SECRETS OF YIELDING AND LONG-LASTING RASPBERRY IN THE MIDDLE STRIP

Raspberries are one of my favorite berry crops.

Its sweet and fragrant fruits have not only excellent taste, but also very healthy. I want to share my growing experience.

Raspberries can be ordinary or remontant, with berries of red, yellow or black, with or without thorns, early, medium or late ripening. Productive and frost-resistant varieties are especially valuable. Despite the fact that this is a self-pollinating berry crop, for better pollination and higher yields, it is preferable to grow several different varieties of it on the site. I grow varieties that bear fruit at different times, so I enjoy fragrant berries until the fall. In my garden, ordinary red raspberries of the Sun, Balsam and Peresvet varieties grow.

The early variety Solnyshko attracts with its delicious dessert delicate taste and rich aroma of rather large fruits of universal use, their early ripening (already in the second half of June), high yield, high transportability, resistance to many fungal diseases, and a small number of thorns. But this variety has an average winter hardiness, it requires sufficient soil moisture, it can be affected by blotches and some pests.

The medium-early Balsam variety is distinguished by the friendly ripening of berries in late June - early July, which are very similar to wild raspberries in their taste and aroma, resistant to weather conditions, fungal, viral diseases and some pests, have high winter hardiness and productivity. The use of berries is universal. The bush has a small number of thorns, it does not rot, the berries do not crumble. But this raspberry forms a sufficient amount of shoots, so pruning is required, although the culture does not spread quickly across the site.

The medium-late raspberry variety Peresvet attracts with tasty, juicy, rather large oblong

fruits of universal use, good transportability, resistance to many diseases and pests, high productivity, winter hardiness, compactness of bushes, a small amount of overgrowth. However, this variety has an average thorniness, and the first berries appear only in the second half of July, but due to the extended fruiting period, they can be enjoyed for a long time.

Raspberries are a light-loving crop, but can grow and bear fruit in partial shade, but the yield there will be lower. Therefore, I choose for her a well-lit area, protected from the winds.

Raspberries prefer loose, fertile, permeable soils with sufficient, but not excessive moisture content, and heavy, acidic and sandy soils are not suitable for it. Acidic soils must be limed, clay soil, humus or compost should be added to sandy soils, and sand should be added to heavy soils. My soil is light loam, it holds moisture well and is perfect for growing raspberries.

When planting raspberries, I avoid low places where plants grow worse, suffer more from fungal diseases and low temperatures. I also don’t plant it on very elevated dry areas, since there will not be enough moisture for raspberries, which can weaken the growth of the crop, cause the fruiting stems to dry out, the berries to shrink and their yield to decrease. I usually choose flat areas. The root system of raspberries does not tolerate stagnant water, so places with a high level of groundwater are not suitable for planting.

I prefer to plant raspberries in the fall, from late September to mid-October, because the bush tolerates planting better during the dormant period, when there are no leaves. You can do this procedure in early spring, but if you are a little late, then the survival rate will decrease significantly. Raspberries wake up buds very early, after which they actively prepare for flowering and fruiting, so they will not have enough strength to develop a powerful root system. Seedlings, even if they take root, can get sick, be weak, and the berries are small and in small quantities.

For planting, I choose annual seedlings with a well-formed root system at least 20 cm long, without damage, and shorten the aerial part to 30 cm so that all the forces of the plant are directed to the development of roots.

I dig holes with a diameter of about 50 cm and a depth of 40 cm in advance, 3 weeks before planting, I fill them with organic and mineral fertilizers: 8 kg of humus, 100 g of superphosphate and 50 g of potassium sulfate, mixing them well with the ground. I place the seedlings at a distance of about 80 cm from each other, and between the rows I leave at least 1 m. If the planting is too dense, the bushes thicken and the berries become smaller.

I do not bury the seedlings excessively, otherwise they will develop slowly and may even die. I do not advise making too shallow a landing, since in this case the basal buds will dry out, the superficial root system will not be able to provide the bush with moisture, and in winter it may freeze slightly. I place the seedlings in such a way that their roots are 2-3 cm below the soil surface, but no more. After planting, I slightly compact the soil around the plants, form holes, water it, and then mulch the soil near the seedlings with humus with a layer of 8 cm, which protects against weeds, helps retain moisture and better endure the winter.

Raspberries are moisture-loving, so I try to prevent the soil from drying out, especially during flowering and fruit formation. Periodically throughout the season, I rake the mulch and carefully loosen the soil around the bushes in a shallow way so as not to damage the surface root system. I tie up large bushes so that they do not lean to the ground.

