Why raspberries do not bear fruit, berries do not grow and what to do with barren flowers
There are many reasons for the poor formation of fruits on raspberries or their absence. This is the wrong care: planting, pruning, placement on the site, feeding. There is no need to refer to varietal characteristics. The problem is fixable. The main thing is to notice the raspberry disease in time, and start to eliminate it. Why berries on raspberries do not form and do not grow, today we will describe in detail the common causes and methods of their elimination.
Why raspberries don't grow
Consider the common reasons why berries on raspberries do not form or do not grow at full strength. According to gardeners, raspberries degenerate varietal characteristics. It can't be. Even in the wild, with a strong thickening of raspberries, there is a crop, albeit a meager one.
It's all about the lack of sufficient attention to the plant. Often, due to little or no experience, gardeners do not know how to take care of plantings. But for raspberries, care is the key to success.
Deadwood
Old, withered from last year, shoots interfere with the full growth of new, fruiting raspberry branches. The yield is significantly reduced. In the spring, those branches on which there were berries last year dry up. In the spring they require cutting. Pruning can be carried out in the fall, if you are an experienced gardener, and you can distinguish a new shoot from an already fruiting one.
This should also include the presence of frozen tops. In this case, the raspberry branch does not die completely. During the growing season, these shoots get sick and pull on nutrients that would go to the formation of fruits.
Malinnik interferes with himself
You can often observe a picture of raspberry thickets at their summer cottage. Plants are weakened because there are not enough nutrients for full fruiting strength. Some gardeners believe that the more shoots there are on raspberries, the stronger the crop will be. This is a wrong judgment.
Raspberry is a freedom-loving plant. If we compare a separately planted bush and overgrown thickets, it is noticeable that the quality and quantity of berries on the second is deteriorating. It is customary to plant raspberry bushes on a trellis in rows. There should be a certain distance between each row and adjacent bushes.
The best is considered to be 70 centimeters. If there is enough space in the aisles, then it will be easy for the gardener to process the plantings, and during the collection the shoots will remain intact and will not break.
Soil compaction
Raspberries are a very picky berry crop. It also makes special demands on the soil. The bushes are best planted on fertile, light soils.Over time, the soil under the raspberries becomes very compacted, and if it is not loosened, then the fruits will be small.
Important! Raspberries do not like clay soils, which harden strongly under the influence of water and then crack. This process can severely damage the root system.
Drought at the time of ovary
Waiting for the raspberry to bloom and ovary is a particularly pleasant experience. Gardeners look forward to the results of their work. But it happens that the raspberries have bloomed fruitfully, an ovary has appeared, but suddenly the berries did not begin to pour. What could be the reason?
First of all, it is insufficient watering in dry weather. The root system of raspberries absorbs the moisture present in the soil and spends it on the growth of shoots and leaves. The ovary will be left out. Part of it will simply fall off from lack of water. Several fruits can still remain and continue their development, but later these berries will be small and sick. They quickly turn red, and do not have time to fill up in full force.
Ants with rodent habits
The lack of literacy of the summer resident is not always the reason for the lack of raspberries. If in time the watered plantings of the culture bloomed profusely, formed an ovary, and then simply threw it off, then the reason lies, most likely, in the invasion of enemies. These enemies are ants that harm all fruit and berry crops on your homestead.
How do ants harm raspberries? These insects are very partial to sweets, and the raspberry flowers are abundantly filled with sweet nectar, which attracts ants. And since they do not have a sucking apparatus, they gnaw the flowers and get nectar. Subsequently, the flowers on the raspberry dry out or a defective ovary forms in their place.
Insufficient care
Insufficient care is a loose concept. The reasons for failures can be not only unfulfilled agrotechnical measures, but also their poor quality. Among them:
- untimely watering;
- improper fertilization or no fertilization at all;
- untimely pruning of raspberries;
- poor quality weeding.
The yield and quality of raspberries depend on these actions and their timely implementation.
How can you help raspberries?
In any situation, the raspberry tree can be saved. What is required for this:
- Every spring it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning of raspberries. Cut dry and broken shoots from snow. In addition, they remove last year's branches, which will not have berries this year. They also cut off the frozen tops, about 15-20 centimeters.
- In the case of a strong thickening of berry plantings, they are thinned out. To do this, carefully dig out some raspberry bushes along with the roots, while not damaging the neighboring ones. The dug up seedlings can be planted in another strip.
- If the ground is very compacted, then weeding and loosening will help. Removing weeds, it is necessary to loosen the ground around the plants, but shallowly, only 5-7 centimeters, so as not to damage the roots.
- In order for the plant to have enough moisture during flowering and the formation of the raspberry ovary, it is necessary to carefully shed the berry beds in the spring. Water until the water stops absorbing into the soil. It is enough to carry out such watering once, then water as needed.
- If the plants are killed by ants, then it is necessary to destroy the anthill on the site, and also treat the bushes with tobacco dust or special insecticides.
- If raspberries bloom with barren flowers, then most likely these are the results of the activity of the leaf roll. This insect entangles the leaves with cobwebs around the inflorescence, and then destroys the ovary. Damaged areas of shoots on raspberries are cut or cut off the foliage around the ovary, leaving bare the tips of the branches with inflorescences. Even on healthy shoots, the leaves must be torn off.
- Another method of dealing with raspberry growth is spring digging of the site.Use a sharp shovel to walk around the crop bed. Alternatively, slate or metal sheets are dug around the perimeter of the raspberry tree to a root depth of about 50 centimeters.
These tips will help bring raspberries back to life. The bushes will become more luxuriant, lateral shoots will not form, pests of flower stalks and ovaries will be destroyed, fruit shoots will begin to grow in full force.
What to do to avoid problems?
What if the raspberry has bloomed but is not bearing fruit? What preventive measures to take?
- First, you need to tidy up the beds. Leave a distance of 50 to 70 centimeters between neighboring bushes, leave up to 1 meter or more between rows. Thinned bushes need to be tied to a trellis, which can be stretched wire or ordinary stakes.
- To prevent the berries from becoming smaller, in the spring you need to make a mound of manure or compost around the raspberries.
- It is important to make top dressing in the form of nitroammophoska during flowering, and during the period of ovary formation and before ripening, superphosphate and potassium sulfate are added.
- To prevent the appearance of diseases, it is necessary to process the plantings with Fufanon and Acrobat. In addition, regularly inspect your bushes for pests.
- It is important to burn the cuttings affected by pests so as not to infect other crops.
Long-term cultivation in the same area is another major problem leading to chopping raspberry crops. It is necessary to change the place of plantations every 6-8 years. Each time, humus and ash must be added under a new bed. But here, too, new seedlings may not take root, the root cancer is to blame. These need to be dug up and burned. And in this place, plant varieties that are more resistant to diseases.
If raspberries yield poorly or not at all, it is necessary to identify the cause, and then proceed to its elimination. The lack of berries on the bush or their crushing can occur as a result of improper care, as well as due to poor soil, weather conditions or when attacked by pests.
To prevent this, it is important to ensure that the plantings are not thickened, dry. Correct placement of raspberry beds on the site, as well as timely transplantation, will allow you to achieve high yields. And remember that raspberries do not degenerate - this cannot be, it only requires increased attention and care.
