Raspberry Balm

Contents

Characteristic of the variety
- Pros and cons of the variety
Planting raspberries
Raspberry pruning
How to feed raspberries
Preparation for winter
Write Your Review
Summary

Raspberry Balm is not very original, you can not expect huge yields, unusual taste from it. But at the same time, the variety remains one of the most famous and memorable; for several decades, raspberries have been successfully cultivated in the gardens of the country. The Balsam variety has a lot of advantages, and the most important of them is suitability for cultivation in almost the entire territory of Our Country.

Description of the Balsam raspberry variety, photos of bushes and reviews of gardeners can be found in this article. Here a set of positive qualities is listed, as well as the disadvantages of the Balsam variety, it is told about how to grow such raspberries and how to properly care for them.

Characteristic of the variety

The description of the Balsam raspberry variety should begin with the fact that it was bred in Our Country in the early 80s of the last century. This crop is included in the State Register, which indicates its suitability for cultivation in local climatic conditions and successfully passed agrotechnical tests.

Not all reviews of the Balsam variety are positive: many gardeners do not like the too primitive taste of berries. But others consider this raspberry a classic with a natural aroma of wild berries.

A more detailed description of the Balsam variety:

the bushes of this raspberry are sprawling, erect;
the height of the bushes can reach 170-180 cm;
raspberry shoots are covered with small brown spikes;
shoots are powerful, rather thick, annuals are painted light green, have a wax coating, biennials are brown, lignified;
shoot formation and the amount of shoots in Balsam is average – this raspberry will not spread over the site, but it is very easy to propagate it;
leaves of a rich green hue, large, wrinkled, their lower part is pubescent and covered with a whitish bloom;
a distinctive feature of raspberry Balsam is the presence of purple spikes along the main leaf veins;
the yield of the variety reaches 2,2 kg from each bush; on an industrial scale, up to 11 tons per hectare can be harvested;
raspberry Balm is not a remontant, it bears fruit on two-year-old shoots;
berry ripening is medium early – from the end of June to the first decade of July;
Balsam berries sing quickly and amicably, fruiting is short;
the berry is painted in a dark crimson shade, closer to ruby;
fruit sizes are average – about three grams;
the shape of Balsam berries is conical, wide;
there is a slight coating on the surface of raspberry fruits, there is also a slight pubescence;
the density of the berries is good, they do not crumble for a long time, they are suitable for transportation and short-term storage;
raspberry flavor Sweet and sour balm, forest aroma;
the variety is resistant to most fungal diseases, to many infections, including purple leaf spot and spider mites;
culture tolerates drought, heat and early thaw;
Raspberry Balsam is considered winter-hardy, suitable for cultivation throughout the country, except for the Urals and Siberia.

Attention! Balsam raspberries can “boast” a very harmonious ratio of sugars and acids in fruits. Although the taste of the berry is not dessert, it is more useful than other, more refined varieties of raspberries.

Pros and cons of the variety

Despite the rather “advanced” age, raspberry Balm remains popular among gardeners and summer residents. The variety has several undeniable advantages:

good taste and average size of berries;
resistance to weather conditions and diseases;
early ripening;
resistance to weathering, which is especially important in regions with early thaws;
high yield.

Important! Another advantage of the Balsam variety can be considered its unpretentiousness – this raspberry needs the most ordinary care.

Modern gardeners are tempted by new varieties of horticultural crops, pleasing with an unusual taste, remontant and other qualities, so for many raspberry Balm seems too simple, and its taste is insipid.

It is also worth noting the fact that for high yields, the bushes need to be well fed and thinned out regularly.

Planting raspberries

Raspberry Balsam is recommended for cultivation in private, medium and small farms. Agrotechnics for this variety is used the most simple. The interval between plants depends on the method of cultivation:

with a classic planting of bushes, the distance between them should be 70-100 cm;
the tape scheme for growing raspberries suggests an interval of 200-220 cm in a row;
the bush method assumes a distance of 1,5 meters between the bushes.

Advice! Raspberry bushes Balsam are very sprawling, so it is imperative to normalize the number of shoots.

Raspberries should be well ventilated, and each berry should have enough sunlight. Optimal rationing – 8-10 shoots per meter of land.

Before planting, the soil must be filled with fertilizers. Most often, organic matter is used: peat, humus, wood ash, rotted manure or chicken manure. Fresh cow manure is not used in preplant preparation. It is good to combine organic matter with mineral fertilizers: superphosphate, nitroammophos.

