People have long known and revered raspberries. In Russia, this berry became known in the XII century and became widespread. In the world there are more than 600 varieties of raspberries. It is grown in 37 countries, on an industrial scale and in the private sector. To enjoy sweet aromatic berries in summer and autumn, you need to pay attention to raspberries from the first warm days.
How to care for raspberries in spring
A good harvest of raspberries is not so much a gift of nature as the painstaking work of a gardener. Even very productive varieties can produce poor results if they are improperly or improperly looked after. Learn the basic rules of agricultural technology to grow sweet, juicy raspberries.
The main care for raspberries in the spring begins in March and comes down to such procedures:
- hot shower;
- pruning
- soil care;
- garter;
- top dressing;
- watering;
- pest protection;
- protection against diseases.
Hot shower
In early March, the remains of leaves and debris at the base of the bushes should be carefully scooped up. These wastes must be burned, as they may contain harmful insects and microorganisms. Then you should make a hot shower of raspberries to destroy harmful microorganisms.
For the procedure you need:
- Bring 5 liters of water to a boil and fill the sprinkler.
- From a height of about 1 meter, pour raspberry bushes through a spout with a diffuser.
This procedure is not only harmless, but also very useful for raspberries. Hot water does not have time to burn the sleeping kidneys of raspberries, as it cools to 70 degrees (until it reaches the bushes). A hot shower is a great way to kill a nematode, which sometimes does not succumb to even the most powerful chemicals.
On average, 1 watering can of hot water is enough to process 2-4 bushes. If raspberry bushes are large (10-15 branches), then spend 5 liters of water in 2 bushes.
Spring pruning
After a hot shower, as soon as a positive temperature is established, the topsoil will dry out, raspberry bushes are cut and shaped. Regardless of the method of planting raspberries, it is more practical to prune in 2 stages: in early spring and later, when a constant temperature is set above 5 degrees Celsius.
Dry shoots, noticeably different in color from young ones, are cut off at the base with a sharp secateurs
At the first stage, weak shoots near the ground itself are removed, deflated, curved, thickened branches and stems with swelling at the base (gall midge larvae winter there). Thin out the remaining stems, leaving 6-8 stems during the cluster formation, and up to 15-20 stems per linear meter with tape (trench) planting. Thickening will lead to lower yields and smaller berries.
It is necessary to cut out completely frozen, broken, underdeveloped and damaged by pests stems and burn them.
The raspberry shoot, in which the stem gall midwintered, has a thickening
It should be trimmed with a sharp secateurs and damaged areas in frozen stems to the upper living kidney. In young healthy bushes, the tops are cut to 20 cm. This pinch will ensure the growth of side shoots.
Scheme spring pruning raspberry bushes
Video: how to trim raspberries in spring
Soil care
Caring for raspberries after winter, gardeners should avoid digging the soil between the rows so as not to damage the roots, the depth of which does not exceed 30 centimeters. Digging aisles is permissible only in the autumn season.
In spring, the soil in the raspberry is mulched, that is, covered with a thick (up to 15 cm) layer of mulch. As the mulching material, you can use:
- cereal residues;
- humus;
- rotted straw;
- compost.
The process of mulching should be preceded by a procedure of deep (up to 10 centimeters) loosening and abundant watering.
Mulching prevents the depletion of the substrate, contributes to the long-term preservation of moisture under the bushes and the supply of the root system with a rich complex of nutrients. The method of mulching is contraindicated only in relation to very moist soils: they only need to be loosened and fertilizer applied.
The raspberry root system tends to grow, capturing large areas. To prevent this process, it is necessary to fence raspberries. To do this, it is enough to dig a strip of galvanized iron or tin around its entire perimeter (the width of the strip should be at least twenty centimeters). Thanks to this barrier, the raspberry will remain in place.
Raspberry Garter: Stake and Trellis Methods
An equally important point is the correct garter of raspberry vines. This is especially true for varieties bending under the weight of their own fruits. The procedure will help:
- resist brittle and flexible shoots before gusts of wind and rain;
- withstand heavy harvest branches;
- provide bushes with good lighting;
- make harvesting more enjoyable (do not scratch your hands).
