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Propagating raspberries by cuttings allows you to quickly and successfully increase the population of shrubs in your summer cottage. The method can be used throughout the warm season.
Is it possible to propagate raspberries from cuttings?
Cuttings are one of the most popular and effective methods of propagating shrubs. Raspberries demonstrate excellent survival rate, grow quickly, and at the same time the shoots require very simple care. Vegetative propagation with a 95% probability allows you to preserve the varietal characteristics of the mother plant.
Required Tools
Before planting raspberries from cuttings, you need to prepare the following tools:
- pruner;
- sharpened knife;
- bayonet shovel.
All instruments are pre-disinfected with alcohol or calcined over a fire.
Also for cutting raspberries you will need to take:
- covering material - agrofibre or burlap;
- transparent polyethylene film;
- sifted river sand;
- peat moss;
- small containers for shoots.
All materials and accessories must be clean, sand and moss must be taken without foreign impurities and odors.
Methods for propagating raspberries by cuttings
There are several ways to propagate raspberries. Some of them are better suited for spring, others are used in summer.
Propagation of raspberries by green cuttings
You can propagate raspberries from cuttings in the spring using green shoots. The procedure is usually carried out at the end of May, and the algorithm looks like this:
- The raspberry shoot is cut off from the bush at soil level. The upper part is removed, leaving only 10 cm, and an oblique cut is made from below.
- The cuttings are placed in a solution that stimulates root formation for 12 hours.
- After time, the shoot is planted on a temporary bed and covered with film on top to create greenhouse conditions.
- During cultivation, the cuttings are regularly watered with warm, settled water, preventing the soil from drying out.
When planting several shoots at once, leave a distance of 10-12 cm between them. Successful rooting will be indicated by new leaves that appear on the raspberries. The cuttings can be transplanted to a permanent place in the fall or spring of next year.
Propagation of raspberries by woody cuttings
You can plant raspberries by cuttings using lignified shoots.They are usually germinated in early spring, but harvesting is carried out in the fall at the end of September or October. The procedure looks like this:
- On an adult bush older than three years, several shoots are cut off and divided into small pieces no longer than 30 cm.
- A cut is made from below at an acute angle, and the upper edge of the cutting is left smooth.
- Place the shoots in a box with peat or sand, spray them with a spray bottle and place them in a cellar or refrigerator.
Cuttings are planted in the ground in early spring. In March, the shoots are removed from the box and left at room temperature for several days so that the planting material “wake up”. Then they begin rooting. Do it like this:
- Refresh the lower sections of the shoots and place them in a solution of Epin or a similar product for several hours.
- After time, place the cuttings in a container of water.
- Leave the shoots in the liquid, not forgetting to change it from time to time, for several weeks - until roots about 3 cm long appear.
- After germinating the raspberry cuttings in water, move them into containers with nutrient soil and place them on a sunny windowsill.
It is necessary to keep lignified shoots at home until the end of August. Only after this the young plants are transferred directly to a permanent site in the garden.
Propagation of raspberries by root cuttings
Most raspberry varieties actively produce root shoots. Such shoots can be used for cuttings. This will allow you to thin out the old bushes and get new ones at the same time.
The algorithm for growing raspberries from cuttings is as follows:
- In late spring or early summer, young root shoots are selected on a plant older than two years.
- The shoot is dug up, carefully removing the top layer of soil, and cut off from the mother bush with a sharp tool.
- The cutting is briefly placed in a root formation stimulator, and then immediately transferred to a prepared hole in the garden.
- Cover the shoot with fertile soil, tamp it down and water it abundantly.
When propagating raspberries in the spring from root cuttings, the necks of the plants should be left flush with the surface of the ground. During the first month after planting, new seedlings must be regularly moistened and shaded from the bright sun.
Intensive cutting method
If you want to plant raspberries in your dacha abundantly, you can use the intensive method. The bottom line is that root buds are taken from young plant seedlings as material.
The step-by-step procedure is as follows:
- In autumn or winter, they purchase a healthy two-year-old raspberry seedling, wrap it in thick paper, and then cover it with sand in a wooden container and leave it in the cellar until spring at a low temperature.
- In early March, the plant is removed and checked for the presence of awakened root buds. If they have not yet appeared, the seedling is put back into the cold and the inspection is repeated after a week.
- The awakened buds are cut off with a sharp knife along with sections of the root - approximately 2-3 cm of the root on both sides of the eye.
- Planting material is soaked in a growth stimulator for ten hours, and then planted in a greenhouse in soil with the addition of peat and humus.
Germination of cuttings is carried out at a temperature of about 25 °C.You can plant buds with root sections not only in a greenhouse, but also in a home seedling box. In this case, the top of the container is covered with film and placed in a well-lit, warm place. Young shoots from cuttings appear on average after 2-3 weeks.
