Features Of Agricultural Technology Of Raspberries, Planting Seedlings And Pruning Bushes - 3

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Preparing the landing site

Raspberries belong to real gourmets, and they will definitely not give good harvests on poor soil. Therefore, the preparation of the soil before planting raspberries must be treated with all attention. There are several options here. According to official agronomic data, trenches (about 30-35 cm wide and 25-30 cm deep) or planting pits (50x50 cm) are prepared, which are filled with organic fertilizers. On 1 m of such a trench, a couple of buckets of semi-rotted manure are introduced.

As for mineral fertilizers and ash, given the sandy nature of our Ural soils, applying them when planting in autumn is a real waste, because a significant part of them will be washed out by melt water. Therefore, it is better to leave mineral fertilizers until spring - there will be more sense from them. However, much better results will be obtained with non-standard planting of raspberries - "on stumps". Think of the forest raspberries, full of fragrant, tasty and large berries. Such raspberries grow in old clearings - right on rotting stumps and heaps of brushwood. Garden raspberries also like these conditions. Therefore, when laying a new raspberry tree (especially when this happens during the development of a new territory, on which, in fact, there is usually no soil), you need to fence its territory with stones, slate or other improvised material,forming from it something like a large high ridge.

To fill this ridge is necessary, first of all, with all kinds of wood trash. On the lower level, it is good to attach rotting hemp, which is not a problem to find in the forest. All kinds of branches, used bath brooms, large pieces of bark (unsuitable for mulching), chips (which are always in abundance during construction), bark from sanded trees, etc. will go to fill the voids between them. It will not hurt to dilute all this woody variety with semi-rotted manure, which will perfectly fit in all kinds of voids, and then go with the next layer. A layer of manure can be covered with a layer of sawdust, and then a layer of soil.

This method has many advantages. Most importantly, this approach provides raspberries with more favorable conditions for development:

• raspberries suffer less from a lack of moisture, since the tree perfectly absorbs and accumulates water;
• gradually rotting, wood waste provides additional nutrition for raspberries;
• the formed soil turns out to be very light and breathable, which is also very popular with raspberries.

The result will not be long in coming - after a couple of years, raspberries will start to delight you with a harvest of larger and more delicious berries. And in the third year, you will have the right to expect already abundant fruiting.

Landing

If the soil in the raspberry tree is properly prepared, the planting process itself is no longer anything special. Raspberry seedlings are usually planted vertically, deepening them by 2-3 cm. Then, naturally, the plantings are watered first with plain water, and then with a solution of huminates. After that, the soil around the plants is mulched with a suitable material: bark or sawdust. If the plants have not yet been cut off, then the aboveground part of each planted seedling is cut off at a height of 15-20 cm from the soil surface. And that's all - a new plantation can be considered established.

As for the distances, the classic options for bush (50-70 cm in a row and 1.5-2 m between rows) and tape (25-30 cm in a row and 2-2.5 m between rows) planting of plants themselves are not at all justify. More profitable in terms of yield will be the planting option, once proposed by the amateur gardener Sobolev. According to his recommendations, the distance between plants in a row should be up to 1 m, and between rows - 2 m. At first glance, it seems that this is too much waste in our scanty garden plots. But in fact, the yield per unit area in this case increases, and it becomes much easier to process raspberries, and it is less affected by diseases.

The rows themselves are better placed in the direction from north to south, if, of course, there is such an opportunity. With this planting, the illumination of the bushes becomes more uniform.

Raspberry pruning rules

In general, the work on pruning raspberries can be divided into two stages that are quite distant from each other.

The first stage is the cutting of old biennial (biennial) shoots, which are cut off at the very ground. This operation is mandatory, and it is undesirable to delay it until late autumn, because as soon as possible, it is necessary to create the best conditions for the development of young annual shoots. And do not forget that all kinds of pests can remain on old shoots for the winter, which also does not hurt to get rid of in advance. Naturally, old raspberry shoots are burned.

The option is considered optimal when, immediately after harvesting, all the fruit bearing shoots are cut out at the base. Young annual shoots, finding themselves in better lighting conditions, develop well, get sick less and give a larger yield the next year. Therefore, it is reasonable to cut out the fruiting shoots in several stages - as fruiting is completed on individual branches.

The second stage is working with young shoots. Unlike the previous one, this stage includes a whole range of operations, and it actually stretches over two seasons. I will describe each of the operations in more detail.

1) 1 year of shoot growth. When young shoots reach a height of 1-1.5 m (in our conditions, about mid-June, and in general, the earlier, the better), the tip of each of the shoots is pinched by 5-10-15 cm. This event will provide intensive branching of each escaping, which will significantly increase next year's harvest. By autumn, additional lateral branches, 30-40 cm each, will form in the axils of the upper leaves. In this form, the bush will go for the winter.

2) 1 year of shoot growth. In the fall, you need to inspect all young shoots, remove broken or darkened ones. In addition, excess thickening shoots should be cut out in each bush. First of all, these should include all weak and nondescript shoots. As for the extra strong shoots, it is better to save them until spring, just in case (suddenly some shoots will be broken, etc.).

