When pruning raspberries in spring or fall. How to prune raspberries correctly in the fall: instructions for beginners. What tools are needed to trim raspberries

Kirill Sysoev

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Content

Raspberries, grown in almost every country house, do not cause trouble for gardeners, however, this unpretentious berry bush requires due attention so that the berries do not shrink and the shrub continues to fully bear fruit. When leaving, you need to know how to properly prune raspberries in the fall, choosing, depending on its variety (usual, remontant), the correct scheme for autumn pruning before winter, standard or double. With the right preparation of the plant, next season it will delight you with a good harvest.

Do I need to trim raspberries for the winter

Any gardener wants to get large sweet berries from raspberries, but this is not easy to achieve if you do not know how to prune raspberries in the fall. Correctly carried out autumn pruning of raspberries in combination with proper care of the bushes will give an excellent harvest. Such processing is done not only to thin out the density of the plant. A shrub developed in a 2-year cycle already yields small fruits in the third year. It is a pity to cut fruitful shoots, but pruning raspberries in early autumn will be the most reasonable way of future fruiting.

When to trim

Care is carried out 10-20 days before the onset of autumn frosts. If you are not growing a remontant species, but an ordinary one, then you should not wait until late autumn for processing, giving pests and diseases extra time to multiply. It is necessary to cut remontant raspberries in the fall, when all the berries are already harvested, in October-November, without leaving annual stems for the next year, cutting out everything up to three centimeter stumps.

When thinning common varieties in autumn, all the two-year-old shoots that have served their term are cut out without leaving stumps and well-developed branches are not touched for the next spring selection. Broken, diseased and diseased shoots should also be removed. In the climatic conditions of a winter with little snow, for wintering in the fall, it is only necessary to clean up the raspberries in bunches, bend to the ground and leave thinning until early spring.

Pruning raspberries for the winter

For successful cultivation, the raspberry tree should be cut twice a year, and the gardener should be puzzled about how to properly cut the raspberry bushes, taking into account a similar procedure in the spring. If the spring thinning of the bushes is not planned, then during autumn processing, the required number of shoots is left immediately: 8-10 shoots per bush and when grown in rows - in the amount of 10-12 per meter of length.

Before starting work, arm yourself with a very sharp pruner, carefully examine for the choice of branches for removal and fruitful stems. With the correct procedure, no hemp is left to the very base, a distance of up to 60 cm is maintained between the bushes and removed:

• fertile, diseased, broken, extra stems;
• young twigs that are not able to overwinter;
• two-year-old branches so as not to interfere with the feeding of young shoots.

Simple varieties

Raspberry pruning should begin by grading the shrub. For simple species, experienced gardeners follow these rules:

• cut off branches that have already borne fruit with a pruner;
• cut off weak, diseased, broken, dried branches;
• thinning annuals;
• collect all cut branches and burn away from plantings in order to avoid contamination of healthy plants from possible infections with pathogenic bacteria.

Repair raspberry

The repairing variety differs in that it lays flower stalks and gives a good harvest on one-year-old branches of the current year. Pruning remontant raspberries should take into account the peculiarity of the formation of additional lateral buds with numerous branches that increase the yield in late summer and autumn. Its scheme depends on the purpose of growing:

• to get a double harvest, processing is carried out in the same way as for conventional varieties;
• to obtain a one-time harvest, you must completely cut out all the shoots.

Pruning jemalina in autumn

The hybrid, the miracle plant, Ezhemalina took all the best from blackberries and raspberries - high yield, unpretentiousness, winter hardiness. Caring for her is as follows:

• in the summer, after the growth of branches and fruiting, the bushes are cut to a height of 2.5 m, pinching their tops - the branches will then be thicker and stronger, will give more shoots;
• you need to leave 4-5 strong shoots, and in the spring you need to do a second thinning, shortening them by 20-30 cm.

Autumn pruning height

If by the end of May the height of the bush reaches 80-90 cm, the branches must be cut, if less, then the processing is postponed until August:

• On young shoots, this should be done up to a height of 1.2-1.5 m.
• With poor growth, you can leave some weak shoots, pruning them up to one meter in height.
• If the shrub has not been cut for 3-4 years before this time, it is necessary to remove the dead branches and young weak lateral shoots, and cut the remaining ones to a meter height.

Sobolev pruning

A popular option for today is the processing of raspberries according to the method of Sobolev, a Russian gardener. The method is simple and effective:

1. According to the technology, the bushes are formed in the spring and autumn periods, starting at the end of May-beginning of June with cutting the tops 15 cm from a height of 80-100 cm.
2. By the beginning of the autumn period, a powerful trunk with 5-6 shoots up to 50 cm long is formed. This year, thinning is not carried out.
3. A new step comes next spring. Shoots that have survived frost are shortened by 10-15 cm.

Following the Sobolev method, you can make a remontant from an ordinary berry, increasing the yield. At the same time, the method has disadvantages: the shrub is actively overgrown, the airing of the branches worsens, shading and infection with pests and diseases intensify. To avoid problems, the minimum distance between rows of bushes should be 2 m, the minimum distance in a row should be 1 m, and the maximum number of shoots of one bush should be within ten.

Video

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The most important point in caring for raspberries is their systematic pruning. These activities begin at the stage of seedlings. After planting the plant in the ground, it must be shortened to 0.5 meters. In the future, raspberries should be pruned throughout the season using a pruner.

Purpose of pruning raspberries

The repairing raspberry variety is ready to please the summer resident with its fruits starting from the first year of fruiting. The rest of the varieties acquire buds and fruits only in the second year of growth. When used in a two-year growing season, shoots should be removed as unnecessary, as weak, and not suitable for further use. Instead, new, young shoots will grow from the powerful root, which will give a good harvest.

If pruning is not done with the arrival of autumn, then the abundance of new shoots can greatly thicken the shrub. In turn, this circumstance will negatively affect plant health and yield:

• Thick bushes produce fewer berries;
• The fruits become small and lose their former taste;
• Poor ventilation of plantings contributes to the development of fungal diseases of the plant;
• In dense "thickets" pests start up faster;
• New shoots do not have time to get stronger by winter, and therefore there is a high probability of the death of a shrub or shoots by spring.

You shouldn't feel sorry for strong stems, because pruning them is the only right decision in the desire to get a stable yield of high-quality fruits. Spring and autumn pruning acts on the bush as a stimulant for the growth of new shoots overgrown with many buds. And the removal of obsolete and low-quality stems, contributes to the rejuvenation of the bushes. As a result, they are less likely to get sick.

Pruning in spring

In late March - early April, when the juice has not yet begun to actively move, the raspberry shoots are cut off 11-15 cm to strong buds. Thus slowing down their vertical growth, the bush directs its energy to new fruits. The sprouts that have been broken are trimmed back to healthy buds. And those that died after wintering are removed completely.

In order for not only the remontant variety, but also the summer one to bear fruit longer, pruning is carried out at different heights. Cutting shoots at the level of 15 cm from the soil is permissible. Moreover, the lower the cuts, the later the bushes will begin to bear fruit.

During the period of active growth of young growth, old layers must be cut out under the root or cut down with a shovel. The shoots that have managed to grow 25-30 cm are examined and the strongest are isolated. Weaker instances are removed. If the spring and summer pruning was carried out taking into account all the rules, then a meter of the ridge by winter should contain no more than 16 healthy young bushes.

Summer raspberry pruning rules

After harvesting the entire crop, the raspberry bushes must be pruned. The branches of the summer raspberry variety that carried the fruits are cut off at the base. At the same time, it is important to ensure that hemp does not remain, because they can become a target of diseases and pests. You can do these activities in the fall, but summer pruning will affect the plant better, because the new shoots that lay the buds will receive more nutrition.

