Along with strawberries, raspberries are the most common fruit in the garden. The rose plant is an eye-catcher in every garden and you can also get great-tasting raspberries. But what to do if the shrub just does not bloom. The following article tells you what short-term measures you can take to get the raspberry bush to bloom.
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Summer or autumn raspberry?
There are two different types of raspberry bushes: the summer raspberry and the autumn raspberry. Depending on the species, the raspberry bush blooms in different months. The summer raspberry blooms from June to September. The autumn raspberry blooms from August to October. If you don’t know which species your raspberry bush belongs to, you might wait a month or two longer and see if it starts to bloom.
It also depends on when your bush was planted. Depending on the species, it can take up to two years for the shrub to form the first flowers. The summer raspberries only produce flowers on the biennial shoot. This means that flowering will not take place until the second year after planting. With the autumn raspberry, you can expect flowers in the first year. If you have a summer raspberry, you will have to be patient for another year before you can enjoy the flowers of your raspberry bush.
1. Measures: Use fertilizer
Raspberry bushes are heavy eaters and need a lot of nutrients from the soil. If your shrub does not bloom, there may be a lack of nutrients. Regular fertilization is therefore of great importance. Annual fertilization supplies the soil with sufficient nutrients. Special, organic berry fertilizers are available in liquid form or in the form of pellets in hardware stores. The advantage of organic fertilizers is that the nutrients are released slowly and over a longer period of time. If you want to fertilize naturally, you have the following alternatives:
- Compost
- Horse droppings
- Nettle stock
- peat
- Grasschnitt
2. Measures: mulching
Raspberries are very sensitive to drought and waterlogging. There is also a danger for the roots of the shallow root in strong sunlight. If your raspberries fail to bloom, the soil may be too moist or too dry. Regular mulching protects the roots of the bushes from drying out and at the same time provides them with sufficient nutrients.
Use clippings or a layer of non-composted material such as leaves, needles, branches or clipped raspberry shoots for mulching. You should put a thin layer of straw or bark mulch over the mulch.
3rd measure: remove weeds
Raspberries are not dominant plants and do not hold up well against other plants. If there are too many weeds around the raspberry bush, it is possible that these food competitors are depriving the rose family of too many nutrients for their growth. If there are too many plants in the immediate vicinity, the plants would perish.
Be careful when removing weeds and do not use chemical weed removers. The weed plants should be plucked out. Be careful not to damage the rods and roots. An injury to the bush is a good entry point for fungi and other diseases.
4th measure: water sufficiently
As shallow roots, the roots of the raspberry bushes do not reach deeper soil layers. Insufficient watering can be one of the reasons for a lack of flowering. Regular watering is therefore important. A sufficient water supply is essential, especially in summer when there is strong sunshine.
5. Measure: Regular cut
If they are not pruned regularly, this will have a major impact on the growth of the plants and the raspberries will ultimately not bloom. If a shoot has already borne berries, it will no longer bear flowers in the next year and should therefore be removed. This gives the new shoots more nutrients and space to grow. However, the shrub should be cut once a year. This causes:
- Air circulation between the shoots
- promotes growth of the shoots
- Nutrients are not wasted on shoots that have already been removed
By thinning out the above-ground shoots can dry well. Pathogens and fungi are deprived of the moisture they need to grow.
In the case of summer raspberries, the bush should be thinned out to five branches. Make sure that the new, not yet borne shoots stop. In the case of autumn raspberries, it is advisable to cut off the entire shrub near the ground in spring at the latest. The spring pruning should take place in May at the latest.
Conclusion
Why your raspberry isn’t blooming can have different causes. A sufficient supply of nutrients through fertilization and mulching, optimal soil moisture and regular pruning are important care measures for your raspberry bush. These can help get your shrub back into bloom.
