For my tools I use Corona bypass pruners. The smaller ones you can operate with one hand, the other ones, the mini loppers, require two hands. Either pruner works fine, the smaller ones make the job faster, but the larger ones have more reach, and they are easier on your hands in the long run. Also, the Coronas are relatively inexpensive, and they work well.
The general rule for summer pruning of black raspberries is to use the old adage - waist high on the Fourth of July. You just simply top all of the new canes, the ones that do not have berries on them, at the height of your belt buckle. Obviously this is not an exact measurement, but if you are of average height or close to it, this should work for you. If you would rather measure it, anything close to three feet is fine.
Most of our black raspberry patches grow to prodigious heights, close to eight feet, if left to their own devices. We have a some spots that are the perfect environment for them. We also have a few spots where they don't get so big, but most of the patches grow like crazy. You can grow them in rows if you cut the new shoots in the spring and keep after them, but I prefer to let the rows turn into patches and pick my way through them. This is probably because I grew up picking wild black raspberries with my Grandmother on their farm near Pittsburgh. When I've waded into my biggest patch I feel like I'm back there picking with her again.
I usually prune my black raspberries near the end of June, because ours grow so much quicker than most. I just stared pruning today, Remember that you are only pruning the new canes in the summer. Leave anything with berries on it alone. Right now we are beginning to pick and I have just begun to prune. I wear thick gloves and top one cane at a time and then throw the cane aside out of the patch. You do not want to just snip and let them fall especially when the berries are on the other canes in the patch.
On my larger patches I will sometimes let the center of the patch get taller than the edges. You can do this by just topping them a bit higher each time you move closer to the center, kind of evenly graduating them from the lowest ones at the sides of the patch to the highest ones in the center. Occasionally I will just leave the canes in the middle of the patch untopped.
People say to remove the canes and burn them. I usually don't do this. I tend to just throw them in the paths along the patch and eventually I mow them with a mulching mower. Occasionally I do collect them and burn them, depending on how ambitious I feel. This year, I believe they are getting mowed. Some people are concerned that you may create insect or disease problems if you leave the canes near the patch, but I have never had any problems just throwing and mowing them.
So to sum this up, in the Summertime, near the beginning of July top all of the new canes at about 3 feet high. The old waist high on the Fourth of July adage is an easy way to remember this, though I would modify it to say about waist high near the beginning of July. You have to watch your patch and see how they are progressing. Once you top the new canes they will begin to send out side shoots near the top of the cane, and this is where next year's berries will grow. If you miss some canes, it's not the end of the world. They still will produce berries, but if they get too big they tend to lean over unless you provide some means of support, which I do not want to bother with.
In the late winter you will have to prune your raspberries again, but this is not just topping them. Check out the second half of my "Berry Pruning Time" post on this blog for detailed instructions on the winter pruning of black raspberries. Or you can also watch this video from my YouTube channel.
Black raspberries are probably our favorite crop we grow. We love them fresh and in pies. We freeze enough to have them all winter. Another nice feature of them is that they are easy to grow organically with very little problems. We have never sprayed or fertilized our Black Raspberries. The only thing I do with them is prune them and pick them.
