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The main feature of remontant raspberries is their abundant harvest, which, with proper care, can be harvested twice a year. Care, processing and preparation for winter of this raspberry variety is very different from the summer variety familiar to many.
This article will look at how to prepare remontant raspberries for winter. You will learn how and when to fertilize raspberries, how to properly water and mulch the bushes in the fall, and whether you need to prune and cover raspberries for the winter.
Preparing the soil in autumn
Preparing remontant raspberries for winter begins with the soil. It should be saturated with useful substances, protected from the cold and be sufficiently hydrated. In this case, you should expect a large raspberry harvest next season.
Fertilizing the land
In the summer, manure is used as soil fertilizer, but it must be stopped adding to the soil in mid-June. In the last week of July, raspberry bushes are mulched. In order for the stem to strengthen better in the last days of August, it is necessary to apply phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to the ground. As a rule, for feeding remontant raspberries use:
- Monopotassium phosphate and potassium magnesium, which increase the frost resistance of raspberries.At the same time, it is important to pay attention to the quality of fertilizers, otherwise there is no point in applying them.
- Superphosphate is considered the main phosphorus fertilizer.
- To prevent raspberry roots from being damaged by diseases and pests, iron sulfate is also added to the soil in the autumn months.
Last time feed planting remontant raspberries in the last week of October. In this case, you need to scatter some organic matter on the ground. Thus, over the next 4–5 months, the fertilizers will decompose, so that in the spring, remontant raspberries will receive the full range of useful substances.
Watering and mulching
Remontant raspberries need watering before wintering. So, the last watering should be done about two weeks before the first frost. This event is especially important if it is a dry autumn.
Some gardeners water remontant raspberries after the first icy crust appears. They add 2-3 buckets of water to each bush. This is done to prevent the roots from drying out over the winter.
After the last watering of raspberries, the soil should be mulched. Peat, spruce, fallen leaves or sawdust can be used as mulch. It is important to create a non-acidic and non-alkaline environment. The mulch should be covered in layers of approximately 5–6 cm. If you cover the roots of remontant raspberry bushes more, the stems may dry out, resulting in an ideal environment for the proliferation of bacteria and infections.
Raspberry pruning
When is the best time to prune? There is a lot of debate about remontant raspberries. Some gardeners are surethat this should be done immediately before frost, explaining that at this time the movement of juice along the raspberry stems stops, and the plant will more easily tolerate pruning. Others saythat unnecessary shoots should be removed immediately after the end of the fruiting period. Thus, the rhizome of remontant raspberries will receive more strength for development.
There is a third opinion. Most gardeners and summer residents agree that pruning raspberries is best done in early September, no later than early October. This opinion is based on the fact that during this period there is still a lot of juice in the raspberry stems, but its circulation has decreased significantly after the summer.
Methods for pruning raspberry stems
First, you should check the stems to determine which shoots need to be pruned. These include the fragile, old, sick, weak and damaged, as well as those that have not bear fruit in the last 2 years. They need to be completely removed.
To prevent raspberries from spreading throughout your garden, you need to trim the roots. A bayonet shovel is stuck around each bush at a distance of 30 cm, which will chop off the ends of the root system. If you need to renew your raspberry tree, remove the perennial stem from the center of the bush, which will promote the rapid development of new shoots.
Some gardeners use the double pruning method. Thus, the quality of the harvest can be improved, since all the nutrients will be directed to the berries. To do this, in addition to removing old raspberry stems, you need to pinch out young shoots.Thus, a daughter, younger group of buds is formed. However, it is important to avoid thickening the raspberries. To do this, leave 30 cm between the stems. In spring, the shortening of the shoots is repeated, cutting them back to a well-developed bud.
Cut stems of remontant raspberries should be burned. This is done to protect the raspberry tree from insects and pathogenic bacteria that can cause harm to the area. After this, the bushes should be dug up and all weeds should be removed. Otherwise, they will take away such valuable nutrients from the raspberry bushes, making them more vulnerable and may not survive frost.
How to bend down correctly
Although raspberries are frost-resistant, severe frosts can still destroy them. Given this fact, some gardeners resort to bending bushes to the ground. The best covering material for all types of bushes and trees is snow. Thanks to bending, the raspberry bushes will be completely hidden under a layer of snow, as a result of which they will be able to survive even the most severe frosts.
If your remontant raspberries grow exactly along the trellises, then you should bend the bushes one on top of the other, while fixing the shoot to the bottom of the next bush with wire. Since frosts make the stems more fragile, bending should be done at above-zero temperatures, immediately before the first frosty days.
After the onset of warm weather, the remontant raspberry bushes must be carefully released. They will straighten themselves. If over time in the spring it is discovered that some branches have broken or did not survive, then they will need to be removed.
It is also worth considering one more fact. If you pick remontant raspberries twice a year, the autumn berries will be small and rather dry, since the bush is greatly depleted over the summer. Therefore, some gardeners plant regular and remontant varieties of raspberries on their plots and harvest them twice a year. In the summer - with a summer variety and in the fall - with a remontant variety.
In very windy regions with little snow, it is not enough to simply bend down, but skillful gardeners have learned to get out of this situation.
Installation of frost protection systems
If your raspberries grow in an open field and snow is blown away from the bushes, then you can come up with a snow retention system. Its essence is to install a barrier on the windward side. To do this, you can dig sheets of plywood or polycarbonate into the ground. If we talk about durability, it is better to give preference to polycarbonate, since it is not afraid of frost and is not susceptible to rotting.
To secure the snow retention system, you can tie it to the trellises if necessary. The structure must be placed so that it protects the raspberries from the wind, that is, it must be installed on the side of the predominant wind direction in winter. To correctly install the structure, you can check the wind rose. You can find it on the website of the district hydrometeorological service.
If snow blows out even through a snow-retaining structure or there is too little snow in your area, then the raspberry bushes will need to be additionally covered with non-woven material specially designed for this purpose. For example, spunbond or lutrasil.
In this case, you need to bend down the branches of the remontant raspberry, tying them to the bottom wire, and lay covering material on top in several layers, which must also be fixed. If you live in a region with a harsh climate but little precipitation, then the covering material with remontant raspberries can be additionally covered with arched cellular polycarbonate.
So, with proper care, remontant raspberries will bring your family a rich harvest of tasty and vitamin-rich berries. Follow the recommendations outlined in this article and you will succeed.
You can get additional information about the features of growing and preparing remontant raspberry varieties for winter from the video:
