Primocanes-New, first-year canes on raspberries and blackberries.
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Primocane The first year's shoot or cane of a biennial woody stem.
Procumbens An epithet meaning trailing low along the ground.
Progeny testing the evaluation of seedlings of a particular cross or source.
primocane First-year growth, usually vegetative, on caneberries. Only fall-bearing raspberries produce fruit on primocanes late in summer.
Primocanes are the first year canes. They are green and frequently more hairy than thorny in appearance.
For biennials, don't cut these. For everbearers, at the end of the fall, snip off the top 3 or 4 inches.
Everbearing (primocane) Raspberries aren't really everbearing, but they do generally have 2 harvests per season; one in mid-late summer and one in the fall.
Unlike other blackberries, 'Prime-Jim' and 'Prime-Jan' fruit on the first-year canes (primocanes) in early fall and then again on the same canes (floricanes) the next summer. This allows for two blackberry crops a year.
Individual canes are biennial: In the first year a shoot, or sucker (called a primocane), grows to its full height. The second year that same shoot (now referred to as a floricane) produces lateral branches, flowers and fruit before dying.
Leave new canes (primocanes) of trailing blackberries on the ground each winter to help protect them from freeze damage. Trellis the canes before they begin growth in mid-March.
Next year, this year's floricanes will be replaced by new shoots, primocanes. After they've fruited, the canes die back and should be cut down to make room for the new primocanes.
One that everyone thinks of is improper pruning - removing canes annually on summer-bearing (floricane) types that only produce on 2-year old canes. Note that fall-bearing (primocane) types should be annually pruned after harvest in the fall.
 See also: Berry, Plant, Gardener, Pruning, Growing
  
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