How can you feed raspberries during berry ripening, flowering and fruiting?

Raspberry bushes bear fruit well even with little care. However, without sufficient nutritional components, crop fruiting may deteriorate. Therefore, before planting bushes in the garden, you need to figure out how you can feed the raspberries during the ripening of the berries.

Symptoms of nutritional deficiency

The lack of one or another nutritional element is accompanied by pronounced symptoms. It's a good idea to become familiar with the common signs of nutritional deficiencies.

Nitrogen

Some gardeners forget to fertilize raspberry seedlings with nitrogen fertilizers. The main symptoms of a lack of this substance include:

• slow development of planted seedlings;
• each leaf is covered with brown or yellowish spots;
• deterioration in yield;
• chlorosis of the leaf blade.

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 poor fruit growth. Some bushes that lack phosphorus have deformed stems and flowers.

Potassium

A complex feeding composition must necessarily contain potassium components. If there is too little potassium in the soil, the leaves the raspberries will gradually begin to turn yellow. Also, potassium deficiency negatively affects fruiting and impairs the taste of ripened berries.

Magnesium

Every agronomist knows that raspberry bushes need magnesium fertilizers. Without magnesium, leaf necrosis develops, accompanied by yellowing and death of leaves. Also, due to a lack of magnesium, crop ripening slows down.

Calcium

Experienced gardeners recommend periodically feeding the planted bushes with calcium fertilizers.In plants that lack calcium, young leaves droop and wither. Calcium deficiency is indicated by spotting on fruits and poor yield.

Copper

In order for raspberries to grow and bear fruit normally, it is recommended to add more copper sulfate to the soil. Due to a lack of copper, young foliage becomes lighter, and old foliage becomes covered with yellow spots. Plants that are rarely fed with copper fertilizers are poorly protected from fungal diseases.

What kind of fertilizer does raspberry like?

In order to harvest a tasty and juicy harvest in the future, you need to figure out what fertilizers raspberry bushes need.

Mineral fertilizers

Most often in the summer, the area with berries is fertilized with mineral fertilizers. Gardeners advise adding fertilizer mixtures in July, when the berries begin to ripen.

People who want to harvest a sweet harvest should add more potassium salt with superphosphate to the soil. This fertilizing will remove the sour taste from the fruits. Wood ash is also added to the soil, which contains elements that promote the growth of planted bushes. 200-300 grams of wood ash are consumed per square meter.

Organic fertilizers

Spring is a good time to use organic matter. It contains most microelements that can accelerate the growth of shrubs and improve their fruiting.

Among the most effective organic fertilizers are:

• Rotted manure. Feeding mixtures prepared from manure strengthen the immunity of seedlings and warm the root system. In order for fertilizing to give a positive result, each bush is fed with six kilograms of manure.
• Compost. Compost treatment is carried out to disinfect the soil and saturate it with nutrients.Rotten vegetable waste and fallen leaves are used to prepare compost.

Nitrogen-containing fertilizers

If a remontant raspberry bush suffers from a lack of nitrogen, the plants are fertilized with nitrogen-containing fertilizers. Common nitrogen fertilizers include:

• Bird droppings. People who have been growing raspberries for many years are advised to regularly fertilize them with bird droppings. However, it should not be used too often, since fertilizers made from droppings have an increased level of toxicity.
• Amide compounds. To saturate the soil with nitrogen, use calcium cyanamide, urea or formaldehyde.

Folk recipes

Before you start fertilizing raspberry seedlings, you need to familiarize yourself with the recipes for preparing fertilizing mixtures.

Ash

June is a suitable month for using mixtures made from wood ash. Such fertilizers are used when plants lack phosphorus or potassium.

To make fertilizing liquid, pour 250 grams of ash into a bucket of water. Then everything is thoroughly stirred and filtered using gauze. Seedlings should be watered with diluted ash 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 blade and stems.

Potato peelings

When raspberry fruit set slows down, 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 heated radiator or placed in the oven for 1-2 minutes. Then the dried potato skins are placed in a wooden barrel and filled with cold water. The potato peels are soaked for 3-4 days, after which they can be generously poured onto the bushes.

