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Repair raspberry is a real breakthrough in the selection work of scientists. Its popularity has not subsided for several decades, despite the fact that among gardeners there are still disputes over the suitability of this or that pruning or methods of growing remontant varieties of raspberries. And caring for her cannot be called too simple, although in many ways it is much easier than for ordinary raspberries. In general, novice gardeners are most interested in how to care for remontant raspberries, since opinions sometimes differ here, because each gardener has his own unique experience. And it strongly depends, both on the climatic characteristics of the region where raspberries are grown, and on the characteristics of a particular raspberry variety.
Repairing raspberry and its features
If we compare it with ordinary raspberries, then the latter is characterized by a two-year cultivation, when flowers and ovaries are formed on the shoots of the last year, and all annuals go green in the winter. Naturally, it takes time for flowers and ovaries to form, so remontant raspberries bear fruit closer to autumn.
If you give her the opportunity to leave intact into the winter, then from spring these fruiting branches will behave like ordinary two-year-old raspberry shoots. That is, in the summer, flowers will appear on them, and then berries. Simultaneously with them, the next young annual shoots will develop. Thus, in the middle of summer, the remontant raspberry bush will consist, as it were, of two parts: two-year-old shoots with berries and annual shoots, just preparing for fruiting.
But such an ideal picture is possible only in the south. In most regions of Russia, it is usually impossible to collect two harvests. Since, due to the heavy load, the second fruiting is often postponed in terms of autumn, when frosts often occur and the harvest generally does not have time to ripen. That is why the cultivation of remontant raspberries in the so-called annual culture is recommended. In this case, raspberry bushes in the fall after fruiting are cut out at ground level, and in the spring new annual growths appear, which develop over the summer and by autumn give a good harvest of large and tasty berries.
But the cultivation and care of remontant raspberries, as well as their pruning, are still the subject of heated discussions among gardeners. Since most of them find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the harvest can be obtained only once a year, although not in the traditional season for raspberries. Therefore, many, despite all the recommendations, experiment with pruning remontant raspberries and sometimes get very interesting results.
Different types of pruning
So, pruning remontant raspberries has a clear relationship with the number of crops.
- If you want one large and high-quality crop, then cut off all shoots under the root in late autumn.
- If you want to get two harvests, then do not touch anything in the fall.
But the cultivation of remontant raspberries is not for nothing that causes so much discussion.
- This is necessary for southern regions where mild winters with many thaws may occur when pruning. remontant raspberries in autumn cause premature kidney spilling.
- It is also useful for northern and little snow regions, where the raspberry shoots left before winter will help trap snow and prevent the root system from freezing. In addition, the breeder himself, who bred all the latest varieties of remontant raspberries, was recommended to prune them in early spring.
But besides this, remontant raspberries, like all ordinary varieties, must be rationed.
Rationing is made so that the raspberry has exactly as many shoots as it can feed. And so that each shoot can get enough light and nutrition for full fruiting. Common raspberries are very prone to thickening. The remontant raspberry also has an advantage here - most of its varieties do not form a very large number of shoots.
However, rationing is necessary for remontant raspberries too. Actually, caring for remontant raspberries in the spring begins with the procedure for rationing the bush, if the cardinal pruning was done in the fall. To do this, you need to wait for young annual shoots to grow out of the ground, and carefully cut out all thin, weakened or simply superfluous ones. Each bush should have no more than 4-7 (depending on the variety) strong and strong raspberry shoots. This procedure may well be combined with reproduction of raspberries.
In the video below you can see one of the options for thinning and pruning remontant raspberries in the spring:
As for pruning, there is another agricultural technique that can significantly increase the productivity of the bushes. Around the beginning of summer, when young raspberry shoots have reached a height of about one meter, they must be cut to half the height. The bushes must be additionally fed and shed. Cut off shoots quickly enough are covered with a large number of branched fruit branches, from which a good harvest can be harvested in August-September.
Landing
You can plant remontant raspberries both in autumn and spring. In the southern regions, it is better to plant in the fall, since at this time the most favorable conditions are created for the survival of the bushes. Moreover, due to mild winters, there is no danger of freezing the root system in the very first months after planting.
This opportunity is often used by gardeners in temperate latitudes.
For planting raspberries choose the sunniest and most sheltered from the winds. This is especially true for the northern regions. Even a little shading can lead to a decrease in its yield.
Planting and caring for raspberries in the future requires a very thoughtful approach, since remontant raspberries can grow in one place for up to 10-13 years, and all this time it is quite capable of producing significant yields. Groundwater should not be located higher than 1.5 m from the ground surface. You can not place future plantations in the place where nightshade crops used to grow: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes. To the place of the former raspberry planting raspberries are returned no earlier than after 6-7 years.
The soil for planting raspberries should be fertile and loose. When preparing a site for planting raspberries, about three buckets of decomposed humus or compost are introduced per square meter. Peat and wood ash additives are also good.
