Raspberry Remontant. Part 1

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

Raspberry remont: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

A new type of fruitful raspberry is conquering Russian gardens, including in the North-West

Raspberry is one of the most beloved and widespread among the people berry culture, which attracts with its amazing qualities characteristic of it. The popularity of this culture is due not only to the attractiveness of berries, their taste, aroma, dietary properties, a harmonious combination of sugars, acids and vitamins, delicate pulp, easy digestibility of various nutrients contained in it, but also a number of healing qualities. Due to their rich biochemical composition, raspberries are successfully used for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular, colds, stomach and other diseases.

Raspberries less than other berry crops accumulate in their berries the most dangerous ecotoxicants (heavy metals, radionuclides, herbicides, etc.), which is especially important for areas with unfavorable ecology. Compared to other berry crops, raspberries have other advantages - speed and ease of reproduction, late flowering, which helps to preserve flowers from damage by recurrent spring frosts, rapid entry into the season of fruiting (in the second year after planting), etc.

However, the generally accepted technology for growing raspberry varieties bearing fruit on two-year-old stems is very laborious and energy-intensive.

Rescue raspberry helps

Now there is an alternative to the generally accepted technology, designed for a two-year cycle of raspberry crop formation. This is an original technology, according to which, instead of common raspberries, which bear fruit on two-year-old stems, the plantation is established with remontant varieties, which bear fruit on annual shoots in late summer - early autumn. This technology radically changes the way raspberries are grown, making it easier and cheaper.

Reparability, as the ability for continuous fruiting (throughout the growing season), is well known on garden strawberries, when after the main harvest the plants again form inflorescences, bloom and bear fruit a second time.

In raspberries, the term remontability is understood as a slightly different property. Remontant called a raspberry varieties, capable of bearing fruit both on biennial stems and on annual shoots (as in the variety Babie Leto in the North-West region). However, obtaining two crops in one season is usually not practiced, since the first crop on two-year-old stems weakens the plants and delays the onset of maturation of the second, usually more valuable, environmentally friendly crop. Therefore, it is considered expedient to keep raspberries in an annual culture and to obtain only a late summer - early spring harvest on annual shoots. With this technology, in the first half of summer, the remontant varieties intensively grow annual shoots. Closer to the middle of summer, laterals appear (fruit branches from the axillary buds of leaves), then raspberries bloom, and only in late summer - early autumn the harvest ripens.

Varieties of this type are able to effectively use favorable environmental factors and avoid environmental stress due to a one-season cycle of crop formation and a special technology for their cultivation. For the first time, the sign of remontant raspberry was noticed in the USA 200 years ago. Plants (young shoots of replacement) in the first year of life began to bloom and form a small crop at the tops of the shoots. During the winter, the tops froze, they were cut off, and the next summer a crop was formed on the vacated part of the stem, as on ordinary varieties, that is, such remontant varieties were assigned to the group with double fruiting.

A number of remontant varieties have been created abroad (Sentyabrskaya, Heriteydzh, Lyulin, Redwing, Zeva, Ottom Bliz and others) with predominant fruiting on annual shoots. However, for full ripening of their harvest, a frost-free period of at least 150-160 days and the sum of active temperatures over 3000 ° C are required. Therefore, for central Russia, these varieties are of no practical interest, since their harvest has time to ripen only 15-30% before the onset of autumn frosts.

The success of the famous breeder scientist

For the Central and Non-Chernozem zones and the North-West, raspberry varieties with a shortened growing season are needed, in which no more than 120-130 frost-free days are required for the full ripening of the crop, with a sum of active temperatures of at least 1800-2000 ° C. Taking into account all these conditions, since the beginning of the 70s, in the Bryansk region, at the Kokinsky stronghold of the All-Russian Institute of Selection and Technology for Breeding and Nursery Breeding (Moscow), intensive work has begun on the creation of remontant varieties of raspberries by the academician of the Russian Agricultural Research Laboratory, the famous breeder Ivan Vasilyevich Kazakov. In 1973 he created the first domestic variety of the remontant type, Indian Summer, with predominant fruiting on annual shoots. However, in the conditions of Central Russia, the South Urals,Southwest Siberia and some other regions by the beginning of stable autumn frosts on this variety had time to ripen no more than half of the harvest. Therefore, like most varieties of foreign selection, the Indian Summer variety has become widespread only in the southern regions of our country.

