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Particular attention at the onset of the summer season and up to winter is given to berry bushes, including raspberries. In order to pamper the family with delicious berries throughout the summer period, agronomists recommend planting different varieties of raspberries on the site. In order for the harvest in the season to be maximum, it is important to provide the bushes with proper care.
This article will discuss how to care for raspberries in the fall. From it you will learn how to prune raspberries, how to fertilize the crop and what you need to know about preparing raspberries for winter.
How to prune raspberry bushes
The stage of formation of bushes by pruning plays an important role in the care of raspberries. All excess shoots must be removed. In this case, you can thin out the raspberries and form beautiful bushes. This is important, because during the period of cold weather the bush will spend a lot of vitality to maintain the vital activity of the stems, and if you do not prune, then it simply does not have enough strength for wintering.
Another important benefit of pruning: easier control of harmful insects. Fungi and pests tend to accumulate on the tops of raspberry leaves and stems, so pruning can easily and reliably get rid of them.
Warning! In November, raspberry bushes shed their leaves, which may contain pathogens. Once in the ground, they penetrate to the root system and can live in a state of hibernation in the ground until spring. With the onset of heat, these microorganisms will destroy the raspberries, so in the fall it is important to rake all castings and cut stems in order to remove all pests and viruses from the site.
Pruning helps to clear the plant of excess shoots, which will improve the nutrition of the bush. About 9 shoots should remain on one bush. In this case, juicy and large berries can be expected next season. If more shoots are left, then the berries will ripen at different times, since the raspberry bush will not have enough strength to feed all the fruits. The berries will be not only small, but also sour, so it will not be possible to evaluate the taste of the variety.
Proper pruning increases the yield of raspberries. Berries are formed on annual shoots, tied up on biennial branches. In remontant varieties, berries appear on one-year shoots. So, to increase the yield, pruning should be carried out in October.
There are 3 types of pruning raspberries:
- Plain.
- Double.
- For shortening.
Normal pruning
During normal pruning before winter, approximately 70% of the shoots are removed. Some gardeners remove the entire stem. The pruning technique depends entirely on the raspberry variety. Varieties with good vegetation are pruned completely. By the beginning of the summer of the next season, the shoots can reach up to 1 m in height. If the growth of the plant is slow, then cutting the shoots is carried out by 50–70%.
double pruning
For all raspberry varieties, the double pruning method can be used, however, it is usually used when caring for remontant varieties of berry bushes. In this case, it is worth considering the activity of plant growth.
The crown should be lush, because this is the only way to expect abundant fruiting. So, the growth point is shortened twice a year: in autumn and spring. Thanks to this, the shrub will grow in all directions. With timely pruning in the fall, new shoots and branches will give a greater harvest next year.
Trimming for shortening
Pruning raspberries for shortening involves cutting off the entire aerial part of the bush. This method is suitable for bushes with weak vegetation and low yields. Thus, pests can be removed by removing them from the raspberry beds. In addition, shortening allows you to increase the yield of shrubs, as pruning stimulates the development of biennial shoots.
Purification of raspberries from waste
After pruning unripe tops and old stems, you need to remove fallen leaves and other waste from the raspberry. They are placed in compost pits or burned. This is important to do, since pests and pathogenic bacteria can overwinter and multiply in fallen leaves and cut stems, as a result of which the entire raspberry tree will suffer.
The same can be said about the grass that can grow in raspberries. Pests can also winter in it, so weeding the beds is included in the care of raspberries.
Destruction of insects on raspberry bushes and around them
Processing raspberries in the fall includes the destruction of harmful insects. To destroy them in the raspberry bushes, the bushes and the soil around them are being processed. To do this, after picking the berries, spray the shrubs with Fufan in the proportion of 10 ml of the drug per 10 liters of water. An average of 1–1,5 liters of liquid is spent on one bush and the ground around it. Another effective drug against pests is Aktellik. One ampoule should be diluted in 2 liters of water. It is also necessary to process raspberries by spraying, at 10 m2 comes about 1,5 liters of liquid.
Another drug against insects is available in tablets. So, in 10 liters of water you need to dissolve 1 tablet of Intavir. All bushes are sprayed with this solution. If you need to process raspberries from the dominance of mosses and lichens, then the ground around the bushes must be poured with a solution of copper or iron sulfate.
Top dressing and fertilizer raspberries
Raspberry care includes autumn feeding of shrubs. This is necessary in order to restore the balance of the soil, which will contribute to a bountiful harvest in the coming season. In addition, fertilization has a positive effect on the stems of shrubs. With the right approach to this matter, the stems will increase in diameter by winter, become stiff and stock up with the necessary amount of nutrients that will help them successfully cope with frosts and severe winter colds.
Those raspberry varieties that are prone to shortening and regular pruning need to be fed. Depending on the variety, it is necessary to apply fertilizers to the soil starting from August, well, or in September.
After the last harvest or during the second flowering period of raspberry bushes (we are talking about remontant varieties), fertilizers are applied. It could be urea. For 1 weave you will need 50 g of urea. It is better to apply a small dose of fertilizer for the first time, and after some time, repeat feeding. The drug in a dose of 50 g is diluted in 10 liters of water.
This tool can be replaced with organic. For example, liquid mullein or bird droppings diluted in water. In some cases, organic fertilizers have a more obvious effect on plants than chemical ones. Thus, the leaves acquire a more saturated green color, and the growth of the stems accelerates.
Raspberry care in the spring involves the introduction of nitrogen-containing fertilizers into the soil. This speeds up the metabolism of the plant, which stimulates its growth and increases the volume of young shoots.
If you cut raspberries under the root for the winter, then in the second half of October, fertilizers should be applied to the soil. A few weeks the bushes should rest, and after a month you can trim them.
Bending down as protection of raspberries from frost
There are many varieties of raspberries that do not tolerate harsh winters. Under such circumstances, many gardeners have resorted to this trick: each stem is bent as low as possible to the ground and tied to the bottom wire (if you have strings stretched along the raspberry rows) or to the previous raspberry bush. Thus, the stems of the bushes will be no higher than 30 cm from the ground. This event is carried out so that the raspberry bushes are completely under the snow in winter.
Breeders have bred frost-resistant raspberry varieties, such as the Sun, Gusar and Yellow Giant. They don’t need bending. The stems of such varieties are tied into bundles that are tied to a peg. Such an event will protect the stems from gusty winter winds and sticking of wet snow.
So, raspberry care includes pruning, feeding and protecting the bushes from frost. If you follow the recommendations outlined in the article, you will get a bountiful harvest of raspberries next season.
We also invite you to watch a video on this topic:
