All living things in nature grow and develop if they find enough nutrition for this. In raspberries, as in any plant, the roots have limited growth. They braid a clod of earth with a depth of 30-50 cm and a diameter of 1-2 m. The raspberry bush takes all the nutrients from this volume in the first 2 years after planting. Then, year after year, without fertilizing, it begins to weaken, and productivity decreases. Often raspberries give shoots far from the mother bush to be able to grow in a more fertile area. The first spring top dressing is especially important when the shoots gain strength and prepare for fruiting.
On the need to feed raspberries in spring
Spring for plants is the period of the beginning of the growing season. The buds open, young leaves and twigs appear from them. From the earth shoots of substitution grow. Many people treat them scornfully, they call it shoots, but it is on them that berries will grow next year, and in the case of remont raspberries, this summer and autumn. In nature, everything is interconnected: the yield of bushes directly depends on the quality of the shoots. The stronger they are, the better they resist diseases and pests, more flower buds will be laid on them, many berries will set and ripen.
Without good nutrition, a raspberry bush will never produce so many berries.
Where can raspberries take the strength to develop powerful and healthy shoots? For 2-3 years after planting, she spent all the fertilizers that you put into the hole or landing pit. Now the bushes pump only water and miserable crumbs of food from the earth, which accidentally fell to the roots. It can be uncleaned and rotten old leaves, weeds, etc. But this is not enough!
Raspberries must be fed in the spring. Nitrogen fertilizers and top dressing are especially important at this time. It is nitrogen that contributes to the fulfillment of the main task at the beginning of each new season - a good increase in green mass. Of course, other macro- and microelements are also needed, but so far in smaller quantities. They will prevail in summer dressing, during budding and flowering, as well as in autumn, in preparation for winter.
To make the raspberry shoots covered with lush greens, you need to add nitrogen top dressing
When to apply nitrogen top dressing
Nitrogen is a very necessary, but also insidious element: it can accumulate in plants and their fruits, leading to fatliquoring of shoots. If raspberries are overfed, then the shoots will grow thick, covered with juicy and large leaves, but may not bloom at all or give a little small berry. Therefore, nitrogen top dressing should be given only once, not exceeding the dosage. The period of its application is extended: from the moment of snow melting and until the leaves completely open. In the middle lane - this is April and all of May.
Video: raspberry care in early spring
On poor clay and sandy soils, plants develop worse, so you can do two nitrogen fertilizing with an interval of 2 weeks. Focus on the state of raspberries. If after the first feeding it went to growth, the leaves are green and juicy, the shoots are strong, then you do not need to feed more.
There are recommendations: scatter mineral fertilizers on melted snow. They naturally dissolve and go to the roots. It is better to do this when there are puddles under the raspberries, and the snow remains small islands. If the whole earth is still covered with snow, and you sprinkle fertilizer on top of it, then the granules will dissolve in the thawing top layer, but food may not pass to the roots through snow and ice. Moisture will evaporate, nitrogen released from the granules will evaporate. Your labors will be in vain, raspberries will be left without food.
The first dressing can be done on melt snow, but not every gardener will be able to get to his site at this time
It is safer to feed, when the ground has thawed, raspberries woke up and begins to produce leaves. The roots at this time already actively absorb moisture and can absorb fertilizers. If you have remontant raspberries, and you mowed all the shoots in the fall, then fertilize when the soil warms up and dries. You can fertilize later - before the buds appear, but the sooner you feed, the more raspberries will have time to respond to it with the active growth of bushes.
Spring fertilizer for raspberries
There are a lot of fertilizers containing nitrogen, but they can be combined into three groups: mineral, organic, and organomineral. You should choose one thing that is affordable and acceptable for you, and not pour and pour under raspberries everything that you find or advised you. Remember the main rule: it is better to underfeed than to overfeed. From an excess of fertilizers, a high concentration of salts will accumulate in the earth, they can burn the roots, the leaves will begin to dry out and crumble. And this raspberry is completely useless.
Feeding raspberries with mineral fertilizers
The most common fertilizers containing nitrogen are urea (urea) and ammonium nitrate. There is also nitroammophosk; it contains three macronutrients in equal proportions at once: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If you make it, then the dosage of phosphorus and potassium in summer and autumn top dressing will have to be reduced.
Urea or urea - the most common nitrogen fertilizer with a well-remembered name
Norms for applying nitrogen mineral fertilizers per 1 m²:
- urea (urea) - 15-20 g;
- ammonium nitrate - 10-15 g;
- nitroammophosk - 20-30 g.
One tablespoon without top contains approximately 10 g of granular fertilizer. You need to choose only one of these three fertilizers.
