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Raspberry is an unusually tasty berry with medicinal properties. Both adults and children love to enjoy it. With its help, you can strengthen the immune system, cure colds faster, get rid of fever and even renew blood. Breeders have bred a variety of varieties of this plant.
Some varieties bear fruit twice a year. Many gardeners really liked the remontant varieties of raspberries, since they do not require complex maintenance. How to prune remontant raspberries in the fall? The answer to this question is very important, since the harvest in the next season will depend on how to trim the raspberries. Therefore, this article is devoted to covering the topic of pruning raspberries... Also, at the end, a video corresponding to the topic will be provided.
Features of remontant varieties of raspberries
The main feature of remontant raspberries is fruiting 2 times a year, namely in spring and autumn. Below are the distinctive features of this type of berry:
- In the spring, the crop ripens on the branches of the second year, and in the fall - on the stems of the first year of life.
- The period of autumn fruiting begins in August and lasts until late autumn.
- Berries can stay on the branches for a long time without decaying or crumbling.
- If you decide to perform a full cut of the shoots for the winter, then the root system will not need to be covered.
- Gives few replacement shoots.
- It does not need to be sprayed with chemicals.
Such properties prolong the fruiting period of the raspberry tree. Repaired raspberries appeared on the territory of the Soviet Union in the 70s. last century. The first varieties bred in the USSR managed to give away most of the berries before persistent frosts. Raspberry remontant can give up to 10 kg of large berries from a bush.
Distinctive features of pruning
I want to say right away that pruning remontant raspberries for the winter differs from the pruning of ordinary varieties of berries. All remontant varieties have three phases of development - growth, branching and fruiting, which take one year. In view of this, berries of this type are cut in a special way. After the end of autumn fruiting, the aerial part of the remontant raspberry must be completely cut off.
In the spring, new stems will grow, which will need to be thinned out so that the strong ones can gain strength and grow. From this, we can conclude that remontant varieties do not have a two-year cycle, as in ordinary plant species, but a one-year cycle. This has its advantages. Due to the annual complete pruning of the raspberry tree, diseases dangerous to the plant do not accumulate and pests do not have time to multiply in large numbers. In addition, due to the complete pruning of the aboveground part of the plant, it is not afraid of frost, which will not cause you much trouble in caring for remontant raspberries in the fall.
Since the summer on Russian lands is not very long, in some regions gardeners manage to collect only the first fruits, after which persistent cold weather sets in. And many ovaries and flowers remain on the branches. Under such conditions, pruning of remontant raspberries in the fall is performed in a slightly different way.
Some gardeners do all the work in the same way as when growing conventional varieties. A stem that has begun to bear fruit will not dry out during the winter cold. In this case, the raspberries immediately after wintering will begin to branch and will produce berries already at the beginning of summer. During the fruiting period, new stems will grow, from which in autumn you can collect many more delicious berries.
Repaired raspberries produce two yields, which in total correspond to the yield from one crop of common berry varieties. It is very important to cut the stems two years ago after the first fruiting, somewhere in the middle of summer. Also normalize the newly growing stems.
Pruning technique
If you are new to growing raspberries, then it will be helpful for you to familiarize yourself with the technique of pruning raspberries. Do you need to trim raspberries completely? It all depends on how cold the region you live in. If raspberries do not have time to ripen in the fall, then there is no need to complete their complete cut. And if you manage to harvest in the fall, then all the stems need to be cut off.
Now another question arises: how to properly cut remontant raspberries at the root? If you have to carry out a complete pruning of the bushes, this does not mean that you do not need to leave the stems at all. 10-15 cm of branches should remain from the ground in height. Since the root system of remontant raspberries is not very deep, the stems left will be able to provide the roots with sufficient nutrition before the cold weather, so that the plant can overwinter.
Initially, all efforts are directed to the development of the root system and bush. Active cutting of shoots should be done in the second year. Strengthened by spring, the roots will sprout enough stems to produce a double raspberry harvest.
Cut off shoots and stems must be disposed of as soon as possible. Remove them from the beds and burn them, as pests and pathogenic bacteria can breed on them.
Fighting overgrowth
If, after the pruning of the remontant raspberries was carried out in the fall, there is no stable cold for 2 months, as a result of which the soil freezes, then the buds may germinate prematurely. This will negatively affect the yield. That is, full pruning is carried out in regions with milder climates, and partial pruning in regions with severe winters.
If you wait for the buds to bloom in the spring and then prune, then the bush will receive all the necessary substances, which will accelerate its growth. In the northern regions, this is especially important, since the earlier the raspberries wake up, the more abundant harvest can be expected.
Secrets of preparing for winter
Proper preparation of the plant for winter is the key to a good harvest in the coming season. Raspberries are quite capricious, so it is important to know how to properly care for them. Therefore, later in the article we will talk about how to care for remontant raspberries.
If uncut raspberry stalks are left as they are, severe frosts can destroy them. Therefore, they need to be bent down. This activity will provide additional protection to the raspberries, as the stalks will be covered with snow throughout the winter.
Raspberry care in autumn It may seem difficult for beginners, but if you follow all the recommendations outlined in the article, you can achieve success. And in fact, not everything is as complicated as it might seem. To perform the bending, you should pull a wire near the ground between the trellises, to which raspberries are tied in summer. All the tops of the shoots are tied to it. This must be done before frost, until the stems become fragile.
In order for raspberries to winter well, it is required to fertilize them in the fall. It is better to refuse nitrogenous ones, as they will lower the frost resistance of the plant. And instead of them, add potash and phosphorus fertilizers to the soil. In regions with little snow, you need to cover the bushes with snow so that they do not freeze. And if it does not exist at all, then you will have to cover the raspberry tree with some covering material.
Mulching. If necessary
After you finish pruning the remontant raspberries for the winter, remove the cut branches from the raspberries, you can mulch the soil.But is it necessary to do this? Mulching will protect the shallow root system from frost. The roots are located literally 15 cm deep from the surface of the earth, so they need additional protection. Trimming raspberries alone will not protect them from the cold.
Mulching provides an optimal balance of temperature and humidity for the root system of raspberry bushes. Moreover, thanks to these manipulations, a crust will not appear on the soil, which means that the roots will always have enough oxygen. Mulching is carried out to a depth of 7 cm. Wood ash, sawdust, peat, straw, humus, crushed bark and needles are used as mulch. So, you will improve the fertility of the soil, which will contain a lot of humus.
With regular mulching, overgrowth can be minimized. In addition, growth will decline weeds... So, with proper pruning and caring for remontant raspberries, you will receive a well-deserved reward - a bountiful harvest of healing and tasty berries. We suggest you watch a video on how to trim remontant raspberries:
