How can you feed raspberries during berry ripening, flowering and fruiting?
Raspberry bushes bear fruit well even with little maintenance. However, without enough nutrients, crop fruiting may deteriorate. Therefore, before planting bushes in the garden, you need to figure out how you can feed raspberries during the ripening of berries.
Nutritional deficiency symptoms
Lack of one or another nutrient is accompanied by pronounced symptoms. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with common signs of nutritional deficiencies.
Nitrogen
Some gardeners forget to fertilize raspberry seedlings with nitrogen fertilizing. The main symptoms of a lack of this substance include:
- slow development of planted seedlings;
- each leaf is covered with brown or yellowish specks;
- deterioration in productivity;
- chlorosis of the leaf plate.
Phosphorus
Each large bush that has begun to bear fruit must be periodically fertilized with phosphorus compounds. If this is not done, the surface of the leaves will turn blue, purple or red. The development of the root system will also deteriorate, which will lead to a deterioration in fruit growth. Some bushes, which lack phosphorus, have deformed stems and flowers.
Potassium
A complex feed composition must necessarily contain potash components. If there is too little potassium in the soil, the raspberry leaves will gradually turn yellow. Also, a deficiency of potassium substance negatively affects fruiting and impairs the taste of ripe berries.
Magnesium
Every agronomist knows that raspberry bushes need magnesium fertilizers. Without magnesium, leaf necrosis develops, accompanied by yellowing and death of the leaves. Also, due to the lack of magnesium, the ripening of the crop slows down.
Calcium
Experienced gardeners recommend periodically feeding the planted bushes with calcium fertilizers. In plants that lack calcium, young leaves sag and wither. Calcium deficiency is indicated by blotchiness on fruits and poor yields.
Copper
In order for raspberries to grow and bear fruit normally, it is recommended to add more copper sulfate to the soil.Due to the lack of copper, the young foliage brightens, and the old one is covered with a yellow spot. Plants that have rarely been fed with copper fertilizers are poorly protected from fungal diseases.
What fertilizer does raspberry love?
In order to harvest a tasty and juicy harvest in the future, you need to figure out what fertilizers are needed for raspberry bushes.
Mineral fertilizers
Most often in the summer, the area with berries is fertilized with mineral dressings. Gardeners advise adding fertilizer mixtures in July, when the berries begin to ripen.
People who want to harvest sweet crops should add more potassium salt with superphosphate to the soil. This feeding will relieve the fruit of the sour taste. Wood ash is also introduced into the soil, which contains elements that promote the growth of planted bushes. 200-300 grams of wood ash is consumed per square meter.
Organic food
Spring is a good time to use organics. It contains most of the trace elements that can accelerate the growth of shrubs and improve their fruiting.
Among the most effective organic dressings are:
- Rotten manure. Feeding mixtures prepared from manure enhance the immunity of seedlings and warm the root system. In order for top dressing to give a positive result, each bush is fed with six kilograms of manure.
- Compost. Composting is done to disinfect the soil and saturate it with nutrients. For the preparation of compost, rotten vegetable waste and fallen leaves are used.
Nitrogen fertilizers
If the repairing raspberry bush suffers from a lack of nitrogen, the plants are fertilized with nitrogen-containing dressings. Common nitrogen dressings include:
- Bird droppings. People who have been raising raspberries for many years are advised to regularly fertilize them with bird droppings. At the same time, it should not be used too often, since feeding from the litter has an increased level of toxicity.
- Amide formulations. Calcium cyanamide, urea, or formaldehyde are used to saturate the soil with nitrogen.
Folk recipes
Before you start fertilizing raspberry seedlings, you need to familiarize yourself with the recipes for preparing feed mixtures.
Ash
June is a suitable month for using wood ash mixtures. Such fertilizers are used when plants lack phosphorus or potassium.
To make a fertilizing liquid, 250 grams of ash are poured into a bucket of water. Then everything is thoroughly stirred and filtered with a gauze cloth. Watering the seedlings with diluted ash should be 3-4 times a month. In this case, the solution must be carefully poured under the root so that it does not fall on the leaf plate and stems.
Potato peelings
When the setting of fruits slows down in raspberries, it is recommended to use formulations made from potato skins.
Before preparing the top dressing, all potato peelings will have to be dried. To do this, they are laid out on a preheated battery or placed in the oven for 1-2 minutes. Then the dried potato skins are placed in a wooden barrel and poured with cold water. The potato peel is soaked for 3-4 days, after which it can be poured over the bushes abundantly.
Yeast
Some gardeners use yeast as fertilizer. To prepare a yeast feed composition, use:
- Yeast powder. When creating a means for watering bushes, 150 grams of powder are poured into ten liters of heated liquid. After 20-30 minutes, the resulting mass is mixed with 40-50 liters of water and infused for 3-4 hours.
- Raw yeast. This recipe is used when raspberries start to grow slowly. A kilogram of the product is mixed with 7-8 liters of water and left to ferment for 10-11 hours. After that, the starter culture is added to a 50-liter barrel of water.
Bark
A good feed composition can be prepared from rotten twigs and tree bark. Most often, gardeners choose autumn to add such dressings, since during this period raspberries often lack nutritional components.