When bush formation of raspberries, a stake is driven between 2 bushes and half of the bush is tied (from each stem) to each stake. With this method of garters, step trimming is used. Each stalk is cut to a different height - 10-15-20 cm.
The easiest, most economical and affordable way to garnish raspberries is stake
The most popular type of supports are trellises. How to properly carry out a garter:
- The columns for the supports are clogged around the edges and in the middle of each row.
- A wire is pulled between them (the height of the upper cross member is 100-120 cm, the lower - 60-80 cm).
- Each vine is not too tightly tied to the cross members in two places, using hemp twine or strips of soft tissue. A properly tied bush should take a vertical position and not fall over.
Columns 2.2-2.3 meters high are dug in increments of 3.5-4.5 meters, a wire is stretched between them at a height of 0.75, 1 and 1.6 meters
Among the varieties that do not require garter, are:
- early Hussar variety with red berries;
- Tarusa variety with shoots of the standard type;
- repair grade Monomakh Hat;
- Penguin variety with a standard type of bush 1.1-1.4 m high;
- high-yielding variety Orange miracle with large golden berries.
Watering
Raspberries are very sensitive to moisture, but there is no strict watering schedule. They are carried out according to the state of raspberry and weather conditions. Especially frequent and sufficient watering is necessary for raspberries during flowering and the formation of the ovary. With a lack of water, the berries are small, dry, bony. Watering is carried out along the furrows. The soil should be saturated with water up to 10-15 cm layer. At the end of watering, mulching is mandatory.
Video: how to water raspberries correctly and how often
//youtube.com/watch?v=JYkouEipDYQ
After pruning, weed and loosen the soil, feed the plants and treat them from pests. Early spring is the best period for applying nitrogen fertilizers to the soil. They are brought in after melting snow before loosening the soil. Nitrogen increases productivity and causes the growth and development of powerful shoots, however, it is not necessary to add them above the norm.
Nitrogen fertilizers are applied to freshly thawed and not yet loosened soil, barely freed from snow
I scatter urea or ammonium nitrate on the ground up to 15 grams per square meter. m. (this is 1 matchbox). Together with nitrogen fertilizer, I bring in ash, which also deoxidizes the soil.
To prevent viral and fungal diseases before budding, I process the bushes and the soil surface beneath them with a 1% copper chloride solution or use a 3% Bordeaux mixture.
During the period of bud opening, I begin the fight against pests: aphids, ticks, raspberry bud moth. I process bushes with Fufanon at the rate of 2 liters of solution per 10 bushes. I also use folk remedies. To protect plants from weevil larvae, I dissolve 5 tablespoons of mustard powder in 10 liters of water, insist 10-12 hours and spray the bushes with this composition.
The rates of mineral fertilizers range from 60-80 g / sq. m
When caring for raspberries, it is important to prevent the soil from drying out, so in spring the ground under the bushes is mulched with straw, peat or sawdust with a layer of up to 20 cm. You can use black spanbond for this. In addition to retaining moisture in the soil, such a simple operation allows you to:
- maintain a constant soil temperature;
- reduce the number of weeds and shoots, preventing them from breaking through to the light;
- protect bushes from pests wintering in the soil;
- get raspberries extra nutrition.
Raspberry bushes are mulched with organic fertilizers: straw manure, humus or peat compost
Care for young raspberries
In raspberries, fruiting occurs in the second year, and in the first - shoots only grow. Young growth also needs to be trimmed for the correct formation of the bush, cut out extra shoots to provide the bush with normal air exchange, sufficient light and nutrition in the future.
With the bush method of planting raspberries, I cut young shoots of the first year with secateurs to a height of 40-50 cm, and in the bush I leave 5-6 of the largest and healthiest last year shoots. My pruner is always sharp, processed with a potassium permanganate solution to prevent infection from entering the slices.