Choosing a scheme planting remontant raspberries, thickening of the landings should not be allowed. On average, there can be about 3-4 raspberry bushes per square meter. The most common landing pattern is an ordinary one, with a distance between plants of about 60-80 cm.At least 2-2.5 m is left between the rows.
At the same time, the distance between plants is reduced to 50 cm. This method of planting creates ideal lighting conditions for the bushes.
The planting technique itself does not fundamentally differ from planting ordinary raspberries. Bushes can be planted either in trenches or holes. It is important that the planting depth is exactly the same at which the plant grew before. Both deepening and high planting adversely affect the further development of seedlings. After planting, the seedlings must be shed well, using about 10 liters of water per bush.
The video below shows the process of planting seedlings of remontant raspberries of the Zhar-Bird variety:
In many sources, you can find a recommendation to cut off the entire aerial part after planting near raspberry bushes. This is done mainly to prevent the spread of foci of infection, which can persist on the shoots. But this operation also has negative consequences. In this part of the plant, the maximum number of nutrients necessary for development is concentrated in the first time after planting. Therefore, you should consider whether to apply this technique, especially in areas with a harsh climate, where the absorption of nutrients from the external environment is difficult.
Care
Answering the question of how to grow remontant raspberries, one cannot fail to mention the actions that are mandatory for all temperate latitudes, which make it possible to accelerate the ripening time of raspberries. In early spring, it is necessary to carry out a number of procedures to improve the heating of the soil.
- It is necessary to clear the snow from those places where raspberries grow.
- Cover the landings with non-woven fabric or film.
- For the spring period, you can even build a frame using covering materials before the onset of constantly warm weather.
- Initially plant raspberries on tall, warm beds with a lot of organic matter inside them.
Feeding raspberries
Growing remontant raspberries, as well as caring for them, should, first of all, be aimed at obtaining a plentiful and high-quality harvest. Therefore, regular feeding is one of the main ways of caring for raspberry plantings. It is possible to use mineral fertilizers - in this case, mainly nitrogen fertilizers are applied in the first half of summer, and starting from the middle of summer every week they are fed with phosphorus, potassium and a full set of trace elements, preferably in a chelated form.
A wonderful way to maintain optimal moisture in raspberry plantings is to mulch the bushes. In the fall, after trimming the shoots, planting can be mulched with a layer of humus or rotted sawdust, 10 cm high. In the spring, this layer of mulch will serve as a source of additional nutrition for raspberries. Moreover, by summer, the mulch layer must be increased; on hot days, it will help retain moisture at the plant roots.
What else does a remontant raspberry need?
Caring for remontant raspberries is facilitated by the fact that most varieties do not grow very large in height. The average height of the bushes is from one to one and a half meters. Therefore, laborious operations for installing trellis and tying bushes when caring for remontant varieties can be excluded. But watering must be treated with great responsibility. Indeed, without a sufficient amount of water, raspberry bushes will not be able to develop well, which will certainly affect the yield. On the other hand, excess moisture can also kill raspberries. If you have a large enough raspberry plantation, then it is advisable to build a drip irrigation system.
The best option would be to mulch with straw or sawdust both the plantings themselves and the row spacing.
Reproduction
No matter how you care for the bushes, after 10-12 years, the remontant raspberry needs a transplant. The easiest way is to propagate raspberry bushes by root layers. Although, unlike ordinary raspberry varieties, remontant ones do not form much growth. But remontant raspberries also reproduce well by root cuttings. It only takes a little longer. In autumn, in cloudy weather, it is necessary to dig out several fertile raspberry bushes and carefully separate 1 / 5-1 / 6 of each bush from each bush. The rhizomes are divided into pieces about 10 cm long, while the thickness of the cuttings should be at least 3 mm. In order to grow full-fledged seedlings from these cuttings, you can go in two ways:
- The cuttings are immediately planted horizontally in a prepared bed with loose, fertile soil and covered with a 5-10 cm layer of organic mulch on top.
- Cuttings are stored until spring in a cellar in wet sawdust or moss. In the spring they germinate in the warmth and are also planted in the beds.
By the fall of these cuttings, seedlings are obtained, which can be transplanted to a permanent place.
In an interesting way reproduction of remontant raspberries is the cuttings of cut-off shoots in the fall. Instead of throwing them away, they can be cut into small pieces 20-30 cm long and immediately stuck into a small nursery with loose soil. For the winter, the cuttings are well insulated with a layer of straw, and in the spring they are already covered with buds. By autumn, rooted cuttings are transplanted from the nursery to a permanent place. The transplanted bushes should not be allowed to bloom and form ovaries in the current season, otherwise the plants may weaken greatly.
Of course, the cultivation of remontant raspberries cannot be called simple, but you will certainly be rewarded for your efforts with a large harvest of tasty and aromatic berries, especially at a time when all the other berries have already departed.
