Domestic breeders have bred many successful raspberry varieties. They are the best suited for growing not only in our summer cottages, but also on an industrial scale. Among them, raspberries of the “caramel” variety stand out in the photo, according to the description and reviews with their unique taste qualities. And its industrial breeding is highly profitable from the first year of cultivation.
Raspberry "caramel": variety description
This hybrid remontant high-yielding variety was bred several years ago by breeders from the Nizhny Novgorod region. Outwardly, the remontant raspberry of the “caramel” variety, according to the description, looks like a medium-sized, not sprawling bush with powerful shoots growing a little more than one and a half meters in height. Shoots do not need to be attached to supports. There are few spikes on them, they are not too sharp and do not cause inconvenience when working. The medium-sized leaves are slightly pubescent, dark green in color, have the usual trefoil shape for raspberries and are pointed at the ends. The flowers are large, white, collected in racemose inflorescences.
Description of berries
According to the description, the raspberry variety "caramel", in the photo, in the period of full maturity, is distinguished by large juicy berries up to three and a half centimeters in size, dark red. The average weight of a berry is six to eight grams, the largest specimens weighed up to fourteen grams.
It's hard to tell about the taste of fruits by looking at the photo. According to the description and reviews, raspberries of the "caramel" variety are very sweet. The high sugar content and very low acid content make these berries really taste like caramel. Usually remontant varieties are slightly sour. But raspberry "caramel", according to the reviews of the tasting commission, has become the sweetest variety of remontant raspberries, among all those bred in Russia. The high content of vitamin C in berries makes them not only delicious, but also he althy.
In addition, the fruits have a pronounced aroma of wild forest raspberries. The tasters gave the berries "caramel" the highest rating among the varieties of Russian selection.
Commodity characteristics of berries
In the description of the variety of remontant raspberries "caramel", in the photo and in the reviews of gardeners, it is noted that the fruits are dry, dense, elastic, easily separated from the stem, do not crumble, do not soften and do not flow during harvest.
Such qualities make it possible to mechanize harvesting, and, consequently, to grow this variety industrially. Berries perfectly tolerate transportation, are stored collected for several days, without losing their presentation. Such reviews and descriptions of caramel raspberries in the photo make its cultivation commercially viable.
Yields
The yield in the description of the raspberry variety "caramel" is indicated at the level of five to seven kilograms per bush. The average industrial yield is 112 centners per hectare. This indicator is stated in the official description of the variety, according to reviews, raspberry "caramel" in the first year during industrial cultivation gives up to one ton per hectare, in the second - eight tons. The maximum yield of ten to twenty tons of raspberries of this variety is gaining by the third year. Such yields contribute to a good payback when grown on an industrial scale.
Agrotechnical characteristics of the variety
The caramel raspberry shown in the photo, according to the description of the copyright holder, is a dessert-type universal-purpose variety. Fruits on the shoots of the current year. Fruiting is medium-early. Berry picking begins in late July - early August and continues until frost. Shoots that did not bear fruit in the first year give two harvests in the second year: the first - from mid-July, the second - in late August - early September. Berry picking in this case continues until the onset of cold weather.
Purchased and planted seedlings in springgive a good harvest already in the current season. From a two to three year old bush, you can get up to eight replacement shoots. If Caramel is cultivated as an annual crop, that is, all its stems are cut off in the fall, the next year's shoots grow very quickly and gain good green mass, which is necessary for the formation of a new crop.
The variety is characterized by good winter hardiness and not too strong drought resistance.
Choosing a place for raspberries
Like any raspberry, "caramel" prefers areas with maximum lighting, sheltered from the north by a fence, buildings or tall trees. It does not tolerate heavy acidic soil and closely adjacent groundwater. Therefore, for planting, you need to choose a site with light fertile soil, located on a hill. Previously, nightshade crops and raspberries of other varieties should not have grown on it. The old raspberry takes all the useful substances necessary for this crop from the soil, and the nightshade leaves behind those pests that threaten the crop.
The site is being prepared for planting at least a month in advance:
- if the soil is infertile, manure, humus, peat, chicken manure or compost are added to it, as well as potassium-phosphorus fertilizers and wood ash;
- coarse sand is added to clay soil;
- lime or old cement must be added to acidic soil.