3) 2 years of shoot growth. In early spring, after raising the raspberries, all the shoots that died (usually just broken) in the winter are cut out. Usually there are few of these, but still there are. Most often this is the result of an unsuccessful bending of shoots for the winter, possibly the consequences of a large amount of heavy snow. Broken shoots are naturally removed. Again, you need to check the total number of shoots in each bush. Leave, depending on the planting option, about 5-6 strong shoots (7-8 are possible if the bushes grow more freely and it is possible to distribute the branches).

4) 2 years of shoot growth. In the spring of next year, after raising the raspberry shoots bent for the winter and blooming buds, it will be necessary to cut off the very tips (to a strong beautiful bud) of the additional branches formed in the fall with a pruner. After this pruning, new shoots are formed throughout the stem, and they all begin to bear fruit.

Thus, in two years it is possible to form a real mini-tree from one bare shoot - an shoot covered from top to bottom with fruiting twigs. As a result, it is possible to increase the fruiting period in our conditions up to 2-2.5 months, and, of course, increase the yield.

Agricultural tricks

Raspberries are a rather laborious crop, and there is enough trouble with it. Therefore, we will focus on the main agrotechnical measures that will help to achieve high yields of this unusually tasty berry. Naturally, we will not touch on the issues of pruning, reproduction and planting, because above they have already been covered in sufficient detail.

May

1) Untying and raising shoots that were bent down for the winter. Tying shoots to trellises. Each shoot should be tied separately, and between each other they should be located in such a way as to maximize the use of the available light space (the shoots should be tied at a distance of about 7-10 cm from each other). If opportunities permit, it is better to use the garter method recommended by the same Sobolev. In this case, the trellis for garters are located on two opposite sides of the bush, and the branches from each bush are divided into two parts - one half of the shoots is tied to the trellis on one side, and the other, respectively, to the other. As a result of the "Sobolevsky" version of the garter, young growth is actively growing in the middle of the bush, which is not interfered with by fruiting raspberries.

You need to tie the shoots to the supports even before the buds open, otherwise you risk breaking them off a lot during the garter process.

2) Spreading nitrogen fertilizers (urea or ammonium nitrate) over the melting snow.

3) Immediately after the snow melts and the upper layer of the earth has partially thawed, it is necessary to feed the raspberries with complex mineral fertilizers and mulch with half-rotted manure with a layer of 15-20 cm. The manure will not only help to retain moisture, including ensuring the safety of spring melt water, but also will serve as an excellent fertilizer, and there will not be so many weeds. On top, it is useful to additionally sprinkle the manure with chopped bark or sawdust.

4) Pruning broken and thickening shoots. Pruning to a strong bud of all lateral shoots.

5) Spraying with 1% Bordeaux mixture (immediately after the leaves bloom) against a complex of diseases.

June

1) Regular watering. The soil under the raspberries should be moist throughout the summer. The slightest drying out of the soil will adversely affect the fruiting of the plant.

2) Removing weeds.

3) Spraying with Trichodermine (before flowering) against gray mold.

4) Pinching of new young shoots. Removal of weak and excess growth. Pruning young shoots damaged by a raspberry fly below the lesion site and burning them promptly.

5) Top dressing with phosphorus fertilizers (superphosphate). Usually, in our conditions, in the second half of June, some leaves on raspberries begin to turn slightly red. This indicates a lack of phosphorus. It is better to warn this moment and carry out a phosphorus fertilizing around the beginning of June (just sprinkling superphosphate), combining it with the next watering of the plants.

July

1) Regular watering and weed removal. Harvesting.

2) Top dressing with potash fertilizers (potassium sulfate and ash). After the first wave of intense fruiting, the tips of the leaves begin to turn slightly yellow on the plants, and then dry out. This indicates a lack of potassium. If you do not feed the plant in a timely manner, then at the next stage the buds, flowers and fruits will begin to dry out and fall off. And there will be such an impression as if the raspberry has finished its fruiting. In fact, all this can be avoided by conducting 2-3 timely fertilizing with potash fertilizers - 3 tbsp. spoons with the top of the fertilizer are diluted in 10 liters of water, one watering can is poured under each bush. As a potash fertilizer, potassium sulfate is preferred over ash. Of course, ash is the finest fertilizer, but too much of it will be needed for raspberries, and ordinary summer residents, as a rule, do not have such an amount of ash. As for chlorine-containing potash fertilizers, they are categorically contraindicated for raspberries.

By the end of July, usually from the mulch introduced in the spring, almost nothing remains in the raspberry tree. Therefore, periodically its layer has to be replenished. Better, of course, to use semi-rotten manure, but this is a rather expensive option for many gardeners. Therefore, it is wiser at this time to carry out mulching with other materials, for example, mustaches and leaves cut from strawberry ridges (it turns out an excellent mulching material, and by the spring of next year, nothing remains of the thick layer of leaves). Naturally, if strawberries are affected by diseases, then this option is excluded.