Raspberry is a semi-shrub with a perennial rhizome from which biennial stems develop. The only exception are remontant varieties that bear fruit in the first year. To get a good harvest, she needs care: loosening the soil, watering, fertilizing and cutting the stems correctly. Removing excess raspberry stems is one of the most important plant care techniques.

Why prune raspberries?

It prevents:

  • decrease in yield due to thickening of shrubs,
  • loss of palatability and reduction in fruit size,
  • reproduction of pests and diseases in the stems,
  • the death of new healthy shoots, on which numerous flower buds will be laid.

Autumn raspberry pruning

Pruning a raspberry tree involves a set of measures, including: cutting out dead branches and removing damaged shoots, removing root growth, shortening shoots, bending to the ground or tying.

 

In autumn, pruning of raspberries must be done as early as possible - immediately after fruiting and harvesting, so that the plant has time to get stronger before the onset of frost (depending on weather conditions in different regions of the country and plant varieties, it can fall in the months of August-October). To do this, remove excess grass and leaves from the base of the bush. At the level of the soil, without leaving hemp, dry two-year old, broken and pest-affected stems, thin shoots are cut off. On an adult shrub, 8-12 branches are left, it is desirable that they do not intertwine and are at a short distance from each other. The foot of the bushes is treated for pests. The remaining healthy shoots are shortened to 1.0-1.5 meters, tied or bent close to the ground (winter-hardy varieties do not need to be bent down for the winter). If necessary, cover with straw, plant residues. Leave it like this until frost.

In order to prevent infection of healthy plants with diseases and pests, the remote branches are taken outside the garden area and burned.

 

For a remontant variety, two pruning methods are used: cardinal and double.

Cardinal is used for the purpose of obtaining one crop. After the first frost appears, the entire bush is cut off. And in the spring, new shoots are thinned out.

 

When pruning twice, two crops are obtained. After the first fruiting, two-year-old stems are cut, and the remaining ones are pruned, like a simple raspberry, after autumn fruiting.

How to prune raspberries correctly in spring?

Spring pruning is carried out immediately after the snow melts, in March-April, before the mass movement of juices begins. It complements the autumn shrub cleaning procedure. Broken, frozen and weak shoots are cut from the raspberry tree, if necessary, thin it out. The tops of the stems are cut 10-15 centimeters to a strong bud. As a result, healthy buds awaken in the upper part of the stem, which later form 3-6 shoots up to 50 centimeters long with berries. Since because of this the shrubs thicken, it is necessary to maintain a distance between them of 1.5-2 meters in order to avoid possible diseases, the shoots can shade each other.

There is a method for removing part of the shoots in which you can stretch the fruiting period. To do this, raspberry shoots are shortened to different lengths (from 10-15 centimeters to a quarter of a branch). The first to bear fruit are poorly cut shoots, and those that are cut to a great length - later. However, it must be borne in mind that significant shortening leads to a loss in yield.

Pruning raspberries in summer

Summer pruning should not be neglected as raspberries require constant maintenance. This procedure consists in removing wilted, diseased stems. Unnecessary young growth is pruned every 2 weeks so that it does not drain the plant. You should not delay cutting raspberries until autumn, because the infection can spread.

Output

Correct pruning of raspberries depends on its yield, health and type of shrub.