🐛✗ Tested and false“Cutting an infected raspberry cane down to ground level gets rid of cane blight”
A cut made at ground level can still leave infected tissue behind in the stub and root crown, since the fungus is established in the wood at and below the base of the cane once symptoms show. The guidance is to cut back to below soil level, not just flush with it, and to disinfect secateurs between cuts so the fungus isn't carried to the next healthy cane.
What to do: When removing an affected cane, cut below soil level rather than at the surface, and wipe or dip the blades in disinfectant before making the next cut on a different cane.
1 source
- RHS: Raspberry cane blightAdvises cutting back to below soil level and disinfecting secateurs between cuts when removing diseased canes.
“Cane blight and cane spot are the same raspberry disease”
These are two different fungi with different symptoms. Cane blight, covered here, is caused by Paraconiothyrium fuckelii (syn. Leptosphaeria coniothyrium) and shows as dark, splitting streaks around a wound, with the cane above the damage wilting and dying. Cane spot, also called anthracnose and caused by Elsinoe veneta, instead produces small purple spots on young green canes that pale to grey-centred lesions and, later, a crusty grey bark, without needing a wound to start an infection.
Our read Both diseases can appear on the same raspberry bed and both affect canes, which is likely why the names get used loosely for each other, but the causal fungus, the entry route, and the way the cane looks are all different.
What to do: Check whether the damage sits at a specific wound (cane blight) or shows as discrete purple-to-grey spots scattered on young canes (cane spot/anthracnose) before deciding on removal, since the two aren't managed with identical timing.
2 sources
“Once the old canes are cleared away, it's fine to replant raspberries straight back into the same bed”
The fungus doesn't leave with the visible canes. It survives for some time in the soil on buried raspberry wood left behind from old roots and cane stubs, so a fresh planting in the same ground can pick up an infection from the soil itself, with no wound needed above ground to start it.
What to do: Avoid replanting raspberries, or strawberries, into a bed that has had cane blight without first replacing the soil, or move the new bed to a different part of the plot.
1 source
- RHS: Raspberry cane blightStates the fungus is able to survive for some time in the soil on buried raspberry wood, and advises against replanting raspberries or strawberries in an old raspberry bed without first changing the soil.
“Growing the raspberry variety 'Julia' means cane blight isn't a concern”
'Julia' is named as having some resistance to cane blight, which is a real, useful head start, but resistance and immunity aren't the same claim. The same source that names 'Julia' as resistant also gives a full list of wound-avoidance and sanitation measures for cane blight generally, which wouldn't be necessary advice if resistant varieties were simply exempt from the disease.
Our read Treat 'Julia' as a lower-risk choice worth planting on a wet or exposed plot, not as a substitute for careful pruning, spacing, and prompt removal of any cane that does show symptoms.
What to do: Choose 'Julia' for extra protection where drainage or shelter are marginal, but keep handling canes carefully, pruning only in dry weather, and removing any infected cane below soil level regardless of variety.
1 source
- RHS: Raspberry cane blightNames the cultivar 'Julia' as having some resistance to cane blight, while listing wound-avoidance, spacing, dry-weather pruning, and sanitation as the general control measures for the disease.
