Question:

We had a fabulous crop of raspberries this year, and new canes have now appeared. These are over six feet tall and still growing. Should I cut them back?

New canes are appearing under a sidewalk and in another garden bed.

- Stella Stanger, Vancouver

Answer:

It's always best to shorten the new canes to a height that makes them easier to pick.

This is usually about 1.2 metres. Pruning is best done in fall or winter when you can see exactly what you're doing. Next year's raspberries will be born on side-stems of the shortened canes.

Any weak, spindly canes can be pruned right out. They do produce berries, usually smaller ones, but they also create extra cover and shade that can cause mildew problems if you postpone picking for a day or so due to rain.

About the new canes popping up all around: Raspberries will turn into a thicket all over any garden if they're not stopped.

People with large lots sometimes deliberately surround their raspberry bed with lawn so that suckers get mown off. Otherwise, keeping them under control takes a lot of digging.

Question:

My apple tree gets apples, but every year the apples get black marks on them, they don't grow very big and some of them split. Even the leaves end up with black marks and dry up and die. What can I do for next year's crop?

- Deb Losier, by e-mail

Answer:

Your apple tree has scab. This is a fungal disease, which is more widespread after wet springs.

It would be less severe if you spray in late winter with lime sulphur and dormant oil. However, this spray does kill some beneficial insects.

Be sure to pick up all the leaves every fall and dispose of them (garbage or municipal compost - not your own compost). Municipal compost reaches very high temperatures that kill pathogens. Then mulch under the tree so that fungal spores can't splash up into the tree during rain.

It would also help if you fertilized the tree every spring with compost or balanced organic fertilizer spread around the drip line (edge) of the tree. Apples increase in size if, in dry spells, you can water in around the drip line when fruit is forming.

Some trees are very susceptible to scab - especially kinds that do well in the Okanagan but find our climate too wet.

Most garden centres sell scab-resistant apple trees and many of these have delicious apples. Liberty is one of the best. Others include Freedom, Jonafree, Prima and Goldrush.

Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions sent to amarrison@shaw.ca.