At the end of the 20th century, the large-fruited Senator raspberry was bred by the Russian breeder V.V. Kichina. The selection is based on the work of the English scientist Derek Jenningson, who achieved large fruits in 1961.
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This is a non-repairing mid-season crop with medium bushes, 1.8 m high. It is grown by farms and amateur gardeners.
Raspberry Senator has excellent indicators in the form of:
- large fruits;
- dense pulp;
- transportability;
- frost resistance.
Review of Raspberry Senator
Plants with mid-early ripening. Slightly spreading shrubs with smooth and strong shoots, without thorns. Plants with high shoot formation.
Each fruit branch produces from 20 to 40 large berries, weighing from 7 to 15 g. Red-orange, shiny, conical, with a sweet and sour taste. With small drupes, 4.5 kg can be easily removed from one bush.
Ripe fruits in July do not fall off or rot. They travel well. They are frozen and processed. The bushes tolerate frosts even from -35 degrees. But, if the frosts are stronger, then the bushes are bent to the ground and covered. The berries are collected until the onset of cold weather.
New raspberry
The new raspberry pick for Senator raspberries is prepared in advance. The soil is supplied with organic and mineral fertilizers. Seedlings purchased or from parent bushes are planted.
Important! For them, raspberries are planted in a lighted, windless, level place, on loam. Lowlands are not suitable. Because there is a lot of humidity there. At higher elevations the soil will dry out quickly.
It is advisable to plant after: lupine, phacelia, rye, oats. Already 2 months before the planned planting of raspberries, these green manures are dug up, crushed and embedded in the ground to a depth of 25 cm to enrich the soil.
Then, 30 days before planting in the fall or early spring, the area of the future raspberry tree is dug up, and 6 kg of compost and 200 g of complex fertilizer are added per 1 m2.
Experienced gardeners prefer to plant shoots before the onset of cold weather, in the autumn season, so that the plants adapt to new conditions.
Reviews
I simply couldn’t help but write a review about the Balm, because... the variety, one might say, proved to be a balm on my soul. I spent my entire childhood in the village and really loved wild raspberries, so after moving to the city and having a garden plot, I dreamed of growing a variety that was closest to the forest variety. You read reviews from gardeners and basically everyone describes the size of the berries or the overall yield, so I didn’t find my Balm right away. A neighbor in a gardening partnership helped, who once complained that there seemed to be no forest nearby, but wild raspberries had moved to her from somewhere. I clung to this information and that’s how raspberries appeared on my plot, which I have been growing for almost 10 years. I really like the variety precisely for its taste and aroma from childhood; in addition, it is early, practically without thorns and winter-hardy. It seems to me that this is just an excellent combination of the most important qualities of a berry crop.
Everything is fine. I’ve been growing “Balsam” for five years. I live in difficult conditions for raspberries in Siberia, but at the same time I manage to feast on delicious berries, the bushes do not freeze and are generally very unpretentious. I don’t water or feed the raspberries, I just trim them, but they bear fruit and don’t get smaller.
Growing the Balsam variety is not difficult - breeders took care of this back in the distant 80s of the last century. Unpretentious and hardy bushes are not afraid of frost and thaw; they awaken early in the spring and are ready to produce a harvest of fragrant berries at the end of June.
How to care for raspberries
Plants love organic matter and mineral solutions. Protect plants from harmful microorganisms by spraying. In the fall, preventive pruning is carried out. Senator raspberries respond to regular watering with high yields.
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Watering raspberries Senator
You just need to make sure that moisture does not stagnate. Plants do not tolerate drought. If the bushes are not watered for a long time, the ovaries will fall off, and the berries will become small and tasteless.
Important! Water with warm water in the morning and evening, weekly. Even more often in hot weather. Especially, plants need moisture during flowering and ovary formation.
After watering, loosening and weeding are mandatory. To reduce watering, you can mulch the soil. Before wintering, plants need to be given moisture-recharging watering.
Top dressing
Fertilizing the soil when planting seedlings provides nutrition for raspberries for 2 years.
Then every year they feed her:
- With the onset of spring, water with slurry, because it contains nitrogen, to grow new growth.
- In the summer season, during flowering and fruit formation, fertilize with superphosphate and potassium sulfate (30 g: 10 liters of water). You can feed it with bone meal.
- Before watering, add wood ash to the water the day before. Or, when loosening, they enrich the soil. Thanks to wood ash, raspberries receive the elements of potassium, phosphorus and calcium.
