Pruning remontant raspberries
Unlike ordinary raspberry remontant endowed with a valuable feature: it is able to harvest both last year’s shoots and branches that have appeared in the current season. Depending on the method of pruning varieties of repair and change the timing of their fruiting.
Option 1
Pruning of raspberries is carried out in early spring. Inspect the overwintered last year’s shoots, remove non-viable specimens, and healthy thinned, leaving the optimal number of the strongest branches in the garden – they are in June or July (depending on the variety) will give the first harvest.
At the beginning of summer on the plantation will grow new shoots and will need to conduct another thinning — to remove the weak and leave the strong. Such branches in the current season have time to lay flower buds, to bloom and by the end of summer to please the gardener with a new portion of berries. To young growth has developed well, after the first wave of fruiting of repairing raspberries, you should immediately remove the fruit-bearing shoots.
In autumn, after the second harvest, the branches of the current season are shortened by 10-15 cm and prepared for wintering, and the next spring again repeat the above actions. It is worth noting that this pruning remontant raspberry varieties suitable for southern regions. In the Northern regions, the second harvest often does not have time to ripen.
Option 2
In the Northern latitudes are practicing a different method of pruning remontant raspberries, which allows you to get only 1 harvest. But this harvest is generous and high-quality, and the plants themselves bear fruit for 2-2.5 months – from the second half of summer to frost (depending on the variety).
In the autumn before the onset of stable cold snap all shoots are cut at ground level. In the spring, adjust the amount of young growth, preventing thickening of the plantation.
It is worth noting that the repairing raspberry is much more capricious than its ordinary “relative” and will require more care from the gardener. The key to success will be not only a clear observance of agricultural technology and proper pruning of such plants, which will directly depend on the region of cultivation, but also the selection of zoned varieties.
What approach to use when cutting raspberries, you decide. The main thing that in the list of annual country Affairs this procedure was marked with a flag “Important”. It is this attitude that your raspberries will like the most, and she will certainly thank you for caring for a generous harvest of large sweet berries.
Dear readers, how do you cut your raspberries? Share with us in the comments your secret pruning techniques that help you achieve a good harvest from this crop.