Sometimes it seems that raspberries grow on their own and give a good harvest, it is only necessary to water and feed them occasionally. However, in reality, yields can become significantly higher if additional care is applied, pruning is carried out in spring, summer and autumn. Biologically, generative buds, and, accordingly, fruits, are laid on two-year growths of raspberries, with the exception of remontant raspberries - their crop is formed on annual growths. However, even with her, after a growing season for 2 years, the shoots lose their former strength and are subject to cutting in order to allow young shoots that come from the rhizome to grow.
Do I need to prune raspberries?
It is highly advisable to prune raspberries. The procedure activates the growth of young shoots, on which generative buds will be laid. Removing old shoots, which may have diseases and pests, heals the plantation so that it does not need preventive treatments.
If you ignore pruning, one bush will produce dozens of new shoots, which will greatly thicken it. This will reduce the overall harvest, berries (especially for remontant raspberries) will become bland and less sweet. In dense bushes, pests multiply more actively and diseases develop faster, and the shoots freeze in winter.
Spring pruning of raspberries
Spring pruning will slow down the upward development of the bush and literally force the raspberries to direct nutrition into the berries. During the same period, it is necessary to trim frozen and broken shoots to healthy tissue. They should be cut 12-14 cm to the strongest bud.
When to prune raspberries in spring
They start spring pruning of raspberries, usually in March or April, it is advisable to finish it before the start of sap flow.
How to properly prune raspberries in spring
In order for summer varieties regular raspberries berries were presented for a long period, shoots can be pruned at different heights, up to 12-16 cm from the soil surface. The shorter the shoot is cut, the later it will bear fruit. Longer shoots will bear fruit earlier, shorter ones will follow, and so on.
As soon as the young shoots begin to grow actively, it is necessary to cut out all weak shoots at the level of the soil. You can even dig them a little, remove them just below the surface of the soil and return the soil back. From the shoots that have grown 20-35 cm, you need to choose the strongest and most well-developed ones, the rest can be removed. Pay attention to the distance between them - it should be at least 18-20 cm; you should not leave shoots that grow close to each other. As a result, leave 15-20 strong, young shoots per 1 m², no more.
Summer pruning of raspberries
Pruning raspberries in summer is aimed at accelerating the formation of the above-ground parts of young plants and increasing the yield of bushes that have begun to bear fruit. Pruning raspberries during the dormant period will allow you to obtain a yield three times higher in the next season after planting the raspberry tree than in a raspberry garden where summer pruning was not used. Raspberry plants exposed to summer pruning, they begin to bear fruit faster and their yield is usually higher.
When to prune raspberries in summer
It is advisable to carry out pruning in summer when the crop has already been harvested. During this period, the above-ground mass is actively growing, and pruning will stimulate the development of roots. The stronger the root system develops, the more shoots and berries it will produce.
How to prune raspberries in summer
In summer varieties, shoots that have stopped bearing fruit need to be cut out. Cut off exactly to the base of the soil, do not leave stumps, otherwise they will become a breeding ground for infection if pests and diseases settle there. Similar pruning can be done in autumn, but it is in summer that the maximum nutrition will be directed to young shoots that will lay generative buds.
In general, you should know that the raspberry stalk that has fruited usually dries out by autumn, however, new basal shoots grow from the buds that are located on the root system in the summer, on which there will be a harvest next year. I noticed that in the very first year after planting there are very few such basal shoots on plants, usually no more than two, but sometimes there is only one. It is clear that with so many shoots there will be no good yield next year. To make the bushes bear fruit the very next year after planting, I advise you to shorten the aerial part, leaving a short growth of 18-22 cm long. fruit branches on which the harvest will form.
To increase the yield, all emerging root shoots, as soon as they reach a height of 65-75 cm, should be shortened by approximately the length of a pencil; this is usually done in early to mid-June. After such pruning, the shoots will begin to branch and 5-6 additional lateral growths will form on each.
