After harvesting your raspberries, it’s crucial to continue providing proper care to ensure a robust yield in the following season. Raspberry berries typically start ripening in July for summer varieties and in August to September for remontant varieties.
Care for Summer Varieties
To ensure a bountiful harvest next year, continue tending to your summer raspberry bushes throughout the autumn. After fruiting, promptly remove any weakened, diseased, damaged, or lignified branches. Retain approximately 10 healthy new shoots per bush and cut back all others as close to the ground as possible.
Fertilizing Raspberries
Apply organic fertilizer consisting of manure, compost, peat, and 100 grams of wood ash per mature bush. If you’ve already used organic fertilizers earlier in the season, switch to mineral fertilizers. A suitable mix includes 50 grams of superphosphate and 40 grams of potassium sulfate.
Avoid watering the raspberries right before frost or during extended rainy periods. During other times, water once every week and a half, using 40 liters of warm water per adult bush, and half that amount for younger bushes.
Pest Control
Immediately after the raspberry harvest, spray the plants with a 1% Bordeaux mixture. Follow up with two additional sprays in August, spaced 14 days apart. Dispose of fallen leaves and pruned branches by burning them. Apply peat, straw, or grass clippings as mulch around the base of the bushes, and ensure the soil is well-loosened beforehand.
Care for Remontant Raspberries
Remontant raspberries fruit on both the previous and current year’s growth, continuing for a month. In autumn, cut back the entire above-ground portion of the bush to the ground to eliminate potential habitats for pests and diseases. Cover the area with various types of vegetation. In the spring, conduct a thorough inspection and sanitary cleaning of the raspberry bed.
Feed the remontant raspberries with a fertilizer that does not contain nitrogen, such as “Autumn” complex fertilizer. Use 50 grams per hole near each plant. Water regularly, ensuring the ground is soaked to a depth of 40 cm once a week. As the cold weather approaches, water the soil well two weeks before frost, then loosen it and apply mulch.
In autumn, perform a final sanitary cleaning of the raspberry patch, burning any remaining debris. Treat the soil around the bushes with Aktelik, Fufanon, or Inta-Vir, and address any moss and lichens with a 1% solution of iron or copper sulfate.
By following these guidelines, you’ll help ensure your raspberry bushes remain healthy and productive, setting the stage for a successful harvest in the upcoming season.