To fertilize the soil, a mulch layer of the bark of coniferous trees is laid out near each shrub. The laid out wood is harvested in early spring when the snow melts.
Chicken droppings
The end of spring is the time when plants need nitrogen fertilization. So that the berry does not need nitrogen, feed formulations from chicken manure are regularly added to the soil. The main advice to follow when using fertilizer is not to add fresh droppings. It must be mixed with water so that the composition does not damage the bushes. To do this, add 200-350 grams of droppings to a ten-liter container with water.
Methods for feeding bushes
Before you start planting raspberries, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic fertilization methods. Feeding raspberries during flowering and fruiting is carried out in two main ways.
Foliar
Gardeners recommend foliar feeding of shrubs so that the ovary appears faster and the berries ripen. When using this technique, the plant will assimilate nutrients not only by the horse system, but also by the leaves.
As foliar fertilizers, they use mixtures prepared on the basis of boric acid, copper sulfate or superphosphate. From time to time, the bushes are sprayed with a composition of wood ash.
Under the root
Summer is the period when the flowering of raspberries ends and the ripening period of berries begins. To ensure that the plant always has enough nutrients, in the summer, part of the fertilizers is applied at the root. The first top dressing is added in a complex to the soil in June. For this, liquid mixtures are prepared, which include potassium sulfate, superphosphate and urea.
Recommended timing of fertilization (table)
To figure out when to feed berries in the summer or autumn period, you need to familiarize yourself with the exact timing of adding the feeding formulations.
In the spring
Most gardeners advise using mineral and organic fertilizers in the spring. The spring schedule for using top dressing begins when the snow warms up outside and the snow completely melts.
| Spring feeding | |
| Month | date |
| March | 20-31 |
| April | 15-30 |
| May | 10-31 |
Summer
Summer feeding is carried out in mid-June, when plants need complex compounds that will help saturate the soil with phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen.
| Summer feeding | |
| Month | date |
| June | 15-30 |
| July | 5-25 |
| August | 1-20 |
In autumn
The first decade of September is considered a suitable period for the use of mineral compositions. It is necessary to adhere to the correct schedule for applying autumn fertilization so that the shrub develops better.
| Autumn feeding | |
| Month | date |
| September | 1-15 |
| October | 1-10 |
What to consider when feeding raspberries
To ensure proper care of raspberries, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of feeding at various stages of growing bushes.
During flowering
When the bushes begin to bloom, they must be intensively fertilized, as this increases the yield. It is necessary to use a mixture that consists of 200 grams of mullein, 150 grams of ash with urea and ten liters of water. All ingredients are mixed, after which each bush is watered with the composition.
During fruiting
In order for the fruit to ripen faster and be larger, it is necessary to feed the seedlings until the end of fruiting. When the raspberry berry starts pouring, slurry is applied. It is mixed with warm water in a ratio of one to four.
To increase the effectiveness of the mixture, you can add ash with superphosphate and urea to it. The fertilizing agent is poured into shallow grooves made near each shrub.
After suffering diseases
Any disease leads to the fact that the bushes weaken and gradually dry out. Therefore, it is recommended to saturate the area where the berries are grown with top dressing.
To restore immunity, mullein and potassium-phosphorus formulations are used. Also, manure is added to the ground in an amount of 5-8 kilograms per square meter.
After harvest
When the collection of ripe raspberry berries is finished, a small top dressing of the bushes is carried out. Before the beginning of autumn, citric acid is used as a fertilizer. Gardeners also advise adding 1-2 kilograms of rotted compost under each bush. To protect the root system from the autumn cold, the soil is mulched with a peat layer of 8-10 centimeters in height.
How to feed if the leaves turn yellow
When the bushes get sick or are attacked by a pest, the leaves begin to turn yellow. You can get rid of yellowing with the help of fungicidal agents, which include Topaz, Hom and Fitosporin. In the spring, plants are treated with a Bordeaux mixture or ammonium sulfate solution.
To increase the yield
If raspberries bring a small harvest, you need to think about improving their yield. Some people think that only transplanting helps to improve fruiting, but this is not the case. You can increase the yield with some dressings.
Experienced gardeners recommend more often feeding shrubs with chicken droppings mixed with manure and compost.
After transplant
After transplanting, the shrubs weaken and therefore need to be fed. In order for the plant to have enough nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, compost is added to the soil. You can also use ammonia mixed with water and manure, or boric composition.
Features of fertilization of remontant and grafted raspberries
Now many gardeners grow grafted or remontant raspberries on their plots. These plants are fed in the autumn, before the cold snap. Urea with fresh manure is added to the soil, which in winter will warm the root system and protect it from freezing.
If there is no manure, mineral fertilizers, bird droppings or saltpeter are used instead. All these components will saturate the soil with elements that are needed for the normal development of raspberry seedlings.
In the spring, they use herbal infusions mixed with phosphorus-potassium mixtures. These substances contribute to the formation of fruit buds.
Conclusion
It is difficult to find a gardener who does not like growing raspberry bushes in the garden. Before planting such berries, you need to familiarize yourself with the main types of fertilizers that are used when feeding planted raspberries.
