Sounds like you're doing things right - if they just went in in 2012, the first year (2013) will be a little different than this year since they were still getting established, so I'd just wait and see what happens.

Thanks, but wondering with these 4ft tall straight green canes - do I tip them to get laterals later this year or next? Or just leave them until next summer?

Got my first (2) ripe raspberries today - Killarney. Lowbush blueberries coming too (a handful today). Next weekend should be busy. No rain to speak of (less than 1/4" on Wed) past 2 weeks so I've got the drip hose on them - do I want to be sparing with the water on the Killarneys right now, or generous? Encore right behind them. Have some green fruit on TC but mostly still flowers. The unknown raspberry just has some of these bare-looking flowers (it was later than the other raspberries last year, and I didn't have TC to speak of).

Generally, reds don't do much if you top them, whereas black or purple raspberries do grow many additional laterals. So, if they're red, I'd leave them. During flowering / fruiting it's usually suggested to make sure the plants get 1.5 to 2" of water per week.

I've read with Royalty, a purple both to tip it and not to, hmm. The last 2 years I waited for the canes to get to the top trellis wire and then tipped them and got zero laterals, maybe don't tip is what I'll go with this year. sorry, don't remember the tipping dates but the canes would have been at least 4' tall at tipping and I'd guess there was at least 1 month of frost free weather after tipping.

Michael, you can top, or not top, purples but if you do top them then the suggested height is to top when they're around 3' and to take off 4". Maybe topping higher prevents branching?

These are reds so I'll leave them alone. Ran the soaker hose for a few hours the other day and 3 days of rain expected starting tomorrow. No ripe berries today but I'll check Killarney again 1st thing in the AM. I'm still getting strawberries! Squirrels gave up (though slugs still a problem), I picked a quart out of app. 100sf bed that I just picked a pint from on Sat. Probably another pint slug damaged.

I didn't tip my Royalty purple raspberries last year and they got to about 6ft but no laterals. The trouble was that they need to be tied to a trellis wire to keep them from falling over with their fruit load. I'm about 50% complete with their first fruiting year.

I also have Caroline red raspberries (primocane fruiting) and I do not summer tip them. The primocanes are starting to flower now but last year the bugs were so bad I just cut the tops off and thew away the berries. I have been using the floricane crop which arrived early (early-June) before the bugs and heat become a problem.