Among the most delicious and healthy berries is undoubtedly the raspberry, very rich in antioxidants and suitable both for fresh consumption and for processing into jams and juices. The plant is simple enough to be grown organically, which we recommend both to professionals and small farms for home consumption.
In order for raspberry seedlings to always be healthy and produce regularly and constantly, one should never forget about the necessary cultivation care . Among them, the size is important, which we see in detail in this article. The raspberry is a perennial species with a bushy habit, so pruning is done very differently from that of other fruit-bearing rosaceae such as apple, pear and peach.
First of all, it is essential distinguish two categories of raspberries: the uniforms, which only bloom and produce once a year, usually in the summer, and the bloom again , which produce twice a year and for this reason are also called bifere. Size is inextricably linked to this important difference between varieties, so the choice should be clear when buying and planting raspberries.
Contents [Ocultar]
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brood size
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Production size: when and how
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Prune single raspberry
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Plum with raspberry or bifero
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Criteria and precautions for pruning raspberries
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Use Erased Suction Cups
Contents
breeding group
In the case of the raspberry, which is not a fruit tree but a bush, the reproductive phase is very short, so the work that must be done on the plant is the preparation of poles and wires to tie the shoots during later stages of pruning.
We cannot therefore speak of a real pruning of the environment, but it is still important to take good care of this initial phase. The plantation must be very well studied because then the plantation will remain there for at least ten years and therefore the distances between the rows and between the individual plants must be established correctly.
Production power: when and how
Production size is what is done every year, let’s see how to do the job for both types of raspberries and at what time of the season to carry out the operations.
Break single raspberry
Each raspberry bush blooms annually in the spring, and in the summer bears fruit only on shoots grown from mixed shoots of one-year-old branches. Therefore, the production cycle is two years.
Each year, the strain of the raspberry plant produces new shoots whose shoots will sprout the following year. This same year, it is the shoots of the previous year which produce the raspberries, while those of the previous year dry up. The vegetation of raspberries constantly renews itself in this way.
Essentially, in unified raspberry, the pruning work to be done is three:
- Dry shoots. Remove any dry shoots that have occurred.
- chickens. Thin new suckers, starting by removing those with the thinnest diameter and leaving about 4-5 per plant; also remove those growing in the middle of the row.
- Active shots. Shorten the remaining shoots to a maximum height of about 2 meters and let them retract between the wires if they have grown, to keep the space between the rows tidy.
All these interventions can be carried out immediately after harvesting, therefore in summer, but also in winter immediately after, avoiding periods of frost. The pruning period for individual raspberries is therefore quite long.
fruit or beef
The varieties of raspberries that bloom again have the particularity of bearing fruit twice a year: in summer, they produce on one-year-old branches, then between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn on new shoots, c ie those issued in the same year.
In the case of the reflowering raspberry or the bifero, the choice to be made is essentially between two different stages: it depends on whether you want to obtain more production in the year or if you want a single annual harvest.
- Size for several outings in the year . This is the most used method in amateur crops and consists of cutting one-year-old shoots at the base, after the summer harvest, to make room for the current year’s shoots, which at the end of summer and early autumn bear fruit at their apical part. Once the leaves have fallen, the shoots of the year are thinned out to leave only 4 or 5, which must be widened and spaced by tying them to the wire. With this choice, the raspberry harvest is progressive and sustainable, because it benefits from summer and autumn production.
- Prune to obtain a single annual production in the shoots of the year . With this technique, reflowering raspberries are managed as uniflores: on the plant, the branch is cut at the base, to stimulate the growth of new shoots from the roots in the spring. Each year, when the leaves fall, the crop is shaved practically to zero to stimulate the birth of new shoots. At the end of each summer or autumn, the new shoots released in the spring give a more abundant production than in the previous case, due to the absence of two-year-old shoots which compete for resources. It may seem strange to breed raspberry bifids by having them produced only once a year, but this solution is the most adopted by specialized companies, which are more likely to have scalar productions, combining the presence of homogeneous varieties , which produce about July, and of reblooming varieties used as uniforms which produce in late summer. The advantage of this technique is that more abundant and quality production and moreover, by cutting the vegetation every year, all possible inoculations of the main diseases are eliminated.
Criteria and precautions for pruning raspberries
For the pruning of raspberries, certain precautions valid for other species and others more specific and related to this small fruit must be respected:
- Use good quality scissors cleaned and sometimes disinfected, especially if plant pathologies have been observed.
- Make cuts at ground level when removing dry shoots Yes oblique cuts when shortening new shoots, so that drops of water fall after the rain.
- Don’t forget to cut the rows even for a year, because all of the dry shoots would remain in the field and the bushes would consequently become thick, unmanageable and much more prone to mold and other adversities. It seems like obvious advice, but in some situations you might not find the time to devote to this important work.
Use Removed Suction Cups
Excess suckers that are removed at the base of plants, if removed from the soil in time with part of the roots and repositioned in a more suitable place, can easily give rise to new plants, for example to extend the length of the row already present or to form another one.
In this way, the harvest is multiplied without spending more money to buy seedlings, in amateur plants this is the most convenient and practical option.
All dry waste can be shredded and composted. It is strongly discouraged to leave it to decompose in the ground, especially if fungal diseases have occurred during the previous season, as this debris would be sources of disease spread for future seasons.