RASPBERRIES--PRUNING--STAKING--MULCHING--WINTER PROTECTION, ETC.
Usually, there is no pruning either in the field or the garden beyond
the cutting out of the old canes and the shortening in of the new
growth. There is a difference of opinion as to whether the old canes
should be cut out immediately after fruiting, or left to natural decay,
and removed the following fall or spring. I prefer the former course.
It certainly is neater, and I think I have seen increased growth in the
young canes, for which more room is made, and to whose support the
roots can give their whole strength. The new growth can make foliage
fast enough to develop the roots; still, I have not experimented
carefully, and so cannot speak accurately. We see summer pruning often
advocated on paper, but I have rarely met it in practice. If carefully
done at the proper season, however, much can be accomplished by it in
the way of making strong, stocky plants, capable of standing
alone--plants full of lateral branches, like little trees, that will be
loaded with fruit. But this summer pinching back must be commenced
early, while the new, succulent growth is under full headway, and
continued through the busiest season, when strawberries are ripe and
harvest is beginning. It should not be done after the cane has
practically made its growth, or else the buds that ought to remain
dormant until the following season are started into a late and feeble
growth that does not ripen before the advent of early frosts. Few have
time for pruning in May or June. If they have, let them try it by all
means, especially on the black-cap species. It does not require so much
time as it does prompt action at the proper period of growth. In the
garden, summer pinching can transform a raspberry bush into an
ornamental shrub as beautiful as useful. It is much better adapted to
the hardier varieties than to those that must be bent down and covered
with earth. With the _R. Occidentalis_ species, summer pinching would
always pay well. The best I can do, usually, with the red varieties, is
to prune in November and March; it should be done before the buds
develop. Unless early fruit is wanted, I believe in cutting back
heroically. Nature once gave me a very useful hint. One very cold
winter, a row of Clarke raspberries was left unprotected. The canes
were four or five feet high, but were killed down to the snow-level, or
within eighteen inches of the ground; but from what was left uninjured,
we had as many and far finer berries than were gathered from other rows
where the canes had been left their full length and protected by a
covering of earth. The fruit was later, however. I would remind careful
observers of the raspberry how often buds on canes that have been
broken off or cut away back develop into long sprays, enormously
fruitful of the largest berries. I have counted fifty, and even eighty,
berries on a branch that had grown from a single bud within one or two
feet of the ground. These lower buds often do not start at all when the
canes are left their full, or nearly their full length. In the latter
case the fruit ripens much earlier and more together; and since an
early crop, though inferior in quality and quantity, may be more
valuable than a late one, the fruit grower often objects to pruning.
But in the garden, while the canes of some early kinds are left their
full length, I would recommend that others, especially those of the
later varieties, be cut back one-half. Even for market purposes I
believe that the superb fruit resulting from such pruning would bring
more money in most instances. At any rate, the season of bearing would
be greatly prolonged.
_Mulching_ on a large scale would not pay in most localities. In
regions where salt hay, flags, etc., can be cut in abundance, or where
straw is so plenty as to be of little value, it no doubt could be
applied profitably. On Staten Island I have seen large patches mulched
with salt hay. The canes were unstaked, and many of them bent over on
the clean hay with their burden of fruit. When there are no stakes or
other support used, the berries certainly should be kept from contact
with the soil. The chief advantage of the mulch, however, is in the
preservation of moisture. When it is given freely, all the fruit
perfects, and in a much longer succession. The weeds and suckers are
kept down, and the patch has a neat appearance. Moreover, mulching
prevents the foliage from burning, and enables the gardener to grow
successfully the finer varieties further to the south and on light
soils. In keeping down the weeds through the long summer, a mulch of
leaves, straw, or any coarse litter, is often far less costly than
would be the labor required.
_Staking_ raspberries is undoubtedly the best, simplest, and cheapest
method of supporting the canes of most varieties and in most
localities. I agree with the view taken by Mr. A. S. Fuller. "Chestnut
stakes," he writes, "five feet long and two or three inches in
diameter, made from large trees, cost me less than two cents each, and
my location is within twenty miles of New York City, where timber of
all kinds commands a large price. I can not afford to grow raspberries
without staking, because every stake will save on an average ten cents'
worth of fruit, and, in many instances, three times that amount." Of
course, split chestnut stakes look the neatest and last the longest;
but a raspberry bush is not fastidious, and I utilize old bean-poles,
limbs of trees--anything that keeps the canes from sprawling in the
dirt with their delicate fruit. Thus, in many instances, the stakes
will cost little more than a boy's labor in preparing them, and they
can be of various lengths, according to the height of our canes. As
they become too much decayed for further use, they make a cheery blaze
on the hearth during the early autumn evenings. There are stocky
growing varieties, like the Cuthbert, Turner, Herstine and others, that
by summer pruning or vigorous cutting back would be self-supporting, if
not too much exposed to high winds. The question is a very practical
one, and should be decided largely by experience and the grower's
locality. There are fields and regions in which gales, and especially
thunder-gusts, would prostrate into the dirt the stoutest bushes that
could be formed by summer pruning, breaking down canes heavy with green
and ripe fruit. In saving a penny stake, a bit of string, and the
moment required for tying, one might be made to feel, after a July
storm, that he had been too thrifty. As far as my experience and
observation go, I would either stake _all_ my bushes that stood
separately and singly, or else would grow them in a loose, continuous,
bushy row, and keep the fruit clean by some kind of mulch. Splashed,
muddy berries are not fit either to eat or to sell.