In addition, the summer plant is appropriate on very sparse bushes; after it, the shoots will begin to branch and fill the free space. The total growth will increase several times due to active lateral branching, and accordingly, the yields will increase.
The main thing when pruning is to use a clean tool and wipe the blade with a cloth soaked in alcohol when moving from one plant to another.
Double pruning raspberries in summer
Double pruning means that in addition to removing fruit-bearing shoots, in the summer it is also necessary to carry out pruning aimed at limiting the expansion of the raspberry plantation in breadth. To do this, all excess shoots (if there are more than 20 per 1 m²) need to be cut out approximately once every 10 days.
Autumn pruning raspberries
When pruning raspberries in autumn, the fruit-bearing shoots are first removed, if you did not have time to do this in the summer. Next, you need to cut out all shoots that are weak, dried out, diseased or damaged by pests. This is already sanitary pruning. Such shoots should be cut off at the soil surface and then burned. In the autumn, you also need to continue removing green shoots - they will not have time to mature.
Towards the end of autumn, annual shoots of remontant raspberries are removed, which by that time should have finished bearing fruit. If you don’t have time to cut out these shoots in the fall, then you can do the pruning in the spring, the main thing is to do it before the beginning of March.
Double pruning of raspberries according to Sobolev
A rather interesting and positive results method for pruning raspberries was invented back in Soviet time A.G. Sobolev. The point of the method is to correctly determine the timing of pruning and prevent thickening of the raspberry plantation. Pruning according to Sobolev allows you to significantly extend the fruiting period of standard raspberry varieties, bringing them closer to remontant varieties, increases the number of generative buds on the shoots, and increases the yield from July to September.
Autumn pruning by this method no different from the standard one. Don't forget about sanitary autumn pruning.
First raspberry pruning
According to Sobolev, the very first pruning of raspberries, when the tops of annuals are removed, is done when the plants reach 75-95 cm. Usually, shoots grow to such a height at the end of May or the first half of June (although a lot depends on the region, soil, season, etc.). In this case, the shoot must be shortened by 12-14 cm, after which lateral growths will begin to actively form.
At the same time, the buds located in the axils of the raspberry leaf blades are activated, and towards the end of summer, shoots up to 50 cm long will form in their place. It is on these shoots that the harvest will ripen next year. It is very important to do the first pruning using this method at the optimal time, otherwise the shoots will not have time to become woody and will simply freeze out in the winter.
Second raspberry pruning
The second pruning should also be done in the spring, but for the next season. As soon as the shoots are covered with leaf blades, it is necessary to cut off the tops of 12-14 cm long from all lateral growths. This pruning activates the development of a large number of buds located in the axils, and by the fruiting period the shoots will form a large number of short growths, each of which will have fruits.
In raspberries, the harvest of berries is formed only on last year's shoots. Fruiting shoots die off and must be removed. But when, at what time is it better to do this and how to cut raspberries correctly? These questions are often asked by newbies. This article will help you prune raspberries correctly in order to get good harvest wonderful and healing berry.
When to prune raspberries?
Pruned fruited shoots at the end of summer. They cut to the very root, leaving no stumps, which can become a breeding ground for putrefactive bacteria and viruses of various diseases. At the same time, you can remove diseased and weak branches. Optimal quantity for good development strong fruit-bearing raspberry bush 5-6 pieces or 8-12 shoots per 1 m². This way, each shoot will have enough light, warmth and space. All cut shoots are taken out of the raspberry garden and burned.
In early spring, experienced gardeners It is recommended to trim the tops (to the first bud) of last year’s shoots on which a harvest is expected. At the same time, all the nutrients reach the buds, the growth of raspberry shoots slows down, which means that the bush will retain its strength for a large harvest.
Pruning raspberries to increase yield
By pruning you can regulate the ripening period of raspberries. Throughout the summer, raspberries are pruned at different heights. If you want to extend the raspberry harvest period, use the following tips:
- Divide the raspberry plant into three segments.
- For raspberries from the first segment, the tops are cut off by 10-15 cm in early spring.
