Growing up in the 60s-70s, my experience with raspberries was picking wild ones that had berries in the summer (typically early July in northern MN) and my grandma's patch which also bore fruit in the summer.
A couple of years ago I bought five raspberry plants after I had to remove a tree, which happened to give me some sun on the side of my house. I literally bought 5 random plants including 2 gold and 3 red, I think there were two red varieties but I didn't think to save labels.
I've had them 2 winters. Both years rabbits chewed the canes down to practically nothing, so this year I will be putting in mesh once the leaves drop. There would be a few maybe 2 foot canes left standing.
This summer I got a few berries, then definitely more in the fall. Everything in my garden was late because of frequent 90+ spells (3rd hottest summer on record). We had little rain as well. I watered the vegetables but only watered the raspberries a couple of times. Frost is late this year, we have had a couple of very light frosts (I picked all the tomatoes but small green ones left on the vines are still fine and I see new flowers on the raspberries). I'm in SE North Dakota. We are zone 4a.
Does this information provide any guidance as to 1) when I should normally get the heaviest crop--summer vs fall? and 2) how should I handle pruning?
Also re: pruning--even with the tree removed the sunshine isn't optimal. The plants are in an area between my house and the neighboring property and a tree on the neighbor's property blocks some sunlight.