Our observations of the Indian Summer variety in the North-West showed that its fruiting zone on annual shoots reaches 20-30 cm only in a warm, prolonged autumn. The rest of the harvest is formed only the next year on the remaining two-year-old stem. Therefore, here it also belongs to the group of double-fruiting varieties.

In order to achieve the desired results in obtaining remontant varieties with single fruiting, which manage to yield the harvest on annual shoots in late summer - early autumn, it was necessary to change the plants so that they have the ability to start early and fast shoot growth, early flowering and fruiting on all lateral branches. formed in the year of shoot growth (and not only at the top of the one-year shoot).

All this was achieved through selective breeding. Academician of RAASKhNIL IV Kazakov achieved such success. He bred more than 20 unique remontant varieties: Indian Summer-2, Hercules, Apricot, Augustine, Reliable, Elegant, Monomakh's Hat, Bryansk Divo, Golden Domes, August Miracle, Golden Autumn, Eurasia, Diamond and others. A breeding breakthrough in the creation of these remontant raspberry genotypes was obtained by crossing different types of raspberries: black raspberry, hawthorn, fragrant, wonderful and raspberry. American experts have assessed the work of their Russian colleague as "an outstanding achievement in world selection."

What are the advantages of varieties of remontant raspberries?

- First of all, it is a one-year cycle of development of the aboveground part of plants. In one season, annual shoots of remontant raspberries have time to grow and yield up to 2-3 kg from one bush, and with good care in home gardens - up to 5-6 kg. An original technology using remontant varieties with single fruiting in late summer - early autumn radically changes the way of cultivating raspberries, making it simpler and less costly. Its essence lies in the fact that after harvesting, ripe on annual shoots, with the onset of autumn frosts, the entire aerial part of raspberries is cut to the soil level, removed from the site and destroyed. Together with the cut off shoots, most pests and diseases are removed and destroyed, which winter on the aboveground part of the plants on ordinary raspberry varieties.

“Therefore, unlike ordinary raspberries, remontant raspberries are much less damaged by diseases and pests. It is practically impossible to find on it a wormy berry damaged by the larva of a raspberry beetle, and it is also impossible to find on it a weevil, gall midge and other pests that are not able to reorganize under the growth and development phases of the remontant raspberry.

- As a result, the remontant raspberry does not require chemical treatments and the costs and time associated with this operation. Therefore, an ecologically clean crop is ripening on the remontant raspberry plantation. Its large, clean berries, formed in favorable late summer and early autumn conditions, have a special healing power, they can be safely consumed by both children and people suffering from various diseases.

- Raspberry remontant extends the period of consumption of fresh berries by 1.5-2 months, and in some years, for example, last season - by 3 months even in the North-West region, and together with summer berries - up to 5 months. It is known that fresh berries are more aromatic, tastier and, most importantly, much healthier than processed ones. The period of consumption of common raspberries in the middle of summer is only about three weeks. So the remontant raspberry is a "lifesaver" in prolonging the time of consumption of fresh berries.

- The last berries of the remontant raspberry ripen when there are no other berries with a dessert flavor on the site. And the sale of berry products of remontant varieties in the "off-season" time is carried out at higher prices than in summer, which stimulates the creation of plantings of remontant raspberries in all categories of farms.

- The advantage of remontant raspberries is the elimination of the problem of winter hardiness and winter drying of the shoots, since all the shoots that bear fruit are cut off for the winter, and there is nothing to freeze out in winter. Its root system is highly winter-hardy and tolerates temperatures down to -20 ° C without damage, which is not observed in the upper root layer of the soil. All this makes it possible to expand the area of cultivation of large-fruited high-yielding, but insufficiently winter-hardy varieties in the Non-Black Earth Region and the North-West Region.