Features of cultivation
For planting, you should select a suitable area of soil and buy seedlings in specialized (certified) stores or nurseries.
Young plants should be at least 15–20 cm high with a strong root system and a stem diameter of at least 8–10 mm. It is better not to purchase raspberries from unknown producers - in addition to varietal mismatch, they can be infected with various diseases or pests.
Optimal timing
The time for planting raspberries depends on the climate of the area. So, in warm regions, it is better to plant Senator from late September to mid-October. Then the bushes will be able to take root well before the onset of cold weather and actively begin to grow in the spring.
We invite you to familiarize yourself with information about raspberries of the Caramel variety.
In cold areas, it is better to use spring planting in the ground - after the end of frost and the establishment of warm weather. If you plant raspberries in the fall, they may not tolerate frost and die.
Selecting a seat
Senator should be planted in an open, sunny area, protected from strong winds. It is better to choose a flat place, since the soil on a hill will dry out too quickly, and in the lowlands, on the contrary, moisture can accumulate. You also need to take into account that raspberries of this variety prefer loamy soils.
Unfavorable predecessors for raspberries are strawberries and nightshade crops. It is best to choose a place where legumes or grains have previously grown.
Before planting, the area must be dug up and compost added at the rate of 6 kg per 1 m² of area. You can use complex fertilizer according to the instructions for use.
Planting scheme
Before planting, you should check the integrity of the seedlings, inspect the roots, and if necessary, shorten bushes that are too long to 25 cm. 3 hours before planting, place the plant roots in a growth stimulator.
The landing is carried out as follows:
- Prepare holes 0.5 m deep and 0.4 m in diameter with a step between them of 1 m and a distance between rows of 2 m.
- Pour part of the extracted soil into the hole and place the seedling on top, straightening the roots.
- Fill the hole with soil, compact it slightly and form a circle around the trunk.
- Moisten the plant generously with non-cold water.
Watering and fertilizing
After planting, you should take care of regular agrotechnical measures - irrigation and fertilizing.
Raspberries should be watered as the top layer of soil dries, using warm water and increasing the volume of watering during the period of active ovary formation. A few hours after watering, you should carefully loosen the soil and remove weeds. To retain moisture in the soil, you can mulch it with mowed grass and peat chips.
It is recommended to use nitrogen-rich slurry as fertilizer.
For more intense fruiting you should use:
- superphosphate;
- potassium sulfate.
Such complex fertilizers are applied “under the bush”, 30 g per 10 liters of water, during the flowering period of the plant and the formation of ovaries.
Disease and pest control
With good care, the Senator variety is resistant to typical ailments and pests of this crop. Therefore, it is necessary to follow all the basic rules of agricultural technology, which is the main preventive measure.
Did you know? According to one version, the name of the thieves' den - "raspberry" - is not associated with the popular berry, but was a distorted version of the word "melina", which translated from Hebrew means
"
shelter
"
or
"
bunker
"
.
If, nevertheless, signs of disease appear on the bushes, then the diseased shoots should be removed and the raspberries should be treated with fungicidal agents.
Harmful insects are perfectly neutralized by the preparations "Karbofos" and "Aktellik", the treatment of which is carried out on the eve of winter and in early spring (before the start of the growing season). An excellent preventative method against the appearance of pests is to spray the bushes with an infusion of onion peels or dust them with a fine fraction of wood ash or tobacco chips.
Preparing for winter
The variety is characterized by high frost resistance and tolerates short-term temperature drops down to -35°C. In regions that are too cold, protection must be provided to preserve the viability of plants. To do this, carefully bend the bushes and fix them to the ground. Then cover with available materials and cover with snow.
When an ice crust forms on the surface of the shelter, it is necessary to remove the ice so that the plant receives a sufficient amount of air. If there is too little snow, then you can use a layer of at least 30 cm of fallen leaves for cover.
Did you know? Since the crimson flower is turned downwards, bees can collect nectar even during rain. Moreover, these insects are capable of increasing the yield of bushes by 60–100%.
How to protect Senator raspberries from harmful microorganisms
If you weed weeds in a timely manner and trim unsuitable growth, then the risk of disease will be minimal.
Gall midges, aphids, weevils, and spider mites are not allowed on raspberries with Karbofos or Actellik. Spraying is carried out at the beginning of the growing season and at the end of the season.
Also preventative, with the onset of summer, are garlic and onion infusions with crushed laundry soap. Pests are afraid of sprayed wood ash along with tobacco dust.
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