Yeast

Some gardeners use yeast as fertilizer.To prepare a yeast feeding 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 left for 3-4 hours.
• Raw yeast. This recipe is used when raspberries begin 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 this, the starter is added to a 50-liter barrel of water.

Bark

A good feeding composition can be prepared from rotted twigs and tree bark. Most often, gardeners choose autumn to add such fertilizers, since during this period raspberries often lack nutritional components.

To fertilize the soil, a mulch layer made from the bark of coniferous trees is laid out near each bush. The exposed wood is removed in early spring when the snow melts.

Chicken droppings

The end of spring is the time when plants need nitrogen fertilizing. So that the berries do not need nitrogen, fertilizing compositions 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 litter to a ten-liter container with water.

Methods of feeding bushes

Before you start planting raspberries, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic methods of fertilizing. Fertilizing raspberries during flowering and fruiting is carried out in two main ways.

Foliar

Gardeners recommend foliar feeding of shrubs so that the ovaries appear faster and the berries ripen.When using this technique, the plant will absorb nutrients not only through the horse system, but also through the leaves.

Mixtures prepared on the basis of boric acid, copper sulfate or superphosphate are used as foliar fertilizers. From time to time, the bushes are sprayed with a composition of wood ash.

Under the root

Summer is the period when raspberries finish flowering and the period of berry ripening begins. To ensure that the plant always has enough nutrients, in the summer part of the fertilizer is applied at the root. The first fertilizers are added comprehensively to the soil in June. For this, liquid mixtures are prepared, which contain potassium sulfate, superphosphate and urea.

Recommended timing of fertilizer application (table)

To figure out when to feed berries in summer or autumn, you need to familiarize yourself with the exact timing of adding feeding compounds.

in spring

Most gardeners advise using mineral and organic fertilizers in the spring. The spring schedule for using fertilizers begins when it gets warmer outside and the snow completely melts.

In summer

Summer fertilizing is carried out in mid-June, when plants need complex compounds that will help saturate the soil with phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen.

in autumn

The first ten days of September is considered a suitable period for using mineral compositions. It is necessary to adhere to the correct schedule for applying autumn fertilizers so that the shrub develops better.

What to consider when feeding raspberries

To provide 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 flower, they need to be fertilized heavily, as this results in an increase in 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 the composition is watered on each bush.

During the fruiting period

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 filling of raspberries begins, 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 fertilizer is poured into shallow grooves made near each bush.

After suffering from illness

Any disease causes the bushes to weaken and gradually dry out. Therefore, it is recommended to saturate the area where the berries are grown with fertilizers.

To restore immunity, mullein and potassium-phosphorus compounds are used. Manure is also added to the ground in an amount of 5-8 kilograms per square meter.

After harvest

When the collection of ripe raspberries is completed, a small feeding 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 to each bush. To protect the root system from autumn cold, the soil is mulched with a peat layer 8-10 centimeters in height.

What to feed if the leaves turn yellow

When the bushes become 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 spring, plants are treated with Bordeaux mixture or ammonium sulfate solution.

To increase yield

If raspberries produce a small harvest, you need to think about improving its yield. Some people believe that only replanting helps improve fruiting, but this is not true. You can increase the yield with some fertilizing.

Experienced gardeners recommend feeding shrubs more often with chicken droppings mixed with manure and compost.

After transplant

After replanting, the bushes weaken and therefore need to be fed. To ensure that the plant has enough nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, compost is added to the soil. You can also use ammonia mixed with water and manure, or a boron compound.

Features of fertilizing remontant and grafted raspberries

Nowadays, many gardeners grow grafted or remontant raspberries on their plots. These plants are fertilized in the autumn, before the weather gets colder. Urea with fresh manure is added to the soil, which will warm the root system in winter 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 necessary for the normal development of raspberry seedlings.

In the spring, they use herbal infusions mixed with phosphorus-potassium mixtures. These substances promote the formation of fruit buds.

Conclusion

It is difficult to find a gardener who does not like to grow 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.