In addition, in the summer, in order to ensure the future harvest, it is necessary to monitor the growth of raspberry bushes inside the plantings and outside their borders. For this purpose, extra shoots are removed once every 10-14 days. This technique will prevent overgrowth rooting, which will simplify the gardener's work.

Pruning a raspberry bush in the fall

Two-year-old shoots that yielded in the summer and did not leave immediately can be pruned in the fall. At this time, not only outdated branches are removed from the bushes, but also those that look weak, dry, or are sick. It is important to prune them to ground level and then incinerate them immediately in order to destroy infections, fungus and pests.

Also, in the fall, young sprouts are cut off, which are not ripe by September-October enough to survive the frost. As a result, the plantings will be suitable for further safe wintering.

Repaired varieties can bear fruit until late autumn. But, as soon as all the berries from the annual shoots are collected, they are cut off. Those shoots that did not have time to cut off at the end of autumn are removed with the arrival of spring. It is preferable to have time to do this before the beginning of April, before the juice begins its active movement.

Important: in spring and autumn, after pruning the bushes, they must be sprayed with special preparations that protect the plant from possible diseases and harmful insects.

Raspberry pruning according to Sobolev

The technique of cutting raspberries according to A.G. Sobolev gained popularity and proved its effectiveness even during the existence of the USSR. And to this day it is successfully practiced by gardeners all over the world. The method consists in pruning the bush at the specified time, strictly following the main rules.

The tops of annual shoots are shortened for the first time when their length is from seventy to one hundred centimeters. This is often done in May-June. The shoot is cut by ten to fifteen centimeters, which contributes to the development of lateral processes. The buds, in the leaf axils, show their activity a couple of days after pruning. And already at the end of summer they are transformed into shoots reaching 0.5 m in length. They will give a good harvest next season. Therefore, it is so important to have time to prune on time so that all the shoots will successfully ripen and not freeze in winter.

The second decisive pruning is done in the spring, after wintering. As soon as the bushes are overgrown with leaves, about 15 cm of the apical part is removed from the lateral shoots. These manipulations stimulate the massive development of the kidneys located in the sinuses. And already by the start of the ripening of the berries, the bush will be covered with a couple of dozen branches with an ovary.

Thus, pruning by the method of A.G. Sobolev allows:

• Double, and sometimes even triple the final harvest from the raspberry plantation;
• Extend the time interval for fruiting a common raspberry variety, similar to a remontant relative;
• To increase the number of flower buds formed on the bushes.

This technology also includes traditional autumn pruning. For the winter, raspberries are cleared of sick, weak and unripe shoots. Despite the simplicity of the method, trimming according to A.G. Sobolev will give a good result only if:

• All pruning rules will be followed, as well as agrotechnical conditions will be observed: selection and planting of seedlings, watering, feeding, etc.;
• Cut off the lateral shoots that thicken the bushes in time. Thinning pruning promotes high yields and healthy raspberries by protecting them from fungal diseases and pests.

All agrotechnical measures must be carried out taking into account the climatic zone of planting and weather conditions. The timing may vary for each region. Therefore, the gardener must be guided by his experience and observation.

A well-groomed raspberry bush will delight you with a large harvest

Novice gardeners are tormented by the question of whether to trim raspberries in the fall. We answer: if you leave the shoots of the plant in full growth, then a decrease in yield and a decrease in berry size is guaranteed. The remaining dry shoots do not allow young shoots to grow. Pruning is required for all raspberry varieties and promotes the emergence of new shoots in place of those that bear fruit. Plants over two years old are best removed.

It is important to control the distance between plants, the gaps are necessary for uniform sunlight and airing

Dense thickets directly affect the yield: a lot of greens - few berries. This also affects the taste - the sweetness disappears, giving way to a sour taste. Numerous pests do not deny themselves in the fragrant raspberry forest, which bring various diseases for the plant with them to a new place of residence. Young shoots, which are a consequence of the lack of pruning, do not have time to ripen and die before the arrival of spring.

