2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Most raspberry varieties do not have good winter hardiness. Despite the fact that breeders have managed to adapt some varieties to very substantial drops in temperature, raspberries often need protection from freezing. To preserve berry bushes, it is important to properly prepare raspberries for winter. If you follow all the basic recommendations, then the next season will certainly delight you with a bountiful harvest
Why raspberries freeze
The indicators of winter hardiness of raspberries are in direct proportion to the timely arrest of the growth of shoots and their development. Timber aging should also stop in time. If the autumn heat is rather long, then the raspberry bushes will go to winter, not having time to form their shoots completely and not dropping the foliage entirely. It is these shoots that often freeze out and die quickly enough.
In the middle and upper lobes of berry bushes, damage to flower buds can also be observed. The tops usually die due to their immature, and the shoots located in the middle parts - due to insufficient protection of the snow cover.
Cooking raspberry bushes for winter
As a rule, experienced gardeners begin to prepare the site for winter as early as July. During this period, it is important to completely stop applying nitrogen-containing fertilizers under raspberry bushes. And they begin to prepare them for the reduction of such dressings at the very beginning of summer. This is necessary so that the raspberry bushes can cope with the difficult frost test without prejudice to the future harvest. That is, it is extremely undesirable to overfeed raspberry plantings with nitrogen.
If manure acts as a mulch, then it should be placed on the beds until mid-June, no later. If any other material is used as mulch, and manure is used exclusively in the form of liquid fertilizer in a diluted form, then it is stopped to be applied towards the end of July.
With the onset of September, they begin to pinch the tops of the shoots - it can be carried out simultaneously with the cutting of the fruiting stems. Despite the fact that this procedure does not provide for the possibility of secondary growth, raspberry bushes will be able to stock up on all the elements they need for a safe wintering.
Until about mid-September, it is necessary to get rid of the apical parts of the shoots, because in any case they will hardly be able to survive the winter. And you shouldn't count on their secondary growth either. Trimming the tops is beneficial in that it allows raspberries to accumulate sufficient amounts of various nutrients for winter. It is recommended to shorten the shoots by no more than ten centimeters, but not less than five. Most often, the first fully developed kidney is considered the limit.
Also, in the fall, excess shoots should be cut off. Moreover, such shoots are always cut strictly at the root. Some gardeners sometimes leave several such shoots as backup - they can come in handy in the event of a particularly severe defeat of raspberry bushes in winter. The aisles of the raspberries are carefully loosened, while adding a top dressing from a tablespoon of superphosphate and two tablespoons of potassium sulfate. In principle, this combination can also be replaced with ordinary ash - in this case, two glasses of ash are introduced for each square meter.
In mid-October, raspberry bushes huddle - hilling will help prevent the vulnerable root system from freezing. And after the mulching is completed, the berry bushes are bent to the ground and fixed in this position. However, even such a procedure is far from always able to reliably protect raspberry shoots from freezing. In this situation, in the spring, the frozen shoots are shortened again. With slight freezing, only their dried tops are cut off. If the freezing is serious enough, then you still should not rush to cut out the shoots entirely - even if their upper parts are completely frozen, the living buds located just below are in any case capable of producing at least a small crop.
In winter, raspberry bushes bent to the ground need to provide constant air access, piercing the ice crusts as they form. It is also important to make sure that the raspberries are well covered with snow - in winters with little snow, additional snow is poured onto the bent bushes for this purpose so that they are completely covered with it. Only in this case can we talk about reliable protection against freezing.
Recommended:
Protecting Roses From Rust
Even solid monolithic iron, not provided with protection, is destroyed under the influence of oxygen and water, becoming covered with a layer of rust. What is it for delicate plants to fight alone with the misfortunes of nature. True, the enemies for plants are not water and oxygen, but rust fungi that parasitize their aerial parts. What can you do to protect your favorites from the invaders?
Protecting Garden Trees From Hares
Animals as cute and cuddly as hares can wreak havoc on garden trees, especially in winter. For these animals, the stems of young plants and tree bark are quite tasty food. In order to avoid such a misfortune in the cold season, you need to properly prepare for meeting long-eared guests
Freezing Fruits: Steps, Recommendations
A big plus of frozen fruits is that all vitamins and nutrients are preserved in them as much as possible. How pleasant it is on a cold winter evening to open a bag of fruits and enjoy their taste and aroma, remember the summer. You can freeze plums, cherry plums, apples, pears, etc
Simple Rules For Freezing Food
Compared to other methods, freezing food is the best and safest way to store food, while retaining the maximum nutritional value and benefits of food. The time will come soon to harvest fresh berries, fruits and vegetables. Therefore, let's remember the basic rules on how to store frozen foods in refrigerators and freezers
How To Prevent Freezing Of Cherries And Plums
Forecasters now and then scare the arrival of the coldest winters in the history of mankind. Such predictions do not always come true. However, those who grow cherries and plums in their garden need to be prepared for such a turn. After all, stone fruit crops, in comparison with other fruit trees, tolerate a sharp drop in temperature to low negative values much more difficult. And for them, in any case, you need to take measures to prevent freezing
