The Idaho Republican., 1917-09-03
CARE OF RASPBERRY PLANTA-
TION AFTER HARVESTING CROP

(By Chester L. Vincent, agricul-
tural instructor in Blackfoot high
school.)
In the past few weeks I have been
asked a great many times how to
care for raspberries after the crop
was harvested, and so l take advant-
age of The Idaho Republican to
answer these questions.
In the pruning of red raspberries
the practice of growers is widely at
variance, especially with regard to
the summer pruning. A few years
ago the common advice, or rather
perhaps, that which appeared most
| frequently, was to treat them the
same as blackcaps, by pinching back
the young growing shoots in sum-
mer, and trimming back the later
ais in the spring. Growers all over
the country have been coming to
doubt the advisability of this plan
and to omit the summer pruning.
Pinching back the canes in summer
seems to have tendency to increase
the number of suckers thrown up,
which in itself is a disadvantage un-
less the plantation is being run for
propagation purposes. Unless pinch
ed low while still very young, the
plants do not throw out strong
branches like the backcaps, possibly
owing to the fact that the energy of
the plant is more readily directed
in the line of producing suckers than
developing branches. If the new
growth is cut back after reaching
three or four feet height, it only
forces into growth, lateral buds,
which as a rule, make only an i'm
perfect development and do not be-
come well ripened before growth
stops, and for this reason are apt
to winter kill.
Now the thing to do as soon as
the crop is off, is to go into the
patch with a hand pruning shear, or
sharp knife and cut the old canes
off very close to the ground, put in
pile and burn. By this method
we rid the patch of many insects
which winter over in the old cane
as we'll as fungus disease. By all
means the old canes should be burn
ed at once. Not only does this
method rid your patch of insects and
diseases, but gives all the strength
to the new shoots thus enabling
them to harden up, which is so i'm
portant in this country, by the time
winter sets in.
Information gathered from the ex-
perience of others, leads us to be-
lieve that the best way to treat the
red raspberry is to let it grow un-
molested during the summer season,
merely cutting the canes back to
within three or in some cases even
two feet of the ground the follow
ing spring. Treated this way the
canes will throw out a sufficient
number of laterals in the spring that
plant ought to carry. Moreover
these branches are vigorous and
healthy and in better condition to
develop a fine crop of fruit than pro-
duced the preceding year, weaked by
the winter and now called upon to
throw out fruit bearing shoots. The
lessened expense of pruning is an
added advantage secured by this
method of training.
Raspberry growers should ever be
on the lookout for insects and dis
eases at all times during the sum-
mer and do everything in their
power to lessen the spread of the
disease or insects. In the Blackfoot
especially, there is a
disease working on the canes and
the leaves of the raspberry, turning
them yellow and in time killing
them. This disease seems to spread
from plant to plant, and so far as
l can find, nothing is being done for
it. Until a remedy and name fs
found for this disease, I would sug-
gest that all infected canes be cut
and burned as soon as it appears,
thus aiding each other in lessening
it's spread.
q