Pruning raspberries for the winter is a mandatory process that will provide you with a harvest of large and tasty raspberries

What tools are needed to trim raspberries

Full pruning can only be done with a permanently disinfected sharp pruner. A tool with blunt blades will do a disservice, as it will crush and damage branches, which will affect the winter hardiness of the entire plant. But the disinfection process is needed to exclude the possibility of transferring diseases to other shoots. Any disinfectant will do.

Remember to wear gloves when using the pruner in raspberries!

When is the best time to prune raspberries - in autumn or spring

Remember: the main pruning is carried out in the fall, and with the onset of spring - sanitary. In the spring, they wait for the snow to melt and go to the raspberry-tree to cut branches broken off by snow and bad weather. They also remove frozen shoots and cut off the tops from the branches that will harvest this year.

Pruning raspberries for the winter is carried out after harvesting: all two-year-old shoots that have fruited are subject to elimination. Old branches practically do not bear fruit, except perhaps with a small, tasteless berry. Therefore, after harvesting, these shoots are harvested at the root. Then the weak and diseased branches are already removed.

The essence of winter pruning is to prepare the raspberry tree for the frosty season and ensure a stable high yield

How and when to prune raspberries in spring

Spring pruning should be completed before the main sap flow begins. They focus on the arrival of spring in their region.

In order for the bush to grow not straight up, but begin to bush, raspberries need to be shortened by 13-15 cm to a strong bud

Frozen, broken shoots should be cut to a healthy bud.

TIP!

If you shorten the shoots to different heights, then you can extend the fruiting period for the entire raspberry tree. Strongly cut bushes bear fruit later.

The next stage of pruning is the emergence of mass growth, which is removed under the root with a shovel. If you plan to leave a few for fruiting next year, then choose sturdy and strong ones.

The overgrowth greatly prevents the plant from concentrating all its forces on the growth of fruits

Please note that if you do everything right in the spring , then in the fall there will be 16-20 healthy young shoots on the ridge meter.

How to properly prune raspberries in the fall

During the autumn pruning, the raspberry tree is cleaned of diseased, dry and damaged shoots by insects and pests.

IMPORTANT!

Sick bushes are cut at the root and immediately burned to prevent the spread of disease.

Shoots are removed before the end of the season.

Terms of processing raspberries in the fall

If young shoots are lagging behind in growth, then pruning can be done early. Regular raspberry varieties do not need to wait until late autumn: they have harvested, which means it's time to prune. This process usually begins in August or September. The main thing is to finish trimming the bushes 2-3 weeks before severe cold weather.

How high are raspberries cut in the fall?

A simple pruning scheme will help determine the desired height that should remain after removing the top:

• weak tops of the head are removed before the first healthy kidney;
• the preferred height of the pruned shoot is 1.5 m;
• can be removed 25 cm from each branch.

As a result, you will get a row of bushes that are relatively even in height. Be sure to keep the required distance between the bushes.

If there are several rows, then they make sure that there is at least 1.6 m between the bushes. Otherwise, the raspberry tree will constantly suffer from the invasion of fungal diseases.

Pruning technique

Here are some great tips for pruning raspberries for the winter.

All biennial branches are removed first.
Then spoiled and weak annual shoots are removed
Thinning is carried out in thickened thickets: it is better to leave no more than 10 stems per 1 m2

All that is cut off is taken away and burned. The raspberries are dug in and fertilized, and the remaining branches are treated with iron vitriol.

NUANCE!

There is no need to leave hemp, since the growing point is in the rhizome.

Pruning remontant raspberries in the fall

Plus remontant raspberry is a long period of fruiting. For your plants to overwinter successfully, you need to know when to prune them. After the end of this period, until the end of November, you need to mercilessly cut out all the shoots that have borne this year at the root.

TIP!

If you missed pruning in the fall, start the process in March before the juice moves.

