Planting raspberries requires care and must be done at a specific time. But it is not always possible to plant them as soon as they are purchased. In this case, it is essential to put them in gauge so that they wait. Let’s see when is the best time to plant raspberries, how to gauge them, and how to plant them when the time comes.
Planting your raspberries: when is the best time?
The raspberry planting season begins in october and continues until April, but we must however avoid periods of frost, torrential rains which soak the ground and extremely windy days. As this shrub is generally marketed in bare roots, it must be possible to plant it as soon as it is purchased. However, if this is not possible, it is strongly recommended to allow it to wait in the best possible conditions for its placement in the ground. To do this, we put it on a gauge.
What is raspberry gauging?
The gauging of a bare root shrub like the raspberry allows each plant to wait without risk of withering until it is installed in the ground. This method is essential for choosing the best time for planting if this cannot be done immediately after delivery. It is also just as necessary for shrubs sold in lumps. In this way, the roots of raspberries will be protected against frost and the risk of drying out, as this is fatal to them.
Thanks to its gauge, the raspberry bush is not under any stress and will restart without difficulty in the spring. To develop this gauge, we proceed as follows:
- Choose an area of the garden exposed to the North, shaded, and well sheltered from the wind by a low wall for example,
- Dig a trench the same depth as the raspberry roots,
- Place sand or very light earth in the pit,
- Imperatively untie the boots,
- Install the plants, making sure to leave them inclined, and if possible very close to each other,
- Place loose soil on the roots and up to the collar, making sure that the soil infiltrates well between the roots,
- Tamp the ground,
- Water only if the soil is very dry.
Shrub saplings can sit in their gauge for several weeks, but certainly not for several seasons. The purpose of gauging is to momentarily protect. They must not be able to take root there because that would cause them to be uprooted in the spring and, consequently, a stress which could jeopardize their recovery or at least delay it considerably.
As soon as the weather conditions will be more favorableit will be necessary to take them out of their gauge in order to plant them in the ground, preferably before vegetation restartswhich is approximately between February 20 and March 8.
Planting raspberries: method to follow
Before planting a raspberry tree, you should know that this suckering fruit shrub love them shaded exhibits as well as light and humus-rich soils. However, it can be satisfied with a quite common garden soil.
To plant your raspberries according to the rules of the art, whether on the edge or in a hedge, the method applied by experienced gardeners is as follows.
- Dig holes 45 to 50 cm in width and height.
- Respect a distance of 80 cm between the plants to leave enough space for each shrub to grow.
- Remove stones, weeds and roots so that the holes are clean.
- Place at the bottom of the roasted hornabout 50 to 60 g for each plant, mixed with a little soil.
- Add soil, planting compost and a shovelful of lombricompost or manure as well as the equivalent of a bowl of fertilizer for root recovery.
- Mix this substrate well.
- Prepare each raspberry plant by cutting the end of their roots in order to refresh them.
- Position each raspberry bush in its hole, ensuring that it is not too buried. the collet must be located just at ground level.
- Fill the hole with soil enriched with potting soil for plantations.
- Tamp down the soil sufficiently around the raspberry bushes.
- Form a watering basin.
- Water copiously right from planting, distributing to each raspberry bush the equivalent of a good watering can of water, i.e. about fifteen litres.
- Prune the branches so as to shorten them by about twenty centimeters at most.
You will have to wait two years before being able to taste your first raspberries, except for the remontant varieties, which begin to bear fruit in the fall following planting. If you want to harvest raspberries from the month of June and almost until frost, the good idea is to plant different varieties of raspberries, remontant and non-remontant. It will then remain to take care of their most vigorous canes and to carry out a suitable pruning in order to eliminate the dead branches.