How to care for raspberries? In the first two years after planting, until the raspberry plants are stronger, have not mastered the soil allocated to them, care must be thorough to get a good harvest. The appearance of weeds should be strictly controlled. One way to do this is to mulch the soil between rows. Without doing this, you have to weed the aisles throughout the summer period. While the roots of the bush have not yet grown, caring for raspberries is not complicated. But the weeding time will take a lot, if you have a large raspberry. Between plants, you can loosen the pitchfork, hoe, rake, without fear of damaging the roots. At the very roots, weeding is carried out more carefully. With the offspring appearing in the aisles, raspberries do the same as with weeds - they blur it out. But it all depends on your goals. Siblings can be left if you decide to use them as planting material.
How to deal with weeds in raspberries? After irrigation, the earth around raspberry seedlings is covered with peat (straw manure, sawdust) with a layer of 5-8 cm or covered with a special covering material for mulching (it is usually black), making holes with a diameter of 5-10 cm for the stems of seedlings.
In the second year, in spring, the entire area of the raspberry is mulched, bringing the layer of loose lying mulching materials to 15-20 cm.
Raspberry mulch, soil care
Mulching is an agrotechnical technique for preserving moisture in the soil, reducing its consumption as a result of evaporation from the soil surface, and improving the water-air regime in the soil.
Mulch - material for mulching the soil. This can be peat, shredded tree bark, wood chips, shredded branches, mowed grass, hay, straw, straw manure, sawdust, leaves falling from trees, weeds, covering materials, for example, black non-woven shelter - spunbond.
Under the mulch, the soil heats up more slowly, cools more slowly, the amplitude of the temperature fluctuation of the soil under the layer of mulch is less. All this improves the conditions for the development of the raspberry root system, prolongs the period of its growth or activity.
Mulching accelerates the ripening of berries, reduces the number of offspring. So, you spend less time thinning out the shoots. In addition, mulching removes the negative effect of thickening (increased humidity at the base of the bush, poor lighting). In better light conditions, the shoots do not stretch. Under the mulch layer, the soil is less compacted, its structure is not disturbed.
Decaying, mulch increases the content of organic materials in the soil. This contributes to root growth, more abundant fruiting.
Mulch as a raspberry protection against pests
Mulch is an agro-technical means of combating some pests wintering in the soil - adult insects cannot overcome the thick layer of mulch and die.
If there are no outbreaks of pests wintering in the soil on raspberries, then in the spring a 5-10-cm layer of mulch is simply added.
If there are many pests or weeds begin to appear, proceed as follows: in the fall, after the pests leave for wintering, the layer of mulch is loosened, dug up; in the spring, 30-50 g of nitroammophoska per 1 m² are added and again loosened, disrupting the wintering places. Then make a new layer of mulch with a thickness of 15-20 cm.
If there are a lot of pests, in autumn, mulch is removed together with wintering larvae, pupae, laid in compost heaps, and the soil is finely dug up. In the spring, small digging is repeated, and then raspberries are again filled with mulching materials.
Care for raspberry bushes without mulch
If the gardener does not have any materials for mulching raspberries, then in spring raspberry bushes are weeded by hand, processed with hoes, choppers, and in the aisles they are loosened with forks. In the same way, the soil is maintained in a loose, weed-free state during the season. In the autumn, after completing all other work, the ground dug during harvesting in the aisles is dug up, not approaching raspberry bushes closer than 30 cm on each side.
The use of herbicides in the care of raspberries
A gardener can use herbicides to keep the soil clean of weeds. Usually they are used in large areas planted with raspberries, where manual labor is too expensive or ineffective.
In private farms, simazin, a selective herbicide, is allowed for use on raspberries. It is introduced in spring into loose soil by single, emerging weeds.
On a raspberry plantation of the first and second years after planting, the dose of the drug is 1-1.5 g per 1 m², on old plantations - 2-4 g per 1 m². The drug is dissolved in water, sprayed on the surface of the soil (1.5-2 liters per 10 m²) from the sprayer. After treatment, all parts of the sprayer are washed.
It is not necessary to treat the entire plot with the simazin herbicide, it is enough to process only the area between the rows, the raspberries. Good results are obtained by simazine treatment of raspberries between rows, both in spring and autumn.
Simazin, introduced into the soil, in an acceptable dose, will not harm raspberries. But still, when processing, you should try to protect raspberry leaves from getting a solution of the herbicide on them. It is best to cover the sprayer (its nozzle) from above with some kind of casing, cap.
Especially good simazin destroys wheat grass - the first enemy of raspberries. But with a birch, bindweed, sow thistle can not cope. Rather, it suppresses their development, all the same, after processing they will become smaller, but it will not work out completely. That is, against weeds with a root system penetrating deep into the soil, it is powerless, cannot completely destroy them.
Of course, caring for raspberries includes not only mulching and weed control. But, using our tips will help you look after raspberries at a lower cost, and the harvest will only please.