As for the repairing varieties, the berries are obtained on young shoots of the first year in the fall. If before winter it was not possible to trim the aerial part at the soil level and you want to get only one, but a large crop, then in the spring, before the start of the growing season, all the stems must be removed. When the shoots grow by 30-40 cm, a normalization is carried out - only 5-6 of the most developed shoots per bush are left. The tweezers, or pinching of green shoots, are not made in repairing varieties.
Video: raspberry dressing
Yellow Raspberry Care
Berries of yellow raspberries are a godsend for people allergic to red fruits. Varieties of yellow raspberries are very diverse. But in the cultivation of yellow and red raspberries there are no significant differences.
Yellow raspberry is an incredibly frost-resistant bush, characterized by low whimsicality and increased endurance.
How to care for black raspberries
The fruits of black raspberry are medicinal, their anticarcinogenic effect is proved. The choice of place for planting, the composition of the soil, top dressing, protection from pests and diseases will be the same as for red raspberries. However, there are differences:
- black raspberries have a powerful root system;
- forms very few root offspring;
- the bushes do not lie.
Cumberland Raspberry Variety is a hybrid of raspberries and blackberries
For black raspberries in the spring, it is important to form bushes correctly. After the growth of young annual shoots to 0.5 m, we cut off their tops by 10 cm, then by autumn they will form into high shoots. Last year's weak branches are cut to the base, and strong ones need to be shortened, leaving only 4-5 buds.
Video: spring pruning of Cumberland black raspberries
Features of spring raspberry care in the regions
Due to its unpretentiousness, raspberries grow in various climatic conditions. The work done by the breeders showed the world magnificent winter-hardy, stable, productive hybrids. Nevertheless, it is better to select zoned raspberry varieties and hybrids for cultivation.
Spring raspberry care in Belarus
The climate in Belarus is temperate continental, with relatively small temperature amplitudes, which allows you not to bend raspberry bushes for the winter. Therefore, spring work to care for raspberries can begin immediately with pruning and top dressing. The timing of these works varies in 2-3 weeks between the south of the country and the north. So, in the Vitebsk region (the northernmost in Belarus), work with raspberries begins in April, and in the south in March. In the southern and southeastern regions, it is necessary to monitor the soil moisture and, if necessary, water the bushes in early spring. It is necessary to make additions to the top dressing of raspberry bushes. The soils of Belarus are not adequately provided with trace elements, especially boron, sulfur, and copper. Therefore, trace elements should be added to spring dressing.
To make up for the deficiency in micro- and macrocells, I use fertilizer for strawberries and raspberries Zdorov Turbo, which, moreover, does not contain chlorine. In a bucket of water with a volume of 10 l I plant 15 grams of fertilizer and water it 2-3 times a month until flowering. All winter I collect eggshells and in the spring in a crushed form I mix it with ash. I use this mixture for the first spring top dressing and reduce soil acidity. I also use ash to protect raspberries from diseases: I pour 300 grams into 10 liters of water, insist 5-6 hours and, adding 100 grams of liquid laundry soap, spray the plants.
In the middle zone of Russia, in the suburbs
The climate and conditions of central Russia are perfect for growing raspberries. Spring care for the plant in this region does not stand out anything special and begins in late March.
Video: raspberry care in the spring in a small area in the suburbs
In the Urals and Siberia
The climate of Siberia and the Urals is particularly severe, so spring work in raspberry trees begins only in April. Before the night temperature is set to about zero, and the daytime temperature is from 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, it is not worth opening the bushes after winter. Before the night temperature sets above zero, the plants are not bent, but the soil is already being opened so that it warms up and root nutrition begins. Small-droplet spraying of bushes can be carried out, while plants can better tolerate return frosts. To start the growth of shoots, plants are covered with black covering material. Wake raspberries in time - this is the secret of growing this berry in Siberia and the Urals.
Correctly and on time, having completed all the spring work to care for raspberries, you will form strong, healthy bushes, get a great harvest and make a contribution to the next year's harvest. Modern medicine considers raspberries an elixir of health and longevity, and the excellent taste of berries leaves no one indifferent. Take some effort in the spring to enjoy healthy and sweet berries.
