The raspberry tree is a small fruit tree that is fairly easy to grow and maintain. Like currants, mulberries and strawberries, raspberries produce a good crop in their time. To ensure a favorable harvest each year, maintenance is required.
This allows this shrub to keep its production strength, but also to keep its size, which greatly facilitates harvesting. Don’t forget that the raspberry tree is above all an ornamental tree. If you want to learn how to take raspberry cuttings, find in this file all you need to know.
Contents
When to plant raspberry cuttings
Raspberry bushes are divided into non-remontant varieties (which produce once a year, from mid-June to the end of July) and remontant varieties (which produce twice a year: once in June and again in early August until mid-October).
The raspberry is a hardy plant that does not fear the cold of winter. It can be planted from October to March, outside of the frost period as bare root, all year round in a pot (always outside of the frost period).
However, in order for the raspberry tree to establish itself quickly and produce fruit as early as the following June, it is preferable to select bare root plants and to plant it as early as October. This is for two reasons:
- Bare-root plants grow better and faster.
- In October, the soil is still warm from the summer that is ending, the autumn rains ensure the important water needs of this plant in full recovery.
Plant your raspberry bush in semi-shade or light shade, in soil enriched with potting soil, as they are greedy. Before planting, soak the root ball so that it is completely soaked with water or dress and prune the roots, depending on the shape of the plant purchased.
Planting raspberry cuttings
Raspberry bushes are planted from October to April, about 33 inches apart. If you can’t plant within 8 days, we recommend that you gauge the plants in a shady spot in your garden.
For planting, make a hole 18 to 22 inches deep and wide to loosen the soil. Remove stones and weed roots. Place a handful of roasted horn (60 g) at the bottom of the planting hole to be mixed with the soil, backfill the hole by half with soil added to the planting mix if necessary and composted manure such as vermicompost (1 scoop). Add a handful of special fertilizer to the hole and mix with the soil.
Recut the root tips of the shrub to freshen up the cuttings. Install the collar of your raspberry tree at ground level (first branches) without burying it too much, fill the planting hole with the extracted soil amended with planting soil, pack at the foot of the shrub by forming a basin and water abundantly (10-15 liters of water).
Finish by pruning the branches to about 8 inches in length.
Pruning and maintenance of raspberry cuttings
The year after planting, let your raspberry bush grow naturally. The branches generally die off in the first year, replaced by new shoots that emerge from the roots during the summer. Pruning is essential and should be done every year, depending on the type of fruiting.
For non-remontant varieties, pruning is done either in autumn or in spring. Pruning consists of cutting off dead branches that have borne fruit during the summer, as well as weak shoots; the aim is to keep 6 to 10 vigorous canes capable of producing numerous fruits.
For the remontant varieties, intervene in winter, outside of the frost period: cut off at ground level the dried canes that have borne fruit at the beginning of the summer, as well as the weak shoots, and remove the dry end of the canes that have produced at the end of the summer. The latter will bear raspberries on the length of the branches at the beginning of the following summer.
In order to preserve the fertility of the soil and to induce a good fruiting, a contribution of organic fertilizer in autumn, followed in spring by a contribution of a special fertilizer for fruit trees can be made every year.
How to take cuttings from raspberry trees
Winter cuttings
In winter, raspberry cuttings are taken from root sections.
However, you can start this propagation method as early as November.
How to proceed?
- Dig a little in the ground at the foot of the mother plant to find a large root of at least 1 inch in diameter.
- Extract it delicately with a spade fork so as not to hurt the rootlets.
- Cut the root to detach it from the mother plant with the secateurs.
- Cut it into 4 inch long sections. Again, be careful not to injure the rootlets in the process.
- Prepare the box by pouring a layer of gravel or clay balls in the bottom.
- Mix the peat and sand at a ratio of 2/3 sand to 1/3 peat.
- Pack and place the root sections flat on the substrate.
- Cover them with 1 inch of the mixture.
- Water, then place the box under cover in a bright location until the following spring.
Summer cuttings
The summer cutting is done on a one year old stem, from the end of June or beginning of July.
How to proceed ?
- Cut a nice healthy stem on the mother plant;
- Locate buds on the stem and cut several sections with two buds each;
- Soak the lower part of each section in willow water or cuttings hormone powder;
- Prepare a bucket filled with a mixture of half garden soil and sand;
- With a stick, dig a hole in the center of the pot and insert the cutting vertically;
- No eyes should be buried;
- Pack the soil around the cutting and water.
After the cutting
In both cases, wait until the following May to repot your cuttings in a larger container or to install them in the ground.