On the Internet you can find extensive articles on mineral fertilizers with instructions. Application rates in each are different: from 7 to 70 g / m². I do not know how this is explained. Here are the doses for berry crops indicated on the packages of fertilizers I bought. Perhaps the manufacturers are changing the formulations, and the urea, made, for example, in Moscow, is different from that made and sold in Krasnoyarsk. Therefore, be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging, and not on the Internet. In the case of nitrogen top dressing, this is very important.
Fertilize according to its instructions
Mineral fertilizer on wet ground. Sprinkle evenly and loosen to a depth of 5 cm so that the granules mix with the soil. If the earth has dried, then after top dressing, be sure to pour raspberries. Dry granules should not be in contact with the roots. The ideal option is to apply fertilizer just before the rain or make liquid top dressing:
- Dissolve granules of already mentioned fertilizers at the same rate in 10 l of water;
- spread the solution on 1 m²;
- pour clean water on top so that the nitrogen goes to the roots, and does not evaporate from the surface.
Video: professional advice on the benefits and uses of mineral fertilizers
Organic food for raspberries (without chemistry)
If you do not like chemistry, then fertilize with organics. This type of fertilizer includes: compost, rotting manure, infusions of mullein, horse manure, bird droppings, weed grass or nettles only, as well as green manure. The advantage of organics in natural origin, allows you to grow raspberries without chemistry. There are downsides. In particular, it is not possible to determine the exact dosage. Even the same fertilizer, for example, compost in different hosts differs in a set of nutrients and their concentration. Organics enrich the earth with potassium, phosphorus, microelements in different proportions, but most of all there is nitrogen in it. With these fertilizers, as well as mineral fertilizers, raspberries can be overfed, cause fatliquoring and burn the roots.
Too high a concentration of nitrogen fertilizers can cause root burns, the bushes will dry out
She herself once burned all her tomatoes with bird droppings. They kept chickens, collected litter, spread it as I liked, and poured it. I thought: well, what harm could be from my own organics. She saw the harm in a few hours. The leaves on the tomatoes turned yellow, and then dried along with the stems. Since then, I don’t even believe the instructions on the packaging. First, I try the infusion on weeds or one plant. If there are no burns, I feed.
There are time-tested standards that gardeners make under raspberries and get a good effect. Again you need to choose one fertilizer:
- Humus - manure lying on the site for a year or more. Sprinkle 1 bucket per 1 m² and mix with the ground. Fresh manure is categorically not suitable for these purposes. In the warm season, it rots, while it releases a large amount of heat, it can burn roots, in addition, it attracts pests living in the ground, for example, a bear, horsetail, etc.
- Infusion of mullein or horse manure. Fill the 1/3 bucket with organics, add water to the top, cover, put on a fermentation in a warm place. Open and stir daily. After 5-7 days, spread the slurry with water 1:10 and pour raspberries - 1 bucket per 1 m².
- Infusion of bird droppings is done, like the previous one, but dilute the fermented mass 1:20. The rate of watering is the same.
- Infusion of weed or nettle. Take only the succulent parts of the plants, chop, fill the tank with raw materials and fill with water. Put on fermentation, stir occasionally. After 7-10 days, dilute the mass with water 1: 5 and pour raspberries on the basis of: a bucket per square meter.
- Siderata can generally free you from nutrition. Sow legumes in the aisles in the spring: lupine, clover, peas. These plants are able to attract nitrogen to the upper layers of the soil, and the introduction of their green mass into the soil is equated with humus or manure fertilizer. When the buds appear on the siderata, mow them and lay them in the aisles. They will begin to decay and enrich the earth with macro- and micronutrient fertilizers.
Remember one more rule: after applying any liquid top dressing, water the ground with clean water. Rinse and leaves if solution has got on them.
Recipes of mullein, horse dung and litter infusions are suitable only for fresh organics that you yourself have collected from poultry or cattle. Store fertilizers (horse humus, dry bird droppings, etc.) use as indicated on their packaging.
Video: recipe for "green" fertilizer (infusion of herbs)
Organomineral feeding raspberries
These include two categories of fertilizers:
- Purchased ready-made mixes for berry crops: Gumi-Omi, Fertika, Clean sheet and others. Carefully study the composition. Do not forget that in spring nitrogen should be the predominant element, that is, it should be contained in a higher concentration than the other elements. It is advisable to buy special fertilizer marked on the packaging "Spring" or "Spring". Usually store mixes consist of humus (humus, compost) mixed with mineral fertilizers, contain: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, copper and other substances useful to raspberries.
- Your own recipes, that is, you can add both organic and mineral fertilizers at the same time, but you need to halve the dosage, for example: 10 g of urea and half a bucket of humus by 1 m² or dilute the infusion of mullein not 10 but 20 times and add to a solution of 5-7 g of ammonium nitrate. Such combinations are necessary when there is little organic matter, but you also want to bring chemistry to a minimum.