- Berries of remontant raspberries of the autumn harvest are distinguished by their large-fruited, cleanliness, sufficient density and for a relatively long time (within 5-7 days) stay on the bush after ripening. They do not fall off and do not rot, which allows working gardeners to harvest by coming to their summer cottage on weekends.

Repairing raspberry, especially its modern highly productive varieties, gives few replacement shoots and root suckers. On the one hand, this can be considered an advantage compared to common raspberries, which, sprawling, litter garden plots, causing a lot of trouble for gardeners. On the other hand, a small number of root suckers complicates the reproduction of remontant raspberries, which is considered its disadvantage and, in turn, determines the shortage of seedlings. As a result, this determines the high cost of planting material.

This lack of remontant raspberries can be easily explained. In comparison with ordinary raspberries, which in two years of life have the ability to form a crop and a sufficient number of root suckers, in remontant raspberries in just one year the entire process of plant development is aimed at forming a crop, and not at the formation of a large number of suckers.

For the same reason, remontant raspberries are more demanding on nutrition, soil moisture, warmth and lighting, since only one year is allotted to it for shoot growth, flowering and fruiting. True, it would be wrong to call this feature of remontant raspberry a disadvantage, since it is 2-3 times more productive than common raspberry, hence its great demand on growing conditions.

Thus, we can conclude that remontant raspberries have much more advantages, and all of them make it one of the most popular berry crops. In Russia, varieties of remontant raspberries of the selection of I. V. Kazakov have long been widely introduced in the Central, Central Black Earth regions, in the south (Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov Region, Sochi region). They also stepped to Sakhalin, Kamchatka, the Urals, Siberia. In recent years, especially with the advent of new generation varieties, remontant raspberries are successfully cultivated not only on the plots of amateur gardeners, but also on farms of the Non-Black Earth Region, the North-West and other regions. She also stepped into the CIS countries (in particular, Belarus). Many positive responses were received.

The first varieties of remontant raspberries (Aprikosovaya, Avgustina, Hercules, Nadezhnaya, Elegantnaya) arrived in the North-West region at the beginning of 2003, to us, former colleagues-breeders, in agreement with I. V. Kazakov. They were tested in our family summer cottage and in the Pushkin fruit and berry nursery. Later, with the emergence of new large-fruited and high-yielding varieties, our uterine plantings were replenished with varieties of Indian Summer-2, Bryansk Divo, Golden Domes, Orange Miracle, Diamond, August Miracle, Evening Zarya, Golden Autumn. All these years, in the conditions of the so-called "zone of risky farming", these varieties gave an autumn harvest and served as living exhibits of exhibitions for amateur gardeners who purchase saplings of their favorite varieties of remontant raspberries from us.

The demand for planting material has increased every year, and over the past decade, remontant raspberries have also been conquering the North-West of Russia, especially the Leningrad region. Here, as in other regions of Russia, in addition to dacha and home gardening, this new berry culture is already grown in many peasant (farm) farms. And in 2013, even on the Karelian Isthmus in the Priozersk District, on the farm of Nadezhda Mikhailovna Rudinskaya (Plodovoye village), a remontant raspberry plantation, founded by 10 best varieties purchased at our summer cottage, bore fruit almost until the end of October. In general, 2013 was a unique year for remontant raspberries. All varieties bore fruit for three months (August, September and October). Alone to harvest such large, clean, beautiful berries of different colors (raspberry, yellow,orange) it was even insulting, I wanted as many people as possible to see this fairy tale. In October, friends, acquaintances, amateur gardeners, who first saw this miracle, came to our summer cottage, as on an excursion! Naturally, everyone left with the planting material of their favorite varieties.

Undoubtedly, remontant raspberries - this new berry crop - are already making a revolution in the production of berries both abroad and in Russia, where the world's best varieties have been created by our scientist - “raspberry magician” Ivan Vasilyevich Kazakov.

There are still many interesting encounters with this favorite berry crop ahead of Russian gardeners. In the next publication, the characteristics of the varieties of remontant raspberries for the North-West of Russia will be given.

Read the rest of the article:

Raspberry remontant. Part 2

Galina Aleksandrova, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences