How to prune a berry bush

Pruning our boysenberry bushes is not a fun job! They’re prickly and always overgrown with weeds growing all up through them. I always front up to the job with my long gloves.

Boysenberries grow on second year growth, so the idea is to cut off all the canes that fruited last year, leaving the new growth to fruit this year.

As you can see from above, they really get in a mess. Firstly – with gloves on – I weed as much of the grass out from underneath. This makes it much easier to see the base of the canes.

Next, starting from the outside of the bush, I start chopping off the old canes at ground level. This is pretty time consuming as they are usually quite long and tangled. So I carefully untangle them and drag them out of the way. Finally I’m left with the new canes that will fruit this year. Because the bushes are in the orchard, in between the fruit trees, I can use the trellis wires to support the canes.

So you can see now, only the new growth from last year remains, and because the bush is supported by the wires, in a linear form, the berries will be quite easy to pick. Can’t wait for our next batch of boysenberry jam!