North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

I finally made the move to Illinois and acreage!  Roscoe is at the end of
where the Wisconsin glacier came, and the soil is rock-free and sandy loam.
Everything grows!  Including millions of weeds, which I'm pulling by hand,
because they are as tall as me.  The weed pile, as of this evening, is 7
feet tall and 10 feet in diameter.

The land has some nice things already in place, including a 30-foot-long
patch of what I think are Heritage raspberries.  The problem is that the
patch is hugely overgrown.  It appears that there are metal poles on each
end of the row and wires strung between them.  But, the original double row
of raspberry canes have spread to a thicket that is about 6 to 7 feet wide.
Hence, the berries are very small, but they are still quite sweet.

My question is should I cut all the canes to the ground in October when
several killing frosts have come and then dig out roots or what?  I want to
tame this mess and end up with an orderly double row of well-spaced canes
again.
Doreen Howard