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I hadn't yet noticed an issue with their growth (I actually was pleased with how the root system had taken and what I had seen already) but I'm always interested in boosting production and I was testing the main garden at the time - it made sense to test the raspberry patch while I was at it.

My next test is actually going to be to cut down all the canes in March rather than just cutting them back and going for an early summer crop. This year the spring canes were so vigorous they kind of choked out the summer canes and the Japanese beetles did a number on the fruit that was able to be produced. I'm wondering if we should just aim for the late summer crop from the spring canes and see if the patch is stronger and able to produce better that way. I've never done this before (I always go for both yields) and am interested to see if the experiment works.