To avoid fraud when buying seedlings, planting material should be purchased from nurseries or specialized stores. Cuttings or stumps with open roots should be without leaves. root systemraspberry "caramel" consists of many thin thread-like roots. They should be flexible, white on the cut and treated with clay talker. Cuttings in pots or bags with a clod of earth may have leaves.
Landing
Potted or bagged raspberry seedlings can be planted throughout the growing season, from spring to fall. Cuttings with open roots are planted in March or at the end of September. Plants planted in spring will produce a crop in late summer - early autumn. Seedlings planted in autumn will produce two crops per season next year.
Cuttings are planted in pre-prepared holes up to half a meter deep or grooves at a distance of a little less than a meter between the bushes. The distance between rows should be at least two meters. The soil removed from the holes is mixed with compost, old manure, bird droppings and wood ash. The holes are covered by a third with this mixture and the cuttings are planted in them, gently straightening their roots. Then they fall asleep with ordinary earth and water each seedling with one bucket of water. The soil around the cutting is compacted and covered with sawdust, straw or dry grass.
To achieve such a high yield, as in the description and reviews of raspberries of the "caramel" variety on the photo,the plant needs to be fully cared for.
Irrigation
Raspberry "caramel" does not tolerate drought well, so watering is required for it. The soil under it should be moist to a depth of forty centimeters. It is recommended to dig shallow grooves along the rows for irrigation or to equip drip irrigation. If there are few bushes, you can make a hole around the trunk. With this method of watering, two buckets per bush are usually sufficient.
Raspberries should be watered especially abundantly before the start of spring and summer flowering and during the period when the berries are tied and growing. If the autumn is warm and dry, then two or three buckets per bush will be required for the second autumn harvest.
Raspberry bushes are watered every two weeks. It is not required during the rainy season, as stagnant water can cause root diseases and, as a result, reduced yields.
Feeding
If fertilizers were applied to the soil before laying the raspberries, top dressing is not needed for the next couple of years. Then the bushes will need annual top dressing three times per season:
- Immediately after the snow melts and the end of spring frosts, organic fertilizers are applied - slurry, bird droppings or weed infusion at the rate of four to five liters of solution per square meter. Instead of organics, you can use urea or ammonium nitrate at the rate of fifteen grams per square meter.
- With the beginning of the first flowering, a second top dressing is carried out. Potassium, superphosphate, as well as compost, herbal infusion or wood ash diluted with water are used for it.
- The third top dressing is carried out at the end of summer during the second flowering. If raspberries are grown in an annual crop, fertilizers are applied after harvest. To do this, at least one bucket of compost or manure diluted in water is brought under each bush. If the autumn is dry, you should make at least three buckets per bush.
Before makingfertilizers, the soil under the plants must be watered so as not to burn the roots.
Cutting
If you plan to get one crop a year, all the branches are cut off at the root of the caramel raspberry bushes in the fall. In the spring, the roots will give rise to new shoots that will bear fruit this season. Such pruning allows you to increase the future harvest, removes all diseases and pests with cut branches, and eliminates the need to cover the bushes for the winter.
If you plan to get two crops per season, in the fall only shoots that bear fruit are removed, and the tops of young branches are pinched at a height of no more than one and a half meters.
If autumn pruning was not carried out, in the spring, usually in April, branches that have dried up or frozen over during the winter are selectively removed. In May, some gardeners pinch the remontant raspberry shoots for a later and more abundant fruiting.
Summer pruning is carried out when the bush grows strongly, and it becomes necessary to remove weak, thin or damaged shoots. Five or six of the strongest branches are left on the bush to save the plant's strength for fruiting and avoid excessive shading of the bush.
Shelter for the winter
Raspberry varieties "caramel" has good frost resistance, but despite this, it needs winter shelter. Preparing the shrub for winter is as follows: the shoots remaining on the bush are bent to the ground, fixed in this position and covered with any geotextile. In areas with snowy winters, raspberries are covered with snow.
Garter
Despite the fact that the raspberry stalks of the "caramel" variety are highly elastic and durable, during the ripening of the crop, under the weight of a large number of berries, they can bend down to the ground. Therefore, a garter to a support, at least in the form of an ordinary single-lane trellis, is still needed for this raspberry variety. It helps not only to support the stems, but also contributes to an even distribution of shoots. And this, in turn, leads to good lighting and ventilation of the entire bush, which helps in the prevention of various fungal diseases.
"Caramel" is one of the best modern varieties of remontant raspberries, so it deserves close attention from both amateur gardeners and entrepreneurial farmers.
