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Sometimes it happens that varietal raspberries grow in the garden, and the harvest is scanty. And the berries themselves are not as tasty, smaller than indicated in the characteristics of the variety. Novice gardeners begin to think that they were deceived when selling planting material. In fact, the reason lies in improper care of plants, in particular, when carrying out raspberry trimmings.
Raspberry is a branched plant, shoots live for two years. If you do not prune in the spring, then the plant will spend energy on feeding the green mass, and not on flowering. And few colors are formed. Experienced gardeners know how to prune raspberries in spring, but beginners have many problems. Let's take a look at the nuances of spring pruning in raspberries.
Features of culture
In addition to ground shoots, raspberries have rhizomes and roots. It is on the rhizomes that buds are formed, giving replacement shoots. After a while, after the formation of their own roots, they cease to depend on the mother plant. It promotes natural breeding raspberries... Fruits are formed on the shoots of the second year.
If you do not prune raspberries in the spring, the bushes thicken strongly, they will not only have enough food, but also light. Replacement shoots on raspberries will grow frail, strongly elongated. And the berries will start to shrink every year.
What beginner gardeners need to know
Newbies who first started growing raspberries often wonder whether it is necessary to cut raspberries, whether it will not be a waste of time and effort. Let's try to convince them of the need for such procedures for growing raspberries and getting a rich harvest.
Spring pruning of raspberries is of great importance in terms of plant care:
- Helps in pest control and raspberry disease, since damaged and infected shoots are cut off first.
- The remaining shoots have enough room for development. Plants are ventilated, leaves on raspberries and berries practically do not get sick.
- When harvesting, there are no difficulties - all the berries are in full view.
Pruning raspberries in the spring is difficult for novice gardeners, so we want to introduce them to the basic rules:
- Pruning on the plant begins at the end of March, when the buds are just swelling.
- Shoots that have not wintered well, have turned black or were damaged when bending down are removed without pity. This is why experienced gardeners advise leaving more replacement shoots in the winter.
- Cut out unnecessary shoots on the plant at the very surface of the earth so that the stumps are not visible.
- For pruning, they use a pruner, not a knife, so as not to crush the remaining part of the shoot.
- The height of the cut off part of the shoot must be at least 50 cm.
- It is optimal to leave no more than 30 branches per square meter. In this case, each plant will receive a sufficient amount of heat, light, air.
Scheme of pruning raspberries in the spring for novice gardeners in the photo below.
How to prune bushes to increase yields
And now let's move on to the question of how to properly trim raspberries in the spring, and why they are doing it.
If you cut the shoots to different lengths, then the berries will not ripen at the same time, therefore, the production time increases. The shoot is always trimmed to a strong bud.
This uneven pruning of the plant is divided into 3 groups:
- the first group - shortening is carried out by 10-15 cm;
- the second - to the middle;
- on the rest of the shoots, a stump of at least 20 cm is left.
Thus, it is possible to form a raspberry grove, in which the bushes give the crop in stages.
Double cropping
Why are gardeners engaged in raspberry cultivation for one year so confidently following Sobolev's experience? In practice, they were convinced that such an operation with shoots increases the overall yield several times, because lateral fruiting branches enter the "work".
Double pruning of raspberries begins in early June. On annual shoots, it is necessary to pinch the top by 5 cm. A whole summer is enough to awaken the lateral buds, on which additional branches will form. The main thing is to cut off the tops on time, otherwise the shoots will not have time to gain strength before the fall, they endure the winter worse.
The next year, when pruning raspberries, you need to shorten the side shoots by 10 centimeters. Correct pruning of raspberries increases yields, the plants are less sick due to good air circulation.
Of course, taking it as a rule to trim the raspberries twice, you will have to spend more time caring for the plant in the spring. But labor costs are fully justified: during the growing season many peduncles appear on raspberries. Consequently, this will have a positive effect on the yield and increase the time of fruiting. Delicious berries ripen on the plant until frost.
If you follow all the rules for pruning, the result is a real raspberry tree with many branches.
How to trim raspberries according to Sobolev video:
Care features
After the entire raspberry tree has been cut off, the plants are fed and disinfected. Raspberries must be fertilized with mineral and organic substances: potassium, calcium, phosphorus and nitrogen.
If you want to get a rich harvest of raspberries, consider the peculiarities of growing and caring for, pruning and feeding the plants.
What can be fed:
- Compost or humus - a bucket per square meter, bird droppings - up to 6 kg per square.
- From mineral fertilizers - superphosphate, potassium salt and nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Fertilizers are usually added in accordance with the rates indicated on the packaging.
- Wood ash. You can simply sprinkle it under each bush or pour it with an ash solution. One glass is needed per square. Some experienced gardeners spend foliar feeding: sprinkle ashes over the entire plant from top to bottom. In addition to feeding, ash protects plants from pests and diseases.
Raspberry bushes, after pruning, the soil should be sprayed with a disinfecting solution, for example, Fungicide.
Raspberry care in the spring it involves timely watering, loosening, weeding weeds... All types of work must be completed in a timely manner.
What is the bottom line
Taking care of raspberries is not that difficult. Gardeners need to water, feed, fertilize plants. Do not forget about loosening the soil and weeding. These operations can be minimized by using mulching or covering the soil with black non-woven material.
But this is not the most important thing, because without pruning raspberries in the spring, the plantings are thickened. Productivity drops dramatically. In addition, pests and diseases are popular with plants.What harvest of raspberries can we talk about?
We hope that we managed to convince novice gardeners of the need to prune raspberries in the spring. The main task of such a procedure is to wake up the growth of young shoots, relieve the root system from excessive stress and get a rich harvest of raspberries.
