Planting raspberries in the fall, how to do it? This is not such a simple process as it may seem. It is known that raspberries should not grow in one place for more than four years. What season is preferable for planting raspberries? When and how to plant raspberries and how to care for her? Can transplant seedlings be better in the spring? Everything must be done skillfully. Different ripening periods allow you to enjoy the harvest from mid-summer to autumn. Most often we have raspberries with red fruits grown, but there are varieties with purple, black or yellow berries.
Raspberry is a semi-shrub in which a perennial underground stem (rhizome) has many subordinate roots horizontally spreading in the upper soil layer at a depth of 20-30 cm. Throughout the entire length, the rhizome and subordinate roots form stems (stolons), on which shoots (offspring) develop in spring )
The aerial part of the raspberry bush consists of annual shoots and biennial stems. The growth of shoots begins in April-May and ends in August.
In the second year, the stems do not grow either in length or in thickness and begin to bear fruit. In the Kuban, raspberries begin to ripen in June. And in the middle lane, usually the berries ripen in mid-summer on the shoots that grew last year. There are raspberry varieties that produce two crops a year.
Raspberry berries are rich in fiber, contain vitamin A, folic acid, antioxidants, as well as numerous minerals. Juice contains vitamin C, and tiny seeds contain vitamin E.
Raspberries are very susceptible to viral diseases. For this reason, it is especially important to plant on your site only plants obtained from a completely reliable source.
Raspberries grow better in full sun. But this condition is not always easy to provide in a small garden. If necessary, the plant will withstand a slight shade. And in the Kuban, raspberries will generally grow well with light shading.
Likes more acidic soil (pH 6.0-6.5). In alkaline soil, it will seriously suffer from excess iron and manganese deficiency. The soil should not be dry during flowering and ripening of fruits.
How to plant raspberries correctly
Planting raspberries too deep is the most common mistake gardeners make. The roots during planting should be buried no more than 8 cm. If the seedlings have just arrived from the nursery, then you can see the old soil level on the stems - this is like an indicator of the correct depth of planting of raspberries.
The fastest way to plant raspberries is to dig a trench to the width of your shovel. When you install the seedlings in a dug trench, straighten the roots, cut off all the damaged parts.
Trim the shoots immediately after planting. They should be no more than 60 cm high.
So that you do not get upset after a lack of harvest, do not grow raspberries in one place for more than four years, transplant it to a new place. Many gardeners know about this. But most often, the size of our garden plots is not so large, so all bushes are transplanted at once, without leaving a single plant on the old plot. And the next year, crops on transplanted bushes usually do not happen. Small, low-cut seedlings with their harvest can please children who have come to visit.
Raspberries do not tolerate soil compaction and weediness. It is best in early spring to completely mulch the soil.
Raspberries are not drought tolerant enough, moreover, its roots are shallow and it needs irrigation. Watering is especially necessary in the middle of May and beginning of June, when the berries are set and ripened. During the harvesting period, refreshing irrigation is done by sprinkling. In autumn (September-October), deep water-loading irrigation is required.
To get a consistently high yield each year, you can apply one of the two planting methods below.
Planting raspberries in a new place - two ways
Method one: planting in the fall
In a new place in autumn, it is best to plant raspberries after potatoes, onions or tomatoes. Pits for planting are prepared in advance, in fact for a year. In late July, it is necessary to dig holes half a meter in depth, width and length. The gap between them should be about the same as their width. Each landing pit should be filled with a bucket of rotted manure, compacted, and covered with earth from above. Preliminary, it is desirable to fertilize the earth: 35-40 g of ammophos, 10 g of potassium salt or 60-80 g of wood ash.
The following year, we select from the bushes in late July and the first half of August substitution shoots or well-developed raspberry offspring, we transplant to prepared places, taking into account the planting features described above. After planting, care for raspberries is as follows: the tops of each plant should be cut only 10-15 cm. It is advisable to tie the plants to a peg or trellis. Pour abundantly each well with water (6-8 liters). After two or three seedlings, it is useful to fertilize with straw rabbit droppings or any other organic fertilizer in two days.
If you do everything in this way, then raspberries will take root well before frost. In the first year after planting will give a good harvest.
Method two: planting in spring
After harvesting, remove raspberry stems from raspberries, leaving only 1-2 substitution shoots. In order for them to develop well by the end of the growing season, young growth must be systematically removed. It is advisable to well dig up the ground between the rows, spud the bushes, and tie the plants to the trellis. Manure mulch should be added to the soil before hilling. If the autumn turned out to be dry, then the bushes will periodically have to be watered well.
In the spring, with the onset of heat, the soil with which raspberry bushes were spudded should be leveled, slightly loosened between its rows. As in the first planting method, the tops of the shoots should be cut off by 10-15 cm, and damaged ones - to a healthy place. When the first leaves are opened, they will grow by a couple of centimeters, around the bush, cut the roots to a full bayonet of shovels and carefully pull the seedling out of the ground. Without damaging young shoots, rhizomes, remove the remains of old stems. Dip the roots of raspberry bushes in a clay mash. In the pits prepared in the fall by the planting method described above, plant young plants. In the autumn-spring period, take care of the soil by watering the bushes, removing weeds, mulching the earth.
As practice shows, if you compare these two methods of transplanting raspberries in autumn and spring, then in the areas where it was planted with already formed leaves, the yield was significantly higher.
A small addition: planting raspberries in the fall in the Kuban is the best option. Bushes planted in spring may not survive the hot summer.