In ordinary raspberries, all phases of branching and fruiting growth take place in two years, while remontant manages everything in a year. Therefore, the approach to pruning in winter will be different: you do not need to choose shoots, they all need to be cut off almost at the very ground. After the spring appearance of the guard of young shoots, thinning will be required. This procedure is repeated up to three times, leaving only strong branches in the end.

Full pruning of remontant raspberries helps contain pests and makes plant maintenance easier

We offer a detailed video, which will tell you when and how to cut remontant raspberries:

How to cut once fruiting raspberry varieties

A common variety of raspberries can be cut in such a way that the fruiting period will be extended: depending on the number of shoots, the cut is distributed in such a way that tiering appears. To do this, you need to cut off branches at different heights one by one, and gradually leaving a smaller distance to the soil.

You can cut all the bushes flush with each other. If winters are harsh in your area, then it will be easier to bend and cover such a raspberry tree

For beginners, watch the video for good advice on how to prune raspberries in the fall.

What to do after pruning to prepare raspberries for winter

After cutting all the branches and feeding them by adding superphosphate to the soil at the rate of 50 g per adult bush and 40 g of potassium sulfate, the raspberries should be watered properly. The rate of water consumption is 50-60 liters per bush.

TIP!

If the plants are young, then the amount of fertilizer is halved.

Now you need to think about the coming winter. A pruned raspberry tree can not be covered with anything if you live in the Middle Volga region, but a variety suitable for your area. In the south, there is no need for shelter either, it will rather allow the raspberries to dry out. But in many regions, you need to think about shelter.

The first method has gone through more than one year of checks: snow cover. This option is suitable if the snow cover in your area is significant. If a crust of ice forms on the snow, it is removed. If there is little snow, use the fallen leaves, covering the bushes by 30 cm. With a film cover, several holes are left for ventilation.

You should not cover the raspberries early, they can wither away, and if you delay, then the frozen branches will become brittle, it will be difficult to bend them

Raspberry pruning scheme according to Sobolev

The scheme of double pruning of raspberries according to Sobolev is quite popular. Sobolev A.G. offered his own method, combining simplicity, efficiency and quality pruning. Pruning is done in two stages. In the spring, around the end of May or early June, the usual height of the stems is already 80-90 cm.This means that you can cut off the tops by removing 15 cm each.

The tops are cut with pruning shears or simply pinched

The meaning of this action is to push a single shoot to branching, which will become full by the summer. In autumn it will be a strong bush with 5-7 sprouts of 0.5 m each.

No pruning for the winter

In the spring, the second stage of pruning begins: all stems are shortened by the same 15 cm, allowing the bush to become even more branchy. Such lush bushes produce many times more large berries, and the fruiting period increases, approaching the timing of remontant raspberries. The disadvantages of the method include too dense planting of plants in the raspberry tree. Such bushes will be less ventilated, the sun will not be able to illuminate them evenly.

If you intend to grow raspberries using the Sobolev method, then the distance between the bushes must initially be taken at least 2 m.The distance between the rows should be at least one meter

Due to the large branching, it is enough to leave 10 shoots in one bush in the first year, and then gradually reduce their number to 4.

Gardeners' mistakes in caring for a raspberry tree

Novice gardeners can make such mistakes in the rules of caring for a raspberry tree:

1. Pity for the young growth, which will not lead to an increase in the yield, but to its decrease and plant disease.

   

   Thickened plantings often suffer from fungus and pests

2. Neglect of feeding.

   

   Raspberries require timely application of organic and mineral fertilizers, in the spring - nitrogenous, and in the fall - phosphorus-potassium

3. Lack of watering can quickly turn large varieties of raspberries into something incomprehensible, or even completely destroy the plant.
   No. 20. Watered raspberries until the soil is completely moistened, but allow it to dry out before the next watering
4. Don't be lazy, raspberries feel better if tied up. The trellis method is suitable, or you can tie each bush to a separate peg.
   Raspberry garter methods
   

   
   
   
   

5. Harvesting must be carried out without waiting for the dark color of the berries.

Dark overripe berries will wrinkle, and you will bring raspberry puree home

In conclusion, we add that the correct actions in the raspberry berry will lead to excellent yields, excellent taste of the berry and the healthy state of the plants. Do not neglect pruning raspberries and follow the rules if you want to get really big yields and keep all the varietal qualities of the berry.