Often manufacturers indicate on the packaging with fertilizer what season it is intended for.
Raspberry leaf dressing
Foliar top dressing is an ambulance for raspberries. Nutrients are immediately absorbed into the leaves, there is no need to wait for them to be taken from the ground and sent with juices to all parts of the bush. But it is impossible to be limited only to foliar top dressing, because they act locally. The basis of the plant is its roots and stems, and it will not be enough nutrition on the leaves.
Situations when top dressing on leaves is needed:
- You are late with fertilizing at the root, the bushes look depressed, grow poorly, you need to urgently support the plant.
- The earth is flooded, to add also liquid top dressing, which means only to aggravate the situation.
- Raspberries have damaged roots (diseases, pests, deep loosening, inaccurate removal of overgrowth, etc.).
- Clay earth is too dense; no nutrient solution flows through it to the roots or partially.
- The soil is acidic, macro- and microelements form compounds that raspberries can not absorb.
Foliar top dressing is an ambulance for raspberries, food is served immediately to the leaves
For foliar feeding, you can use the already mentioned infusion of grass, diluted with water 1: 5. Before use, it must be filtered so that the sprayer or the watering can strainer does not clog. You can also spray with a solution of mineral fertilizer, but in a lower concentration than for root dressing. Take a bucket of water:
- 1 tbsp. l urea or ammonium nitrate;
- 1-1.5 Art. l nitraamofoski.
The flow rate of the solution will also be less, moisten all the leaves well enough. When you buy fertilizers, look for information in the instructions: is it possible to use it also for foliar top dressing. Most modern complex mixtures have a universal purpose.
Video: what are foliar dressings for, how to do them
In addition, manufacturers create special sets of trace elements, which are called "vitamins" for plants, anti-stress medications or growth stimulants (Epin, Novosil, Energen, etc.). However, they do not contain nitrogen and cannot nourish raspberries. Growth stimulants are only able to support plants in extreme situations (frost, drought, temperature difference), they strengthen its immunity, help to recover from diseases, accelerate flowering and ripening, but without basic feeding, their effect will be meager.
Feeding raspberries with ash
Ash contains almost all the elements of the periodic table, but there is no nitrogen in it, which means that it cannot become the main spring top dressing, but serves only as an additional, but very useful. Wood ash:
- fights fungal diseases in the soil;
- scares off and even destroys many pests;
- improves soil structure, makes it loose;
- shifts the acidity of the soil towards alkaline, comfortable for raspberries.
Use only fresh ash or that has been stored in a dry place under the cover since last year. If she visited in the rain or was stored for several years in conditions of high humidity, then there are already few nutrients in it, and there is no alkaline reaction at all.
Collect ash from the bonfire as soon as it cools down and store it in a closed container
A plastic barrel filled with ash was standing in our shed; it was not closed by a lid. It was stored there for about 5 years for sure. Last spring I remembered this stock and decided to put it into action. I gathered in a sieve and dusted the radish inhabited by the cruciferous flea. No result, insects continued to destroy my plantings. Of course, it was possible to decide that you could not kill modern pests, and the ashes no longer act on them. But I love to get to the bottom of these reasons. I decided to check the ash with a litmus test. I spread it with water to mud and lowered the litmus. Its color has not changed, that is, my ash did not represent anything of value, did not have an alkaline reaction. She could not injure any fleas, as well as reduce the acidity of the soil.
For comparison, I tested fresh ash from a sauna stove. Heaven and Earth: the litmus test instantly turned blue. Therefore, do not listen to those who say that ash does not help them. They simply do not know how to store and use it.
The recipe for ash top dressing is very simple: pour a glass of ash into a bucket of water, mix and, until the suspension settles, pour under raspberries - 10 liters per 1 m². Another option: sprinkle a glass of ash evenly over the same area and mix with the topsoil. Do this top dressing before watering or rain.
Video: about the benefits of ash for plants
Do not add ash immediately after nitrogen fertilizing or with it, and do not add to organic infusions. Nitrogen and alkali form a volatile compound - ammonia. Part of the nitrogen will simply disappear without getting into raspberries, and the ash will lose its ability to deoxidize the soil. Give the raspberries an ashy top dressing 1-2 weeks after nitrogen.
Spring feeding raspberries is a very responsible and necessary event. It is enough at the beginning of spring to apply one main dressing with nitrogen fertilizer (mineral or organic) and after it additional - micronutrients (growth stimulants, ash). In emergency cases, foliar top dressing will help. Be sure to follow the instructions, use proven recipes. Any initiative can lead to disastrous results.
