden with narrow paths is like walking on a board, with one foot in front of the other. You need at least enough room that you can walk somewhat normally between rows.

I think it’s tough to get every detail in a lecture crammed with info. Last year, I could not find my notes about how wide Gordon Wells makes his tomato row. I called neighbors who had attended the same class and every one of them gave me a different size. That’s why I ended up visiting Bro. Wells’ garden myself. His pathways look to be over 12″ wide, from the photos I took last year.

Please keep posting all your info and the progress of your garden. You’ll be helping a lot of people really understand how this all works.

I planted 15 Autumn Bliss canes this spring, in a long 2′x24′ bed that abuts my propery line. These canes really blew my mind with their growth and productivity. They started producing raspberries after about three weeks and they’re still producing a *lot* of berries in late October! Also, those 15 original plants sent out root shoots which resulted in 45 new plants in the same bed. My bed is now quite packed with canes even though this is the year I planted. Early on I did have a problem. Several of the plants appeared diseased (leaves were turning yellow and mottled brown and were wilting up). A neighbor of mine told me this is caused by spider mites, and that the solution is to simply spray down the leaves of the plants on a daily basis with water, which shakes off the mites. I went out there each day and sprayed down the undersides of the leaves of all of the canes (hence also watering them) and that seemed to do the trick. The diseased canes regained their health and produced a lot of berries and new plants. I was glad that the problem was solvable with only water.

So here I am, late October, and these canes are still cranking out berries, and I’m wondering when the “end of the season” actually is. I don’t know at what point I’m supposed to cut these things down (to 4″ to 6″ above the ground, as Alex mentions). Any thoughts? Should I just wait until the canes are dropping leaves due to the cold? Right now they’re actually still growing, and in fact still budding for new berries. Crazy!

So when is the right time to prune down your Autumn Bliss raspberries?

Should we do it now? Even if they’re still growing? Is it important to do it before the temperature drops too low?

Thanks for your input on your success. It really doesn’t matter when you prune them. If they are still producing then let them go. Just make sure that you leave about 6 inches above the ground when you do go to prune them. As it freezes more often, they will probably not give you any more growth. I personally will be cutting mine when it starts to freeze most nights, since I won’t be getting anymore production from my fall crops. My guess it that will be in about another 2 weeks or so. Hope this helps.

Okay, cool, thanks for the advice.