- Raspberries of the second segment are cut to half the height of the shoots
- Raspberry shoots from the third segment are pruned heavily, leaving only 15-20 in height.
Raspberries pruned in this way will ripen gradually, first the bushes of the first part, then the berries will sing in the second segment, and at the end of the season you will enjoy the raspberries of the third section.
There is another way to increase the yield that experienced gardeners use: double pruning method for raspberries . It is not complicated, but it requires increased attention and the implementation of all agrotechnical measures when growing raspberries.
- At the beginning of summer, raspberry shoots, which have grown to 1-1.2 meters, cut off the tops by 5-7 cm.
- Nutrients begin to flow to the upper lateral buds and stimulate the growth of 4-8 young shoots. By the end of summer they grow up to 50 cm.
- In autumn, these shoots are bent to the ground and protected from frost (with snow or covering material)
- In early spring, young lateral shoots are shortened by 10-15 cm. New fruiting branches grow again from the upper lateral buds.
Thus, the raspberry yield almost doubles. But this method is used only under the condition of careful care of the raspberries, timely watering and fertilizing.
Pruning raspberries in autumn
Pruning methods depend on the type of raspberry. Pruning once-bearing raspberries is carried out in the following sequence:
- In the fall, all fruit-bearing shoots are removed at the root.
- Remove all diseased, dry and weak shoots.
- 5-6 of the strongest young shoots are left on one bush.
- In early spring, the tops of overwintered shoots are shortened to the first bud.
Pruning remontant raspberries in autumn
Pruning remontant raspberries is a little radically different from pruning the varieties we are used to. Remontant raspberries produce a harvest twice a year. It must be carefully looked after: watered, loosened the soil and fed.
After the first harvest, some of the shoots die off and must be cut out at the root. The remaining shoots of remontant raspberries produce a second harvest. It is slightly weaker than the first, but no less tasty and aromatic.
After harvesting the second harvest, in late autumn, just before frost, all shoots of remontant raspberries are cut out at the root. Cut parts of plants are burned. The area is cleaned, loosened shallowly and watered abundantly.
Thanks to such drastic pruning of remontant raspberries in the fall, new strong and healthy shoots will grow in the spring. The bush will not freeze, it will rest well. Due to the absence of an above-ground part, pests will not overwinter on it. This means the harvest will be generous.
ARTICLES
We talked about the benefits of double pruning raspberries. But no matter how good it is, there are other options that are just as good.
Let’s be honest, not every summer resident has time to monitor the age of the shoots; current ones should be trimmed this way, and last year’s ones – differently. Therefore, today we will talk about the simplest, basic scheme for pruning raspberries, which requires the summer resident to allocate time for this procedure twice: in spring and autumn (after harvesting).
The first spring pruning of raspberries is done as soon as the snow melts (usually mid-April). As usual, they cut off all broken shoots, all frozen branches, and most importantly, cut off the tops of the remaining good stems from which they plan to harvest.
If the tops are damaged by frost, they are usually cut back to a healthy bud. You can cut off the upper part of the shoot so that a plant 1-1.5 meters high remains. Then, when picking berries, you won’t have to bend the bush.
Top pruning in spring is very important. It awakens the buds, from which abundantly fruiting shoots subsequently grow, so it is better not to neglect this activity.
Pruning raspberries in summer
Summer pruning of raspberries is preventative pruning. At this time, diseased branches with yellowed leaves and broken shoots are removed. If there is a lot of young growth and it is not required for reproduction, you can already begin to remove unnecessary shoots by cutting them right at the base or cutting them off from the root with a shovel.
Pruning raspberries in autumn (after fruiting)
Most milestone raspberry trimmings - autumn pruning. More precisely, pruning after harvesting, because depending on the raspberry variety, it can be done either in September or in August.
As soon as the berry has completed fruiting, we begin pruning. We start with the most important thing: we cut out at the root all those branches from which we literally picked ripe berries just a few weeks ago. Yes, this is the essence of raspberries - they bear fruit best on the shoots of the second year. There is no point in leaving them for another season; at best, you will collect small berries from them.