When is the best time to take raspberry cuttings?
The best time to root raspberry cuttings is spring. During this period, the shoots of the bush are at the stage of active natural growth, can receive enough heat and quickly take root. But if you wish, you can carry out the reproduction procedure in the summer, as well as closer to autumn.
How to propagate raspberries from cuttings in spring
To propagate raspberries by green cuttings in the spring, suckers of the plant are used. The algorithm looks like this:
- A strong shoot is selected from a young bush and cut off below the soil level along with a light area around which growth points are located and nutrients are concentrated in the maximum volume.
- The cuttings are placed on a bed with nutritious soil, deepened to 5 cm. When planting several offspring, 5 cm of free space is left between them and up to 10 cm between the rows.
- The cuttings are covered with cut plastic bottles or a film greenhouse is arranged. This is necessary to create greenhouse conditions - shoots must germinate at elevated temperatures and humidity.
- Over the course of 3-4 weeks, the soil in the garden bed is regularly moistened, and the cover is removed briefly every day for ventilation.
- After new leaves appear on the cuttings, the film or plastic caps begin to be removed for a longer time, and then removed completely.
Until next spring, the raspberries are left in a temporary area and carefully insulated for the winter with a mulch layer. With the onset of the warm season, the grown bushes are transplanted to a permanent place.
How to propagate raspberries from cuttings in summer
Garden raspberries are propagated by cuttings mainly in May and early June. Carrying out the procedure in summer is considered undesirable. In heat and low humidity conditions, shoots take root poorly, take root slowly and often die. But if necessary, you can still reproduce if you follow important rules in the process:
- In the middle or end of June, a shoot at least 1 cm thick is selected from a young raspberry bush and the top bud is cut off on it.
- The cuttings are divided into several pieces, leaving 2-3 internodes and one leaf on each of them.
- An oblique cut is made in the lower part and the shoot is immersed in a solution of a growth stimulator for a day.
- The cuttings are planted in a container with a nutrient substrate consisting of peat, humus and sand, covered with a transparent cap and placed in a warm but shaded place.
- For three weeks, regularly moisten the soil in the pot and ventilate the plant from time to time.
The cuttings can be transplanted into open ground in early September. It is not recommended to grow raspberries directly in the soil in the summer, since it will be too difficult to create suitable conditions for them.
How to propagate raspberries from cuttings in the fall
Autumn cuttings of raspberries most often mean harvesting lignified shoots for subsequent germination in the spring. The algorithm looks like this:
- In late autumn, dark brown raspberry stems are cut into pieces of 25-30 cm.
- The shoots are wrapped in thick paper and burlap, and then placed in a wooden box filled with 8-10 cm of wet sand and sprinkled on top.
- Until the end of February, place the container in a cold cellar.
You can root raspberry cuttings from the basement in spring using the standard algorithm. With the onset of the warm season, the shoots are removed and the oblique cut at the bottom is renewed. Then the planting material is soaked in a rooting solution and placed in a nutrient substrate. The cuttings are first germinated at home and then transferred to open ground to a permanent place.
Preparing cuttings for planting
To successfully germinate raspberry cuttings in spring or summer, green or woody shoots must be prepared in advance. The procedure consists of several stages:
- A solution is prepared for the cuttings to stimulate rapid root growth. You can use Kornevin, Epin or any other drugs with a similar effect.
- Raspberry shoots are immersed in liquid for an average of 10-12 hours. It is recommended to keep lignified cuttings in the solution for about a day.
- The shoots are left in a room with a temperature of at least 18 °C. In cold conditions, the effectiveness of the procedure is noticeably reduced.
When using healthy and strong cuttings, soaking in a growth stimulator is usually sufficient and no additional manipulation is required.
Aftercare for raspberries
When using any cutting method for plants, it is important to provide good aftercare. It comes down to several activities:
- regular watering - the soil should remain constantly moist, but not swampy;
- removing weeds and loosening the soil - the latter provides the raspberry roots with good access to oxygen.
The shrub does not need feeding during the first two years after planting. But next to the young plants you can place oats, millet, mustard or other green manure. With the onset of autumn, these herbs are cut and used to mulch the bushes to insulate the roots, slow down the evaporation of moisture and deliver nutrients to the soil.
For raspberries from cuttings, it is important to organize a quality wintering. In the first year after planting the bushes, shortly before the snow falls, the shoots are tied in bunches, bent to the ground and covered with spruce branches. This must be done regardless of the degree of frost resistance of a particular variety - any young seedlings are highly vulnerable to cold weather.
Conclusion
Raspberry propagation by cuttings is most often carried out in the spring, but the procedure can be performed in the summer if you provide shading and high humidity for the shoots. It is allowed to use both green and woody branches of the plant.