Raspberry - the secrets of spring care

Raspberries are perhaps the most delicious and popular berry grown by our summer residents. But to obtain stable yields of this garden queen, constant care is needed, especially in the spring. Spring care for raspberries is a whole range of activities that must be performed regularly. Only with this approach will raspberries bring stable yields.

Raspberry Care - Getting Started

The first work in the raspberry plant is carried out in early spring, in March, and this work consists of the following mandatory procedures:
• spraying with boiling water;
• trimming;
• loosening and mulching of the soil;
• garter;
• feeding;
• watering;
• protection from infections and unwanted guests.

Raspberry care: spraying raspberry with hot water

At the very beginning of March, when the snow has not yet melted, it is necessary to remove all autumn garbage from the raspberry-tree (unless, of course, these works were done in the fall), for this you will have to work hard and rake the snow from the bushes.

It is advisable to take out all the collected garbage outside the site and burn it, because all kinds of pests are very fond of wintering in plant residues, and dangerous diseases can lurk.

Then you need to actually spray the raspberries with hot water. To do this, pour water heated to a boil into a watering can with a strainer, or into a sprayer and process the bushes. Spill from a watering can from a height of about 1m.

Do not worry that such treatment can somehow harm the raspberries, because in the time that the boiling water "gets" from the watering can to the bush, it will be far from boiling water, but just hot water, and its use will not affect in any way. unawakened kidneys. But for all kinds of pests, this will come as a surprise, which will help you get rid of these unwanted inhabitants in your raspberry tree.
To process three bushes, you will need about one watering can of boiling water.

Raspberry care: pruning

After taking the above-described water procedures with raspberries, you need to wait until the air temperature is above zero and the earth dries out. Now is the time to start pruning raspberries and forming bushes.

You need to trim the raspberries in two directions.
First, we cut out at the base of the soil from the fruiting ones (in the event that they were not removed in the fall), weak, deformed (they can be a wintering place for gall midges) and just extra shoots. With the bush method of planting raspberries, from 6 to 8 shoots should remain in one bush, and with the belt method - from 15 to 20 shoots per running meter. Do not spare extra shoots - if the raspberry tree is too thick, you are guaranteed to get fewer berries than you would like, while they will become small, there will be an opportunity for the development of various infections.

The next pruning direction is to trim the stems in height. Healthy shoots are reduced by an average of 20 cm, and those that have been frozen to the first living bud. Thanks to such pruning, additional formation of side shoots occurs, which, in turn, increases the number of berries collected from the bush.
All cut out raspberry shoots must also be collected and burned.

Raspberries: loosening and mulching the soil

At the next stage of working with raspberries, you need to weed and loosen the soil in the rows and aisles. Loosening depth in rows - no more than 10 cm. Then the raspberries are watered, and the soil can be mulched (you should not do this in places where groundwater is close) with a layer of up to 15 cm. The best mulch is organic.These are both nutrients for the roots and protection from drying out and weathering of the soil.

To limit the spread of raspberries to areas not intended for it, in the spring, you can also dig in the ground about 15 centimeters deep in slate, galvanized iron, or other materials that will serve as a barrier.

Raspberry garter

In those cases when raspberries are cultivated in those parts of our country where it is possible to freeze during the winter, then before the winter "hibernation", the raspberries are untied from the supports.
Then the next step after harvesting and weeding the raspberry tree will be a new garter of shoots.
When using the trellis method of growing raspberries, it is necessary to maintain a "distance" between the bushes within 60-70cm. Shoots are tied in a fan-like fashion to a transversely stretched wire and attached in two places, at a distance of about 12 cm from one another.

If you grow raspberries in a bush method, a support is driven in between the neighboring bushes and half of each bush is tied up with it (all the shoots separately). In this case, raspberry shoots are cut off as if in the form of a ladder, one to a height of 20 cm, the other 15 cm, etc.
The tied up raspberry bushes are well lit and ventilated, and the ripening of berries will be more harmonious, and the process of picking berries will be much easier.

Top dressing

For the entire period of growth, raspberries need three feeding times, especially if they grow in depleted areas.

Fertilizers must be applied without fail simultaneously with watering, in granular or liquid form, and then covered with a layer of mulch 5 cm thick.
The first time the raspberries are fed after the snow has melted.

As a rule, nitrophoska, kemira, complex mixtures, as well as other types of mineral fats are used as top dressing. Fertilization rates are 60-80 g / sq.m, if raspberries grow on marginal soils, the consumption can be increased to 80-100 g / sq.m.

They also use ammonium, or potassium nitrate, urea in an amount of 30-40 g / sq. m.
At the same time, it is advisable to simultaneously use wood ash in the amount of 150 g per bush, because if you often use ammonium nitrate, the earth is prone to acidification, and ash, on the contrary, deoxidizes it. In addition, ash contains many beneficial substances for raspberries.

It is also not bad to use organic matter - compost, humus, at the rate of 3-5kg / sq.m.
After feeding, the raspberry is shed, the soil is mulched.
Feed the raspberries the next time they are just starting to form, about 25 days after the first.

Now they take manure, or bird droppings, which are diluted with water in a ratio of 1/10 (for 1 kg of manure, 10 liters of water, if bird droppings are taken, the volume of water should be increased to about 15 liters per 1 kg) and water the bushes, spending about 2-3 liters ... The resulting liquid per running meter. Then the earth is shed and covered with mulch.

If for the first time you used organic matter, then superphosphate and potassium salt in an amount of about 35 and 20-25 g / sq. m. area.
The third feeding of raspberries is carried out after picking the berries.

This time, the main mineral fertilizer is added to the soil at the rate of 80-120 g / sq. m. Fertilizers are applied under a shallow digging, a little less than a shovel bayonet.

Watering raspberries

Raspberry reacts sharply to a lack of moisture in the soil, therefore, water the raspberry plant as needed, based on its condition. Most of all, moisture is needed during the flowering period and the setting of ovaries. With its lack, the berries become smaller and dry.

Water the raspberries along the furrows, moistening the soil to a depth of 15 cm. Then the land must be mulched.

Raspberry protection

Most often, raspberries are affected by such ailments as powdery mildew, anthracnose, and purple spot. In addition, various pests attack it: raspberry gall midge, tick, stem fly, raspberry beetle.

It should be borne in mind that chemical preparations cannot be used to protect raspberries, with the exception of Bordeaux liquid (bushes can be treated with a 3% solution in March, before bud break).

Therefore, in protecting the raspberry tree from infections and unwanted insect guests, the following preventive measures play the main role.

Keep the area clean (remove trimmed shoots and other debris in a timely manner), as various organic residues can serve as a breeding ground for a huge number of pests. Do not get carried away by over-watering and fertilizing, because this creates a favorable climate for the appearance of diseases affecting raspberries.

To protect raspberries, it is also allowed to use biological products, such as: rihodermin, glyocladin, phytosporin-M, bactofit, planriz, alirin-B (processing is carried out during bud break, in phase-butonization and at the beginning of flowering); verticillin, bitoxibacillin, mycoafidin, aversectin-C, bicol, pecilomycin (drugs recommended against raspberry pests). Use these drugs according to the instructions, without reducing or increasing the concentration on your own.