Mid-April to early May is the most favorable period for caring for raspberries in the spring.
It is at this time of the year that the shrubs need special attention, and the measures taken for trimming and top dressing can stimulate intensive growth and high yield of raspberries.
Revision of shrubs after winter
Before you start caring for raspberries in the spring, conduct an audit (inspection) of the bushes. All old and diseased branches must be removed and burned, otherwise they will provoke the multiplication of pests and the defeat of young shoots by them.
If the bushes were tied in the fall, then after the snow melts, they should be untied immediately. When the audit is completed, you can start pruning raspberries.
Pruning raspberry bushes
Caring for raspberries in the spring primarily requires spring pruning of shrubs. It should be carried out in April, when the street is warm enough, but the ground has not yet been warmed up.
Remove all dried and dead shoots to the base with a garden pruner or sharp knife. If only part of the shoot is frozen, then cut it to living tissue. On good branches, remove the crown of the head to the first healthy kidney. This is necessary so that the shoots gain strength and have time to develop, and in the summer give a plentiful harvest.
The second pruning is done at the time or after the buds open (around the beginning of May). This time, it is necessary to remove 15 cm from the top of each shoot. Such pruning will increase the yield, since after it will be added more than 10 new shoots on the bush.
This method has one drawback - this pruning makes the bushes too thick, which can lead to the defeat of raspberries with pests due to poor ventilation. The way out of the situation is as follows: provide a distance between bushes of 1.5 - 1.8 m, and leave no more than 10-12 shoots on each bush.
Raspberry garter
Spring garter of raspberry bushes is carried out before budding. There are two main ways to garter: bush and trellis.
1. Bush: in the middle of one bush a stake is set, shoots are tied to it so that a distance of 0.5 to 1.5 meters is maintained between the bushes. A stake can be set between two shrubs, each half tied to a bush. Garter is usually carried out at different heights, so all shoots have access to sunlight.
2. Tapestry the method is more relevant when trenching bushes. Columns are installed at the end of the rows, and between them the wire is pulled in two rows: the first - at a height of up to 80 cm, and the second - up to 120 cm. All shoots are neatly tied to the wire.
Transplanting old and planting new raspberry shoots in spring
Spring is the perfect time to create and shape raspberries. For transplanting mature bushes and planting new shoots, there are the same rules that should be followed for successful survival in a new place:
1. The quality of planting material should be high. The length of the root system of the shrub should be at least 15 cm, the shoots must be healthy and developed.
2. Prepare the soil. Raspberries love loamy soil with a high content of humus, which makes it moisture resistant. Therefore, before planting, it is better to add compost and manure fertilizers to the pit.
3. In the raspberry planting area, select a well-lit area. Do not plant bushes near roses, apple trees, blackberries, rose hips, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and eggplant. Such a neighborhood is undesirable due to the possible infection of raspberries with pests from these garden crops.
4. Plant red and yellow raspberries in continuous rows, keeping the distance between the bushes 50 - 70 cm. Purple and black varieties are planted 1 meter from each other. Remember that planting too close can lead to the propagation of pests on the bushes.
5. It is necessary to transplant raspberries before the onset of the growing season, starting from weather conditions in a specific climatic zone (late March - early April).
6. Before planting, it is better to soak raspberry roots with manure or mullein solution to enhance the decomposition of organic substances.
Raspberry top dressing in spring
Topping raspberries in spring should be combined with loosening the soil. These activities will contribute to the intensive growth of shrubs and abundant summer harvests.
How to feed raspberries? The answer to this question is quite simple: in spring, raspberries are in great need of nitrogen fertilizers. This can be evidenced by the absence of shoots of shoots on the bushes.
One of the best nitrogen fertilizers for raspberries is urea. It is applied along the shrubs planted in rows with a strip of 50-60 cm. After such a procedure, it is better to mulch the soil. It is best to make mulch from manure, straw and sawdust.
Do not abuse manure fertilizers, 2-3 years should pass between such dressings. Otherwise, the shoots may simply not have time to ripen, especially such a problem is relevant for snowy winters.
If mulch has not been applied as fertilizing, then you can simply fertilize the soil with manure. Due to the deep location of raspberry roots, manure should be applied to a depth of 10 cm, and pre-fed with liquid fertilizers.
To get a high-quality raspberry crop, before the buds bloom, treat the bushes with nitrafen, and a few days before flowering - karbofos. Also, in the spring, you can use ammonium nitrate as a top dressing for raspberries.
Spring treatment for pests and diseases
The most common and dangerous diseases for raspberries are rust, white spotting, and anthracnose. Of the pests, shrubs are most often attacked by a spider mite, aphids, raspberry-strawberry weevil, leaf moth, gall midges and sawflies. Before starting to care for raspberries in the spring, treat the bushes from potential pests and diseases.
Immediately before planting, treat the roots of the bushes with the “Agate 25K” preparation to prevent verticillosis wilt. Until the raspberry buds have time to blossom, treat the shoots with a Bordeaux mixture to prevent leaf diseases.
After the first young leaves appear on raspberries, treat the shrubs with colloidal sulfur (karbofos). Such an event is a powerful prevention of the appearance of ticks, in particular, spider mites. Also effective drugs in the fight against pests and diseases are: topaz, Fufanon, Iskra, Actellik. Of folk remedies, the most effective are infusion of pine needles and tansy.
With the defeat of raspberries by gallium on the stems, small swelling occurs. At the first signs of this disease, cut off raspberry shoots below ground level and destroy.
Many raspberry diseases are difficult to treat even with fungicidal drugs. Damaged shrubs should be cut and burned immediately, preventing the development of diseases in neighboring ones. Therefore, spring preventive treatment is very important for the health of raspberries and a quality crop.