[Illustration: a. Canes snugly tied. b. Canes improperly tied. RIGHT
AND WRONG WAYS OF TYING CANES]
In many localities, however, stakes are dispensed with. In the garden,
wires, fastened to posts, are occasionally stretched along the rows,
and the canes tied to these. The method in this section, however, is to
insert stakes firmly in the hill, by means of a pointed crowbar, and
the canes are tied to them as early in spring as possible. Unless
watched, the boys who do the tying persist in leaving the upper cords
of the canes loose. These unsupported ends, when weighted with fruit
and foliage, break, of course. The canes should be snugly tied their
whole length. If bushes made stocky by summer pruning are supported,
let the stake be inserted on the side opposite that from which heavy
winds are expected.
WINTER PROTECTION--TAKING UP PLANTS FOR SPRING USE--STORING THEM
Nearly all foreign varieties and their seedlings need winter
protection, or are the better for it, north of the latitude of New York
City. Many of the hardier kinds, like the Herstine and Clarke, will
usually survive if bent over and kept close to the earth by the weight
of poles or a shovelful or two of soil; but all of the Antwerp class
need to be entirely covered.
To many, this winter covering is a great bugbear, even when only a
small patch in the garden is involved. There is a constant demand for
"perfectly hardy" varieties. It should be remembered that many of the
best kinds are not hardy at all, and that perhaps none are "perfectly
hardy." The Turner has never been injured on my place, and the Cuthbert
is rarely hurt; but occasionally they are partially killed, more by
alternations of freezing and thawing than by steady cold. What are
termed "open winters" are often the most destructive. I find that it
pays to cover all those kinds that are liable to injury, and, as the
varieties are described, this need will be distinctly stated. The
difficulties of covering are chiefly imaginary, and it can be done by
the acre at comparatively slight cost The vast crops of the Hudson
River Antwerp were raised from fields covered every fall. In the
garden, I do not consider the labor worth naming in comparison with the
advantages secured. Those who find time to carefully cover their
cabbages and gather turnips should not talk of the trouble of
protecting a row of delicious Herstine raspberries. Still, Nature is
very indulgent to the lazy, and has given us as fine a raspberry as the
Cuthbert, which thus far, with but few exceptions, has endured our
Northern winters. In November, I have the labor of covering performed
in the following simple way: B is a hill with canes untrimmed. C, the
canes have been shortened one-third--my rule in pruning. After
trimming, the canes are ready to be laid down, and they should all be
bent one way. To turn them _sharply_ over and cover them with earth
would cause many of the stronger ones to break just above the root; so
I have a shovelful of soil thrown on one side of the hill, as in Fig.
C, and the canes bent over this little mound. They thus describe a
curve, instead of lying at right angles on the surface, with a weight
of earth upon them. A boy holds the cane down, while a man on either
side of the row rapidly shovels the earth upon them. If the work is to
be done on a large scale, one or two shovelfuls will pin the canes to
the earth, and then, by throwing a furrow over them on both sides with
a plow, the labor is soon accomplished. It will be necessary to follow
the plow with a shovel, and increase the covering here and there. In
spring, as soon as hard frosts are over--the first week in April, in
our latitude, usually--begin at the end of the row toward which the
canes were bent, and with a fork throw and push the earth aside and
gently lift the canes out of the soil, taking pains to level the ground
thoroughly, and not leave it heaped up against the hills. This should
not be done when the earth is wet and sticky. Keep off the ground at
such times, unless the season is growing so late that there is danger
of the canes decaying if not exposed to the air. The sooner they are
staked and tied up after uncovering, the better.
[Illustration: PRUNING AND LAYING DOWN CANES]
For market or other purposes, we may wish a number of young plants, in
which case there is much room for good sense in taking them up. Many
lay hold upon the canes and pull so hastily that little save sticks
comes out. A gardener wants fibrous roots rather than top; therefore,
send the spade down under the roots and pry them out. Suckers and
root-cutting plants can be dug in October, after the wood has fairly
ripened, but be careful to leave no foliage on the canes that are taken
up before the leaves fall, for they rapidly drain the vitality of the
plants. It is best to cut the canes down to within a foot of the
surface before digging. I prefer taking up all plants for sale or use
in the latter part of October and November, and those not set out or
disposed of are stored closely in trenches, with the roots a foot or
more below the surface. By thus burying them deeply and by leaving on
them a heavy covering of leaves, they are kept in a dormant state quite
late in spring, and so can be handled without breaking off the buds
which make the future canes. But, as we have already said, the earlier
they are planted after the frost is out, the better.