Primocane vs Floricane


Primocane vs Floricane
Cane berries or brambleberries, such as blackberries and raspberries, are easy to grow and provide great harvests of summer fruit. But what are the differences between primocanes and floricanes? This guide will help you choose between our varieties and make sure you prune and harvest correctly for maximum yield and the health of your plants.
Blackberries and raspberries have root and crowns that are perennial, but the canes have a life cycle of only 2 years. The 1st year is when the primocanes grow and the following year the floricanes will. Primocane growth is vegetative, but the floricane growth produces fruits before they die back and the cycle starts again. Once established, your plants will have a mixture of each type growing at once.
Most varieties of raspberries and blackberries are floricane or summer- bearing. This means that they will produce fruit on their second-year growth. The berries usually appear in early to mid-summer.
Primocane varieties, also known as Autumn/fall- bearing or ever-bearing, will produce berries on the floricanes in summer as well as on the primocanes. The primocane fruiting usually occurs in early Autumn or late summer in the first year on the tips. They will then produce berries lower down on the primocanes the following year in early summer.
Generally, its easy to tell the difference between primocane and floricanes but can be dependent on the variety and age of the plants. In general, primocanes are thicker, green and fleshier, while the floricanes turn woody and brown before dying back. What time the fruit appears can also help you distinguish between the varieties. Floricanes should have a lot of green berries in spring, while primocanes will have none. Floricanes have shorter spaces between the leaves on the canes, called internodes and have 3 leaflets per compound leaf, while the primocanes have five leaflets and longer internodes.
It can be tricky at first but once you notice the difference, you won’t forget them.