We offer another video where an experienced gardener will tell you how to carry out autumn pruning of raspberries:

Not everyone knows how to cut raspberries in the fall, but this is necessary so that the berries are large and the harvest is plentiful. Many people think that raspberries are a very unpretentious perennial plant, but this is not entirely true.

Purpose of trimming

Raspberries grow quickly and are capable of bearing fruit in rather extreme conditions - in hot dry summers or, conversely, with a minimum number of sunny days. It is not without reason that raspberries are found in the wild forest or even in the foothills. But she has one feature: the bush brings good large berries only in the first 2 years after planting, after that every year the berries become smaller and harder. If the bush grows on the site as a natural hedge, then there is nothing to worry about and pruning will only make this fence ineffective. But if the gardener plans to harvest large, sweet berries every year, then you should know how to properly prune raspberries in the fall.

There is nothing complicated in this, and you do not even need any special tools, it will be enough to use an ordinary soda pruner. And, of course, protect your hands with thick gloves, because raspberry stems are very prickly.

Pruning process

The first thing to remember is that the 2-year-old stem of the common raspberry must be cut off, leaving the thin one-year shoot intact. It is they who should bring the harvest of berries next year. If the raspberry is remontant, then all the stems are cut clean.

So, how to properly prune raspberries in the fall:

1. First of all, weak annual stems that are affected by disease or have not grown to normal size are removed. Dried and rotten stems are also cut. It should be removed just under the spine.
2. After that, thick two-year-old stems are cut at the root.
3. In the case when the bush has too many stems and it is practically not visible through and through, about 10 pieces should be left. for 1 m². The strongest and healthiest shoots should be left.
4. The cut stems should be taken out of the site and burned: as a rule, dangerous pests live in them.
5. After the removal of the stems is completed, the soil around the cut raspberries is dug up so that the weeds are lying roots up.
6. The last stage of pruning is feeding the roots with fertilizers. The remaining sprouts should be treated with copper sulfate, this will kill the remaining pests.

Raspberries are a bush, the stems of which grow from the rhizome, so you need to cut them to the very level of the ground, you cannot leave hemp sticking out above the soil.

There are several aspects to watch out for when pruning raspberries. Unlike trees, you do not need to pull with processing until late autumn. Indeed, in the last warm weeks after the harvest, the pests will have time to cause serious harm to the remaining sprouts, while they themselves will actively multiply. To deprive them of this opportunity, the plant should be pruned immediately after the August harvest. And until late autumn, the remaining shoots will have time to get stronger and prepare for the next year.

If you have doubts about how much you need to cut the stems, you can use the following principle - remove as much as remains. This will allow the raspberries to grow freely and the berries will not hide in the shade of adjacent stems. And this is one of the conditions for a good harvest.

If growth has appeared on the roots, you can either cut it off so that it does not take useful juices and minerals from the stems, or gently dig it out and plant it away. This process will make the raspberry plant larger.

Pruning remontant raspberries

If a remontant variety is growing on the site, then the question of whether it is necessary to cut raspberries in the fall disappears by itself. The fact is that it turns into an annual plant, while it gains the ability to yield a crop 2 times a year. This is due to the fact that remontant raspberries are capable of bearing fruit both on last year's stems and on young shoots that have grown since spring.

Pruning raspberries in the fall for beginners is best combined with remontant varieties. Indeed, in this case, the stems are simply removed almost to the very root, low stumps of about 3-5 cm remain on the surface.Primming, thus, does not give any chances for pests to survive in winter, and at the same time it is easy to insulate raspberries by simply sprinkling them, for example, with sawdust.

