Spring has long since arrived with all your favorite fruits… Summer will soon be here and this is associated with a range of delicious fruits and fruit varieties. Raspberries are one of the most popular fruits of all and ripen in the warm season. If you like them so much, you can also plant them in your own garden. But then proper care is necessary to enjoy a good harvest. Below we give you some tips on how to fertilize the raspberries.
Fertilize raspberries – how and how often do you have to do it?
The raspberries – general information
belonging and appearance
Raspberries are part of the rose family and grow as garden shrubs. A distinction is made between wild and cultivated varieties. All have one thing in common – they can reach a height of 1.
reach 400 meters. Actually, there are summer and autumn raspberries. The first type has a two-year development cycle, producing fruit in early and mid-summer. The second type of raspberry bush ripens faster and can even bring harvest twice a year.
The raspberry plant has a strong rootstock from which taut, upright or slightly overhanging shoots with long, thin thorns grow. These branch out and start bearing fruit in the first or second year, depending on the type. The fruits of the raspberry bushes can look different: rounded, conical or elongated. Plus they taste fantastic…
Tasty and healthy, raspberries are the favorite fruit of young and old
A raspberry up close
The right care
The raspberries require relatively simple care. The location and the right soil are crucial for the healthy growth of the garden shrub. A sunny and sheltered spot in the garden is ideal for the raspberry plant. The soil must be rich in humus, slightly acidic, loose and deep.
Since raspberries are flat-rooted, they do not tolerate drought and waterlogging. Mulch the plant bed regularly and water the plant sufficiently. This is how you do the raspberries good. Mulching the raspberries will prevent weed growth and potential moisture loss.
The raspberry bush is a low-maintenance plant that can also thrive in a container
Fertilize raspberries
If the raspberries are neglected when fertilizing, they thank you with little fruit. As a rule, you have to fertilize the raspberries at least once a year, but it is advisable to provide them with additional nutrients once a year.
The raspberries are fertilized for the first time at the beginning of March, preferably with compost and horn shavings. This gives the plant enough energy. An organic berry fertilizer would be quite appropriate. If you use a mineral fertilizer, it must be given between the end of March and mid-April. A magnesium-containing mineral fertilizer without chloride would be a good alternative in this case. in the June or July a second application of fertilizer takes place. It is advisable to do this after harvesting the summer raspberries. However, be extra careful when fertilizing raspberries, as they have a shallow root system and it is easy to damage them. For this reason it is good to work the soil only superficially.
by the way: In the first three or four years, one to two liters of green compost is sufficient for one plant per year. This provides them with potassium and phosphate.
Something else important: If the soil is too loamy, you need to provide it with mature compost and coarse sand. And if the soil is nutrient-rich, you only have to fertilize the autumn raspberries once a year.
In addition to strawberries and currants, raspberries are also grown in the garden
What kind of fertilizer do raspberries like?
The raspberries need a lot of potassium and phosphorus so that they produce plenty of fruit. Nitrogen is not necessary for them in this process. You should definitely keep this in mind when choosing the fertilizer for your raspberries.
If the soil is nutrient-rich, then a natural fertilizer is the best solution. That means you should rely on horse manure and horn shavings, for example. But if the soil is poor and poor in nutrients, then you should use an organic berry fertilizer. You can get it in different forms: it can be solid, liquid, organic or mineral. The main thing: Regardless of what it looks like, it contains all the important nutrients for the plant.
Some home remedies and homemade fertilizers are also suitable for raspberries as fertilizer. So you could use nettle manure or coffee grounds to provide the plant with nutrients. However, since the coffee grounds lower the pH of the soil, it should be used in smaller amounts.
Harvesting plenty of raspberries every year is only possible with the right care
The shoots of the plant have pinnate leaves
The fruits are slightly bristly hairy
The shoots of some new raspberry varieties have no thorns
The right fertilizer helps the plant produce enough fruit
Too heavy and compacted soil is not suitable for the raspberries
The raspberry is a garden shrub
Raspberries in containers could also be grown on the balcony
Support the shrub if necessary
