Contents
Raspberry is an unusually tasty berry with medicinal properties. Both adults and children love to eat it. With its help, you can strengthen your immune system, cure a cold faster, get rid of a fever, and even renew your blood. Breeders have bred a variety of varieties of this plant.
Some varieties bear fruit twice a year. Many gardeners really liked remontant raspberry varieties, as they do not require complex care. How to prune remontant raspberries in autumn? The answer to this question is very important, since the harvest in the next season will depend on how you cut the raspberries. Therefore, this article is dedicated to highlighting the topic of raspberry pruning. Also, at the end, a video corresponding to the topic will be provided.
Features of remontant raspberry varieties
The main feature of remontant raspberries is fruiting 2 times a year, namely in spring and autumn. The following are the distinguishing features of this type of berry:
- In spring, the crop ripens on the branches of the second year, and in autumn – on the stems of the first year of life.
- The period of autumn fruiting begins in August and continues until late autumn.
- Berries can stay on the branches for a long time without rotting or crumbling.
- If you decide to perform a complete cutting of 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. Repair raspberries appeared on the territory of the Soviet Union in the 70s. last century. The first varieties bred in the USSR managed to produce most of the berries before persistent frosts. Raspberry remontant can produce up to 10 kg of large berries from a bush.
Distinctive features of pruning
I would like to say right away that pruning remontant raspberries for the winter is different from pruning ordinary berry varieties. All remontant varieties have three phases of development – growth, branching and fruiting, which take place in one year. In view of this, the berries of this type are cut in a special way. After the completion 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 one-year. This has its advantages. Thanks to the annual full pruning of the raspberry, 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 aerial 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 summer in lands is not very long, in some regions gardeners manage to collect only the first fruits, after which stable colds set in. And on the branches there are many ovaries and flowers. Under such conditions, pruning 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 ordinary varieties. The stem that has begun to bear fruit will not dry out during the winter cold. In this case, raspberries will begin to branch immediately after wintering and will produce berries in early summer. During the fruiting period, new stems will grow, from which in the fall you can collect many more delicious berries.
Remontant raspberries produce two harvests, which in total correspond to the harvest from one harvest of ordinary berry varieties. It is very important to cut the stems from two years ago after the first fruiting, somewhere in the middle of summer. Normalize also newly growing stems.
Trimming technique
If you are new to growing raspberries, then it will be helpful to familiarize yourself with the technique of pruning raspberries. Do I need to cut the raspberry completely? It all depends on how cold the region you live in is. If raspberries do not have time to ripen in the fall, then there is no need to carry out its full cutting. And if you have time to harvest in the fall, then all the stems need to be cut.
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, then 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 the bush. Active cutting of shoots should be done in the second year. Roots strengthened by spring will put out enough stems to produce a double crop of raspberries.
Cut off shoots and stems should be disposed of as soon as possible. Remove them from the beds and burn them, as pests and pathogenic bacteria can breed on them.
Fight against sprawl
If, after the remontant raspberries were pruned in the fall, there is no steady cold for 2 months, due to which the soil freezes, then the buds may germinate prematurely. This will negatively affect productivity. That is, full pruning is performed in regions with a milder climate, and partial pruning is performed in regions where there are severe winters.
If you wait for the buds to open 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 sooner the raspberries wake up, the more abundant the harvest can be expected.
Winter preparation secrets
Proper preparation of the plant for winter is the key to a good harvest next 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 repair raspberries.
If uncut raspberry stalks are left as is, then severe frosts can kill them. Therefore, they need to be bent. This event will provide raspberries with additional protection, as the stems will be under snow cover throughout the winter.
Raspberry care in the fall for beginners may seem difficult, but if you follow all the recommendations outlined in the article, you can achieve success. And in fact, not everything is as difficult as it might seem. To bend down, you should stretch the wire between the trellises near the ground, 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 brittle.
In order for raspberries to overwinter well, it is required to fertilize them in the fall. It is better to refuse nitrogen, as they will reduce the frost resistance of the plant. And instead of them, add potash and phosphorus top dressings 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 is not there at all, then you will have to cover the raspberries with some kind of covering material.
Mulching. If necessary
After you finish cutting the remontant raspberries for the winter, remove the cut branches from the raspberries, you can mulch the soil. But does it need to be done? 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. Only pruning raspberries 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, chopped bark and needles are used as mulch. So, you will improve the fertility of the soil, in which there will be a lot of humus.
With regular mulching, overgrowth can be minimized. In addition, weed growth will be reduced. So, with proper pruning and care for remontant raspberries, you will receive a well-deserved reward – a bountiful harvest of healing and tasty berries. We invite you to watch a video on how to cut remontant raspberries:
