Graceful Raspberry Fruit

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Raspberry belongs to this type of plant, the shoots of which, having presented their fruits to the world, die off, giving way to young shoots. Such sacrifice and the continuity of generations tune in to a philosophical mood that reconciles a person with death, demonstrating the eternity of life in its endless movement

Common raspberry

The extensive genus Raspberry (Rubus) unites in its ranks more than two hundred species of deciduous shrubs and shrubs, among which was born the common Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), otherwise called forest or red.

Thanks to its creeping rhizome, raspberries quickly conquer territory for themselves, easily violating the boundaries assigned to them. She loves to get out behind the dacha fence, where no one interferes with her warlike character and fertility.

First-year shoots are vegetative herbaceous stems covered with leaves that serve as an additional nutrition for the plant. Biennial shoots lignify, turn into generative, that is, responsible for the reproduction of the species. Inflorescences-brushes or shields of small white or pale pink flowers bloom on them, giving food to bees. Moreover, the shape of the flowers allows the collection of nectar even in rainy weather, since the petals protect the pollen from moisture. In place of flowers, a crown of vegetation appears - a complex graceful drupe, juicy and bright, which is easily separated from the receptacle in a mature state.

The trifoliate or pinnately compound leaves have a serrate edge and a sharp tip. The upper side of the leaves is light green, the lower one is ash gray. Fruits can be pinkish, red, yellow, cream, purple and, less often, black.

Many cultivars of raspberries grown today in our gardens have gained the right to life thanks to the Common Raspberry. They are conventionally divided into two groups. The first group of plants presents with a harvest of juicy drupe in the second half of summer, and then gradually prepares for winter dormancy. The second group, the so-called remontant varieties, brings the harvest twice during the summer season: in the first half of summer, and then also in September, forming fruits on the shoots of the current year.

In our country, remontant varieties appeared not so long ago, although the history of their creation goes back 200 years.

Growing

Raspberries can grow in full sun or partial shade. As a child, we loved to climb into dense thickets of raspberries, playing hide and seek with friends. Scratching the skin on our hands and feet, we made our way deeper into the impenetrable jungle and ate sweet and juicy berries, waiting for a convenient moment to leave the shelter.

For planting raspberry bushes, slightly alkaline, calcareous and dry soil is not suitable. But rich in organic matter, loose and sufficiently moist soil is perfect for raspberries for autumn planting.

Freedom-loving raspberries do not like tightness, and therefore, the distance between seedlings when planting with individual bushes is left equal to one and a half meters. If the bushes are planted in even rows along the wire stretched to support the shoots, then half a meter is enough.

In the spring, the soil is fed with mineral fertilizers.

Raspberries love moist soil and therefore require watering, especially during dry periods. For more effective conservation of soil moisture, mulching is used. The plant is winter hardy.

Raspberries require the mandatory removal of the shoots that gave the crop. For remontant varieties, pruning is carried out in the summer in order to get a large autumn harvest, which is of higher quality.

Reproduction

Raspberries are fertile on root suckers, which can be easily separated from the mother plant and transplanted to a new place that you like.

Enemies

Not only bees and people love to feast on a sweet berry. Numerous pests are just waiting for the oversight of the gardener to attack the delicacy. Among them are voracious aphids, raspberry fly and beetle, raspberry-strawberry weevil.

Microscopic fungi and viral diseases do not sleep, affecting the leaves and roots of raspberries.