Timely pruning of remontant raspberries will allow you to harvest 2 full-fledged crops the next year, this is especially high in warm regions. In order for the nutrients to remain in the roots, but at the same time the stems do not hurt, remontant raspberries are cut after the first frost, when the plant is already ready for winter.

If for some reason the raspberries could not be cut in the fall, you can carry out the processing in the spring, but always before the buds appear. During this period, new stems will begin to grow and at the same time ovaries for future berries.

In May, remontant raspberries are cut for the first time. The procedure is carried out only on biennial stems. Removed about 15-20 cm from the top of the stem. This will postpone the ripening of the second harvest, allowing the berries to ripen on young branches. They do not need to be cut off, since all berry ovaries are formed precisely in the upper part of the young shoot.

After the first harvest of berries is ripe and harvested, young stems should be cut off immediately. This will redirect the juices from the roots to the stems with the ripening berries of the second harvest. When the second harvest of berries ripens, as a rule, closer to autumn, a second pruning is carried out, of course, after harvest. And the cycle repeats the next year. Thus, a two-year-old raspberry turns into an annual plant, but with two full harvests per season.

Pruning by the Sobolev method

There is a fairly well-known method of pruning raspberries according to the Sobolev method. This is a Russian scientist who has developed a unique method of caring for this shrub. When to prune raspberries - in autumn or spring - in this case it does not matter. This decision rests with the owner of the garden.

The first pruning consists of pinching young shoots at a distance of about 15-20 cm from the top. It should be done in May. During the summer season, lateral branches from a young shoot reach almost a meter in length. And the plant becomes like a bush with a powerful stem and young branches.

In the fall, re-pruning of these already grown young shoots is carried out. The branches are cut 15-20 cm from the main stem.

When the raspberry bush wakes up in spring, young shoots immediately begin to grow from the treated branches, and by the end of May the plant is covered with leaves and berries. The bush looks like a blooming ball, strewn with berries. Thus, pruning according to the Sobolev method in 2 years allows the plant to be brought to such a state that it can bring a crop 3-4 times more than an ordinary bush.

The only condition that must be observed when pruning raspberries using this method is abundant fertilization of the soil under the bushes. To grow many thin twigs and then more berries, the plant requires an order of magnitude more minerals and water. So before you start growing and pruning raspberries, you need to dig a ditch along the future bushes for water, and bury more fertilizers in the ground.

Raspberry is a favorite berry of many. For novice gardeners, it is from planting a raspberry tree that their country life often starts, filled with worries about their own garden and vegetable garden. One of them is correct and timely pruning of raspberries in the fall. Do you need it? How to carry it out?

The purpose and timing of autumn raspberry pruning

Autumn pruning of raspberries is carried out in order to increase yields through the correct formation of its plantings. It is known that the roots of raspberries are perennial, and the shoots bear fruit for no more than two years. Where they are allowed to grow freely, raspberries "run wild", capturing more and more new areas. There are few berries in these dense thorny thickets, they are small, and it is not easy to collect them. In order for the raspberry to always please with an abundance of large and juicy berries, and not turn into some kind of garden occupant, it is necessary to cut it regularly.

Autumn pruning is carried out before the cold snap, which in some places may come at the end of October. But many experienced gardeners advise not to delay with it until late autumn. If there are warm autumn days for a long time, then garden pests have time to start in the raspberry tree before the cold weather. Therefore, you can carry out its autumn pruning immediately after harvest - in early September.

Pruning technology: a step-by-step guide for beginners

Before pruning raspberries in the fall, you need to carefully examine the bushes and determine which shoots 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 this pruning technology:

• Remove old, broken, diseased and pest-affected branches.
• Cut out weak young shoots that clearly do not overwinter.
• Get rid of two-year-old shoots that will no longer bring a new crop, but will interfere with the appearance of young twigs, shading them. It is easy to distinguish such branches. Their bark is dark, hard, they are replete with side branchy shoots.
• Thin out the dense bushes, where more than a dozen stems have grown on a square meter. Here they use a sharp shovel, which is used to make outlines in the ground in a circle at a distance of 20 cm from the raspberry bush. Then the space outside this circle is dug in, cutting off excess stems and removing weeds.
• All these branches must be cut at ground level so that pests do not breed on the left stumps. And then they must be burned, otherwise you will not get rid of the enemies of the raspberry. They winter well under the snow.
• After pruning, the remaining stems need to be fertilized with iron sulfate.