Well, as always, we cut out everything unnecessary and weak: dried, diseased, broken branches, flimsy stems that look like blades of grass.
Before autumn pruning of raspberries, you need to carefully examine the bushes and determine which shoots you need to get rid of and which ones to leave. This manipulation is done with a sharp pruner so that the cut is neat and the wound is small. You should adhere to the following pruning technology:
- Remove old, broken, diseased and pest-infested branches.
- Cut out weak young shoots that obviously will not survive the winter.
- Get rid of two-year-old shoots that will no longer bring a new harvest, but will interfere with the appearance of young branches, shading them. It is easy to distinguish such branches. Their bark is dark, hard, and they abound in branchy lateral shoots.
- Thin out dense bushes where square meter more than a dozen stems have grown. Here they use a sharp shovel, with which they make marks in the ground in a circle at a distance of 20 cm from the raspberry bush. Then the space outside this circle is dug up, excess stems are cut down and weeds are removed.
- All these branches must be cut at ground level so that pests do not breed on the left stumps. And then you must burn them, otherwise you won’t get rid of the raspberry’s enemies. They winter well under the snow.
- After pruning, the remaining stems need to be fertilized with iron sulfate.
When and how to prune raspberries correctly in the fall (video)
Features of pruning remontant raspberries
To properly prune remontant raspberries, you need to take into account its characteristics. For some of the varieties that have a normal two-year fruiting period (Zhuravlik, Sentyabrskaya, Progress), Two methods are most often used:
- Those who want to get the maximum yield in the first year are not recommended to rush with autumn pruning. It can be carried out according to the usual scheme in late autumn.
- If you sacrifice part of the autumn harvest of the first year (no more than 40%), then in the second year you can get abundant fruiting. In this case, in September, most of the bush is cut out flush with the ground, leaving only a few of the most developed and strong one-year stems. Next spring, from the already more developed rhizome, many young branches will appear, on which you can expect a bountiful harvest.
Many modern berry varieties (Hercules, Brilliantovaya, Penguin, Indian Summer-2) differ from other remontant raspberries in that they produce abundant flower stalks in all parts of the shoot already in the first year. This variety of raspberries must be cut out entirely after the first frost. Only in this case will they show full remontant properties on young shoots next year.
If you leave unpruned stumps for the winter, the raspberry tree will degenerate and the effect of getting two harvests from it in a year will be lost. The bushes will be short, and the risk of infecting them with raspberry mosquitoes or beetles will increase significantly.
There are also raspberry varieties that are not remontant, but exhibit these properties during mild autumn (Yellow Giant, Kostinbrodskaya, Indian Summer). For them, it is necessary to carry out late autumn pruning differentially, removing only those parts of the shoots from which the berries were collected. On the remaining unpruned parts of the branches, the harvest will appear next season.
Rules and features of getting rid of overgrowth
Raspberry shoots, if not dealt with promptly, are the scourge of many gardens. It can fill the entire area, freely moving into vegetable beds. Green shoots should be trimmed with a sharp shovel at the beginning of the season, when they have not yet grown deeper than 10 cm. The main roots of the plants remain intact. There are a number of other ways to combat raspberry overgrowth.
- Digging trenches around the perimeter raspberries and between rows. Their depth and width should be about half a meter. The bottom of these ditches is filled with a nutrient mixture of superphosphate, potassium sulfate, wood ash, land. This layer should occupy a third of the depth of the trench. Its upper layer consists of a mixture of humus, superphosphate, potassium sulfate, ash and earth.
- Fencing trenches with insulating materials: slate, roofing felt, plastic film. There should be no cracks in them - loopholes for seedlings. These barriers are buried to a depth of 30 cm, which prevents the penetration of offspring. After all, they are found no deeper than 25 cm. The roots that feed the plants easily overcome this barrier.