TWO-CYCLE RASPBERRY GROWING TECHNOLOGY - VIDEO

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Reference by topic: Growing raspberries regular and remontant - differences and pros and cons

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To increase the yield and quality of berries, as well as reduce the number of pests and diseases, raspberries require annual pruning. In the autumn, after harvesting the fruits, I cut and burn all dry, weak, broken, damaged by diseases and pests, as well as shoots that bear fruit to the soil level, leaving no stumps, since the aerial part of the raspberry lives only 2 years.

In young branches, I pinch the tops by 15 cm, I noticed that this favors better ripening of the stems (the growth of the main shoot stops, in winter it freezes less, more side branches and fruit buds will form, due to which next year the crop will increase and the fruiting time will last).

In early April, before the onset of abundant sap flow, I leave a few (no more than 5) of the strongest young shoots per bush, and cut off the rest. Throughout the season, I also remove the excess shoots that form near the raspberry so that it does not take strength from the plants, but I leave a few shoots near the main bush for planting.

Since I filled the planting pits well with fertilizers, I start feeding raspberries only in the third year after planting, combining this procedure with watering so as not to cause burns. I feed several times a season, using organic and mineral fertilizers.

In the spring, I use a solution of rotted chicken manure diluted in water 1:20, or mullein 1:10, after watering the plants with water.

While tying and pouring berries, I use wood ash top dressing. I dilute 10 g of wood ash in 100 liters of hot water, insist the solution for two days, stirring it periodically, and then water the raspberry bushes with it, or add 1 glass of dry wood ash under each bush with its embedding in the soil.

In autumn, at the end of September - beginning of October, I add 2 tbsp. spoons of potassium sulfate and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of super-phosphate per 1 sq. m, so that the raspberries are better prepared for the winter, flower buds are laid in it.

After massive leaf fall, I spend abundant moisture-charging watering, which is especially necessary if the end of summer and the beginning of autumn were dry. Thanks to him, raspberries winter better, bloom more abundantly and bear fruit next year.

Unfortunately, not all varieties of this berry crop are highly winter hardy, so for the winter I bend down the stems of non-hardy varieties and mulch with a layer of humus about 8 cm thick to protect the root system from frost and enrich the soil with useful nutrients. In winter, I also spud the bushes with snow.

Raspberries can be affected by diseases and pests. As a preventive measure, I try to timely prune the bushes, remove excess shoots, weeds, carefully loosen the ground, prevent excessive waterlogging of the soil during irrigation, as well as excess nitrogen fertilizers. After pruning, I burn plant residues, fallen leaves, dig up the ground under raspberry plantings, and in the spring I additionally increase the soil due to mulch in the form of compost or humus, which prevents pests from leaving the soil.

Throughout the season, I regularly inspect the shrubs and, at the first sign of the appearance of pests or diseases, I cut out all the damaged parts, burn them, replace the topsoil, and carry out preventive treatments.

To protect against pests, I plant calendula and onions next to raspberries, which scare them away. For the same purpose, I spray the bushes with an infusion of wormwood (3 kg of wormwood pour 10 liters of boiling water, insist for a day, filter and use). Against worms in berries, I spray plants with a solution of mustard: I dissolve 20 g of dry powder in 10 liters of water. I do at least 10 days between treatments.

In rainy weather, gray rot can appear on raspberries, against which I usually dust the bushes and the soil around them with wood ash.

Viral diseases in raspberries are not treated, so diseased bushes with roots should be dug up and burned, and healthy plants should be transplanted to a new place to avoid infection.

If there are a lot of pests, and diseases are spreading rapidly, then you have to use fungicides. The main thing is to observe the dosage and carry out treatments at a certain time.

Every 9-10 years you have to plant a new raspberry tree, and plant something else in place of the old one. I noticed that if every 5 years old raspberry rhizomes are removed, which, unlike the aerial part, are perennial, then the yield of this crop not only increases noticeably, but it can then be grown in one place for a longer time.

Raspberries can be propagated by root offspring, cuttings, dividing the bush, seeds. I prefer propagation by root offspring. To do this, near the mother bush, at a short distance from it, I leave several shoots of young shoots, I take care of them during the summer, and in the fall I carefully dig them out with a clod of earth and transplant them to a prepared permanent place.

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Reference by topic: Repaired raspberry (photo) planting and leaving from A to Z

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1000 SECRETS OF RASPBERRY CARE ON AN EXCELLENT VIDEO

© Author: S. Martynov, Eagle

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