The thickness of the Balsam shoots is sufficient, but a plentiful harvest of berries is quite capable of laying the stems on the ground, which will adversely affect the quality of the fruits and their integrity. Therefore, the raspberry will have to be tied up. There are several suitable ways:

A wooden stake is driven into the center of each raspberry bush, to which all the shoots are tied.
Raspberry fan fastening involves the use of a pair of supports and a wire stretched between them. Then half of the bush goes in one direction, and the second part of the raspberry goes to the opposite support.
With the trellis method, raspberries are tied up in early spring, when the shoots are just starting to grow. The wire is pulled in three tiers (at a height of 60, 120 and 160 cm).

Attention! It is the trellis garter that is most suitable for Balsam bushes. So the shoots are better ventilated, and the raspberries get enough light.

Raspberry pruning

Like any ordinary raspberry (fruiting once a season), the Balsam must be cut off, and this will have to be done throughout the warm season.

Steps for trimming Raspberry Balm:

Immediately after the end of the fruiting of raspberries, it is necessary to cut out all the fruiting shoots (biennial, covered with bark). These branches are taken away and burned so as not to provoke the spread of infections.
In late autumn, all excess shoots, diseased and dry branches are removed.
From the beginning of summer, shoots must be removed from Balsam. Do this periodically using a sharp shovel.
In mid-May, it is recommended to pinch the tops of Balsam’s two-year-old shoots to stimulate their branching.
Do not forget about rationing, cutting out the weakest or smallest shoots in a row so that there are no more than a dozen of them left per linear meter.
In the spring, raspberry shoots are inspected, branches that have decayed and rotted over the winter are removed.

Advice! A double pruning scheme for Balsam is recommended: at the beginning of summer, all raspberry shoots are shortened by 10-15 cm, and after a year, all lateral growths are pruned by 10-15 cm.

How to feed raspberries

It is clear that without additional fertilization of the land, there will be no good raspberry crops, no matter how prolific the variety is. There should be several top dressings per season:

in early spring, when the buds begin to grow, the soil under the raspberries is fed with fertilizers with nitrogen (nitroammophoska, ammonium nitrate, urea).
When buds appear on the Balsam bushes (but have not yet blossomed), raspberries need to be fed with a mineral complex, in which potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iron predominate. At this stage, a lot of nitrogen is not required. It is better to use potassium preparations, superphosphate, wood ash.
At the fruiting stage of raspberries, it is recommended to use liquid mullein or bird droppings diluted in water – the bushes are watered with this composition.

Important! In the fall, when the raspberries are already cut, you can scatter humus, compost or peat over the area, scatter ash.

Preparation for winter

According to gardeners, Balsam raspberry tolerates winters well in the southern and central regions – you don’t need to cover it here, otherwise the shoots and buds will simply rot. In areas with a continental climate and winters with little snow (in the Urals, in the strip of Moscow and St. Petersburg), it is better to bend the raspberry under the snow.

Balsam winters well under spruce or pine spruce branches. Before covering the shoots, they are tied up and bent to the ground (as in the photo).

Write Your Review

Igor Petrovich, 62 years old, Voronezh

In my household there were many varieties and hybrids of raspberries, I grew both remontant varieties and bushes with yellow berries. Almost all the “inhabitants” of my raspberry are constantly changing, there are only a couple of “long-livers”. Of these, one can name Hussar, Maroseyka and Balsam. If the first two varieties are taken by the size of the berry (about 10 grams) and its excellent taste, then the Balsam is simply amazing with its vitality. Even in the worst years, this raspberry gives stable yields, never gets sick, and is practically not affected by insects. For less than twenty years, the weather in our region has been different: drought, and terrible heat, severe frosts, sudden thaws. The balm withstood everything with dignity: only a few bushes froze and dried up. Based on the foregoing, I can recommend Balsam as a resistant variety that gives stable yields of berries of normal taste and size.

Summary

A photo and description of the Balsam raspberry variety should help gardeners decide. Practice shows that this culture is most suitable for the Central and Southern regions. It is better to grow raspberries in private farms or in limited quantities on farm plots.

The taste qualities of Balsam berries are not very high, but the fruits tolerate transportation well, have a high presentation, are universal in use (freezing, jams, jams, compotes, etc.).

It is not difficult to grow raspberries of the Balsam variety, it is enough just to take care of them. Do not neglect pruning, it is better to thin out the bushes, then the culture will not hurt and rot. If the raspberries are well fed, the harvest will be plentiful, and the berries will be large and beautiful.