When and how to properly trim raspberries in the fall (video)

Features of pruning remontant raspberries

To properly cut remontant raspberries, you need to take into account its features. For some of the varieties that have a normal two-year fruiting period (Zhuravlik, September, Progress), more often two methods are used:

1. Those who want to get the maximum yield in the first year are not advised to rush into autumn pruning. It can be carried out according to the usual scheme in late autumn.
2. If you donate 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. From the already more developed rhizome, next spring, many young branches will appear, on which it will be possible to wait for a bountiful harvest.

Many modern varieties of berries (Hercules, Brilliant, Penguin, Indian Summer-2) differ from other remontant raspberries in that they abundantly form 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, next year, they will show the properties of remontability in full on young shoots.

If you leave uncut hemp for the winter, then the raspberry tree will be reborn, the effect of getting two harvests from it per year will be lost. The bushes will be short, and the risk of infection with raspberry gnats 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 uncut parts of the branches, the crop will appear in the next season.

Rules and features of getting rid of overgrowth

Raspberry growth, if you do not fight it in a timely manner, is the scourge of many gardens. She can fill the entire area, freely moving to vegetable beds. The green shoots should be pruned with a sharp shovel at the beginning of the season, when they have not yet sprouted deeper than 10 cm. The main plant roots remain intact. There are a number of other ways to combat raspberry overgrowth.

• Digging trenches around the perimeter raspberry and aisles. 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, earth. This layer should occupy a third of the trench depth. Its upper layer consists of a mixture of humus, superphosphate, potassium sulfate, ash and earth.
• Fencing trenches with insulating materials: slate, roofing felt, plastic wrap. There should be no gaps 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. Roots feeding the plants easily overcome this barrier.
• Roots of winter garlic and sorrel raspberry bushes between rows, prevent their roots from moving in this direction. And the growth does not appear in this case.

Preparing raspberries for winter: whether to prune

Care should be taken to prepare raspberries for wintering in the summer so that the wood on young shoots has time to ripen, and the roots get stronger. To do this, at the end of August, after harvesting, the plants are fed 2-3 times with potash and phosphorus fertilizers. The last time they are brought in before frosts is in October.

To do this, prepare the following mixtures (per square meter):

1. For mature bushes - 50 g of superphosphates and wood ash is diluted in a liter of water, for young plants the dose is halved.
2. 5 kg of humus or 5 buckets of manure - every 3 years.
3. 250 g of complex fertilizer, which includes phosphorus, potassium, ammonium sulfate.
4. 3 g zinc sulfate and 5 g manganese sulfate.

Usually organic matter is alternated with mineral fertilizers.

An important measure for the 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 must be watered abundantly so that the roots are not dry in winter.
• For raspberries, a neutral acidity soil is preferred. Therefore, coniferous sawdust is not suitable as a protective bedding. Better to use straw, peat, rotting foliage.
• The mulch layer should be 7-8 cm. The thin layer does not prevent moisture evaporation from the soil. And an overly thick layer is fraught with the danger of root rot.

Raspberry shoots winter well under the snow, withstanding sub-zero temperatures up to 35 degrees. So that they can be fully protected by the snow cover, at the end of September, the branches are still flexible enough to be tied, bent to the ground and pinned.

In winters with little snow, you will need to cover the plants with sheets of cardboard, agrofibre (lutrasil, spunbond). The shelter is laid in several layers and fixed or slightly buried in the ground on both sides.

How to increase the harvest of raspberries (video)