What to do with raspberries in spring to harvest buckets in summer

To pick raspberries in buckets, you need careful care of the bushes. You need to start caring for them in early spring.

Some features

Raspberry bushes, despite the fact that this culture is unpretentious, give a good harvest on fertile and neutral soils.

Since the roots of raspberries are shallow, they spread horizontally underground, there is no need to dig up the earth with a shovel under the bushes. Otherwise, the root system can be significantly damaged, the plants can simply dry out.

Pruning

First of all, in early spring it is necessary to inspect the bushes, remove old shoots.

Often, a raspberry fly (gall midge) settles on the stalks of raspberries. It can be found by a thickening on the shoot. The latter must be cut off. To prevent this pest from destroying your plantings, you need to timely process the bushes from this scourge in early spring.

Usually I leave no more than 6-7 shoots on the bush, so that the plants are well blown from all sides, there is no congestion of plantings. Otherwise, the raspberries will be shaded by the leaves and diseases may occur.

Also, the top of the shoots must also be cut at an angle to the first bud.

After the lateral shoots 30-40 cm long have grown, they must be cut off at the point of growth, which will give an impetus to the development of additional shoots, which means that the raspberry yield will increase several times.

Removal of weeds and fallen leaves

If there are weeds under the bushes, they should be removed, as well as rake off last year's foliage. In this case, the earth needs to be loosened up a little.

Fertilization

In early spring (when buds appear), raspberries should be fed with ammonium nitrate (nitrogen fertilizer). It must be diluted in 10 liters of water in the amount of 1 tablespoon of the substance and poured into the trunk circle (2-3 liters per bush).

It is better to shed the soil before feeding. After adding ammonium nitrate, the soil must be powdered with ash (half a glass per bush) and a little dolomite flour must be added to deoxidize the soil.

In addition, you can take 2 tablespoons of organic mineral universal fertilizer and sprinkle around the bush, loosen it up.

Organic fertilizers can be used instead of mineral fertilizers. For example, use an infusion of mullein in a ratio of 1 to 10.

Mulching

After feeding, the trunks should be mulched with compost mixed with humus. This will make it possible to retain moisture for a long time.

Fungicide treatment

After fertilizing and mulching the land under the bushes, they need to be treated with a Bordeaux mixture (one percent). The ground under the raspberries also needs to be sprayed.

These activities will help you get a good harvest of raspberries, which you will collect in buckets.

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