- Roots of winter garlic and sorrel planted between rows of raspberry bushes, prevent their roots from moving into in this direction. And in this case the growth does not appear.
Preparing raspberries for winter: do they need to be pruned?
You should take care of preparing raspberries for wintering in the summer so that the wood on the young shoots has time to ripen and the roots to get stronger. To do this, at the end of August, after harvesting, the plants are fertilized 2-3 times with potassium and phosphate fertilizers. The last time they are introduced before frost is in October.
To do this, prepare the following mixtures (per square meter of land):
- For mature bushes - 50g of superphosphates and wood ash are diluted in a liter of water; for young plants the dose is halved.
- 5 kg of humus or 5 buckets of manure - once every 3 years.
- 250 g complex fertilizer, which includes phosphorus, potassium, ammonium sulfate.
- 3 g zinc sulfate and 5 g manganese sulfate.
Usually organic matter is alternated with mineral fertilizers.
An important measure for successful wintering of roots is mulching the soil around the bushes before the onset of cold weather. Here you need to know a few rules:
- Before mulching, the raspberry tree needs to be watered abundantly so that the roots do not dry out in winter.
- For raspberries, soil with neutral acidity is preferable. Therefore, pine sawdust is not suitable as a protective bedding. It is better to use straw, peat, rotted leaves.
- The mulch layer should be 7-8 cm. A thin layer does not prevent the evaporation of moisture from the soil. And too thick a layer carries the danger of root rotting.
Raspberry shoots overwinter well under snow, withstanding temperatures as low as 35 degrees. So that they can be completely protected by the snow cover, at the end of September the still quite flexible branches are tied, bent to the ground and pinned.
Rating 4.58 (6 Votes)Attention, TODAY only!
Many summer residents claim that raspberries are one of the least demanding plants in their garden. But this misconception is partly true. Raspberry pruning should be done annually, and in special cases even more than once a year. Proper care of shrubs is the key to an exemplary harvest.
In huge raspberry fields, on which the owner did not bother with pruning shears, huge berries will not grow. The more neglected the bush, the smaller the raspberries. In addition, picking berries in an overgrown raspberry field is almost impossible due to clinging thorns and impenetrable foliage.
Spring pruning
Pruning raspberries in the spring cannot be considered the main event in caring for the bush. This is rather a sanitary pruning or addition autumn procedure. As soon as the last snow melts, inspect the bush and cut off any dead branches, broken or diseased shoots. Raspberries are grown by bush or row method. How the bush will be thinned depends on this.
The main rule is to give the bushes access to light and air. If you grow raspberries in rows, maintain a distance of 2 meters between them. And the distance between the bushes in a row should be at least 1.5 m. To thin out the raspberries, you need to ruthlessly remove all excess shoots. You need to leave 8-10 shoots per bush. All unnecessary branches are cut as close to the ground as possible. The cut that remains above the ground can become infected and infect the entire bush.
In addition to cutting off unnecessary branches, pruning raspberries in the spring involves removing all diseased shoots. Cut off all frozen sections of the branch, reaching the first living bud. If the raspberry tree has not been damaged by frost in winter, it is necessary to carry out a planned shortening of the shoots by 20 cm. As a result, the height should not exceed 1.5 m.
Special spring pruning ensures gradual fruiting throughout the summer in three stages. To do this, you need to divide the bushes into three conditional parts. The shoots of the first part are shortened by about 15 cm, the second part is cut in half, and the last third is left only 15 cm above the ground. Fruiting will begin with the longest shoots. This pruning will allow you to enjoy fresh berries not only in summer, but also in mid-autumn.
Summer pruning
Summer pruning is an important stage in comprehensive shrub care. At the beginning of summer, when the raspberries bloom, remove all yellowed leaves and branches affected by diseases. They take away from the plant the strength necessary for the ripening of ripe large berries. In addition, diseased areas of shoots spread the infection to the entire bush. It is recommended to burn removed infected branches and leaves to protect the garden from the virus.
Don't forget to remove the growth on the ground near the bushes. Remove all shoots that appear within a radius of 20 cm from the main stem. If you do this regularly, removing the growth will not be difficult. Simply stick the shovel into the ground at a slight angle to cut through the root system of the new growth.
In July, it is necessary to “clean” the bush from unnecessary shoots. After harvesting, all fruit-bearing shoots are removed. This can be done using a large pruning shears. Remove the fruit-bearing shoot at the root so that no aerial part remains. Such branches take away the strength of the raspberry tree and shade it. Don't put off this event until the fall. The sooner you deal with “dead” shoots, the more strength the plant will have.
Autumn pruning
To properly prune raspberries for the winter, keep an eye on the weather forecast. This event takes place approximately 20 days before the first frost. In the fall, the raspberry tree needs to be rid of old branches and extra shoots. Do not forget about diseased, infected areas, which pose a danger not only to the raspberry tree, but to the entire garden. Remember that they should not be thrown into the compost bin. All diseased branches must be burned.
Over the summer, raspberries can produce more than 20 young strong branches. You should leave only 8-10 pieces (for bush growing raspberries) or 12 pieces per meter (for row growing). How to prune raspberries in the fall depends on the upcoming spring care and the region in which your garden is located. If you do not plan to prune the raspberry tree in the spring, then you need to prepare the required number of shoots in advance (according to the scheme described above). But it is preferable to do this in the spring, when it will be clear which shoots are stronger and healthier.
Remember that raspberries can live in one place for no more than 10 years. If you notice that the quality of the berries has become worse, and they resemble strawberries in size, remember how many years raspberries have been growing in this particular area of the garden. Every 5-6 years, do not forget to completely dig up old rhizomes to free up the growth of strong young shrubs.
Double trimming
Pruning raspberries according to Sobolev is considered the highest aerobatics among gardeners and requires high knowledge in agronomy. Not all shrubs show good results after such an event. When planning to use two-stage pruning according to Sobolev in the future, seedlings need to be planted in well-fertilized soil. A decent harvest after such an event will be given by raspberries that have received comprehensive care.
Stages of the event:
- IN last week In May, the top of the young shoot is pinched. When its height is approximately 0.8-1 m, you need to pinch off the tip by 15 cm. This provokes rapid growth of young side shoots. By the end of summer they should have time to ripen, and their length should reach about half a meter. If you hold the event in June, in the middle or end of the month, the fragile shoots will freeze in winter. Based on the observations of Sobolev himself, 4 lateral processes should be left. In autumn, do not forget about thinning the bushes and sanitary measures.
- Next spring, immediately after the first leaves appear, shorten the overwintered side shoots by 15 cm. This provokes the awakening of all dormant buds.
Double pruning raspberries makes it possible to enjoy fresh, juicy berries from mid-summer until late autumn. Do not forget that raspberries need constant comprehensive care. Watering, fertilizing, thinning, and removing diseased parts of the plant must be done regularly.
Not everyone knows how remontant raspberries differ from regular varieties. It is capable of setting fruit not only on two-year-old branches, but also on annual ones. This makes it possible to get two harvests from one raspberry tree. If you live in a warm region, it is recommended to cut off the fruiting shoots “at the root”, leaving stumps 3 cm long. This should not be done immediately after fruiting. Wait until the first autumn frosts. At this time, nutritious juice will not flow violently in the stems. You can perform the procedure in early spring, when the bush has not budded.
The second harvest is usually not as rich. In cold regions it may not ripen, so remontant raspberries are grown as an annual plant. Pruning of remontant raspberries is done “at the root” to give strength to young shoots and rid the bush of pests. There is no need to pinch off the tops of the shoots, because the harvest usually ripens in the upper part of the bush.
Raspberries are considered an unpretentious crop. The only care that the owner can give her is regular and correct pruning. It is enough to learn a couple of simple rules and spend just a couple of hours a season on a berry plantation to enjoy a rich, tasty harvest.
Loading...