In the last decades of the last century, breeding science has not yet been as developed as it is today. Evidence of this is the raspberry of the Siberian selection Vera, which appeared in the late 80s of the last century. This is an early and high-yielding variety, but some of its other characteristics are rather modest. In order to understand what raspberry Vera is, you need to get to know her better.
Growing history
Raspberry Vera (working title hybrid form 2-541) was obtained in the Altai Territory at the Siberian Research Institute of Horticulture named after M.A. Lisavenko by crossing known varieties: (Kaliningrad x Kuzmin News) x Barnaul. The variety was bred in 1985, included in the register of breeding achievements of the Russian Federation in 1989, zoned in the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga-Vyatka and West Siberian regions. In other regions, Vera is not widespread, and in her "native places" is not widely used.
Description and characteristics of raspberries Vera
A variety of early ripening. Raspberries bloom in the second decade of June, the berries begin to ripen about a month after flowering, in mid-July.
The bush has medium growth power, semi-spreading. The maximum shoot height is 1.8 m. The stems are erect with a curved tip, flexible, easily bending to the ground without breaking. Shoots are densely covered with leaves and numerous thin and soft spikes of medium length. The ability to shoot formation is moderate.
Raspberry bushes Vera of medium height, semi-spreading with erect, densely covered with leaves stems
The berries are small and medium - weighing 1.8-2.7 grams of purple. Their form is stupid. The boning of drupes is fragile, which leads to a violation of the integrity of the berries during collection and transportation. Product portability is poor.
Berries of raspberry Vera are medium-sized - 1.8-2.7 grams, blunt, purple
The taste is sweet and sour, ordinary, without dessert tones, received a tasting score of 3.5 points. The purpose of the products is technical.
Productivity is high (89-129 kg / ha) and stable; 1.6-2.0 kg of fruits can be removed from one bush with good care. The ripening of berries makes it possible to collect about 70% of the crop at the first harvest.
The yield of raspberry Vera is high, up to two kilograms per bush, the berries ripen together
Frost resistance is low, shoots freeze and need shelter. The variety is not drought tolerant.
Faith is unstable to purple spotting. About immunity to other diseases in the description is not mentioned. Resistance to shoot gall midge is a big plus of the variety, since this pest can cause great damage to raspberries.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
Raspberry Vera has several advantages, such as:
- early ripening;
- high productivity;
- berries do not fall off the bushes;
- thin and soft spikes (do not interfere with harvesting);
- flexible shoots that are easy to tilt for shelter for the winter;
- resistance to damage by shoot gall midge.
Varieties also have disadvantages, here is a list of them:
- low frost resistance, bushes require shelter for the winter;
- instability to drought;
- insufficiently high taste qualities of berries for fresh consumption;
- weakly boned drupes;
- poor transportability;
- instability to purple spotting.
The most significant advantages of Vera raspberry are high productivity and early ripening, but its significant disadvantages, such as low marketability of products and insufficient endurance, make Vera unattractive for gardeners. They may not see any reason to put up with its shortcomings for the sake of existing advantages.
Features of planting and growing
Raspberry Vera does not require any special agricultural technology and is grown in the same way as most varieties of garden raspberries of domestic selection. There are few features when cultivating this variety, but you need to know about them.
Landing
When planting Vera varieties, they meet the standard requirements, as for any other raspberry. Choose an open sunny place. The best soil is fertile or light loam with an air- and water-permeable structure. Raspberries will not grow on acidic and swampy soils.
The planting scheme for Vera is chosen depending on the area of the raspberry. If single plantings are planned, you can apply a bush scheme, placing plants at a distance of 1-1.5 meters. On a large area, you can use the tape scheme (60-70x1.5 m).
In large areas, raspberries Vera planted in rows according to the scheme 60-70x1.5 m
Raspberries can be planted in spring and autumn. Planting pits should be at least 40x40x40 cm, they are seasoned with a mixture of humus or compost with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers. Soils filled with soil after planting are mulched with organic materials.
Care
Cutting of the prolific shoots, removal of the shoots and garter of the bushes is carried out as usual for raspberries, which bears fruit on two-year-old shoots. Since Vera is not frost-resistant and freezes, special attention should be paid to her shelter for the winter. There are several rules that you must follow when preparing raspberries for wintering:
- The stems are bent in advance, best of all at the end of September. If you do this just before the frost, the shoots can break.
- Before preparing raspberries for winter, all the leaves remaining on them are removed from the shoots.
- Take a bunch of stems (you can bind them) and tie a stone weighing at least 1 kg or any other load. Another option for fixing shoots can be pinning them with hooks to the ground or tying the tops of shoots to the base of adjacent bushes with loops.
There are several ways to fix the bent shoots of raspberries: tie the tops of the stems to the base of the neighboring bush or pin them with hooks to the ground
- When growing raspberries on a trellis, you can tie it to the lower wire, while the height of the bent stems should not exceed 25 cm.
- If winters are not snowy, then it is better to cover prepared shoots with agrofibre. To do this, you can use wooden or metal frames.
In regions with little snowy winters, prepared bushes are covered with agrofiber using frames
Raspberry Vera is not resistant to drought and requires a sufficient amount of moisture during the growing season. It is especially important to water the plants during the setting and berry filling. Watering can be done by sprinkling (from a hose), along furrows or by a drip method. When using drip irrigation systems, water is delivered directly under the roots, and the stems and berries remain dry. This allows you to maintain the necessary soil moisture and at the same time avoid creating a favorable environment for the development of fungal diseases. Before the onset of cold weather, pre-winter watering is mandatory.
When raspberries are irrigated with a drop method, water enters directly under the roots of plants
To increase productivity, Vera is traditionally fed 2-3 times per season. Like any other raspberry, Vera needs nitrogen most (but only in the first half of summer). The greatest effect is observed from the use of liquid organic fertilizers in the form of poultry manure infusions (1 liter diluted in 20 liters of water) or cow manure (1 liter per 10 liters of water). Make 3-5 l of one of the solutions per 1 m2. In the absence of organic fertilizers, urea can be used for top dressing. And also during the fruiting period, potash and phosphorus fertilizers are added.
Video: raspberry shelter for the winter
Diseases and Pests
The variety description does not indicate the degree of its resistance to diseases and pests. Therefore, most likely, there is a risk of defeating raspberries Vera the most common diseases and pests.
Prevention of purple spotting and other lesions
The variety is characterized by susceptibility to purple spotting, so it is worth considering this disease in more detail. Purple spotting is a fungal disease caused by the pathogen Didymella applanata Sacc., Therefore the disease has a second name - didimella. Signs of the disease appear on annual shoots at the places of leaf attachment in the form of lilac-brown spots, which subsequently grow and ring the entire stem. Necrosis appears on the leaves, petioles and fruit branches, which leads to the drying of the affected organs.
With raspberry disease, purple spotting (didimella), lilac-brown spots appear on annual shoots
Agrotechnical control measures boil down to the destruction of infected plant debris, timely thinning of plantings, optimal irrigation without overmoistening. Of the chemicals, spraying with 1% Bordeaux fluid in the early spring is effective. After the shoots reach 20 cm, before flowering and immediately after it, copper chloride (3-4 g / l) or Bordeaux liquid is used for processing.
To prevent infection with other diseases, the following measures will be enough timely:
- Protection of the root system from mechanical damage (you can not dig deep and loosen the soil under the bushes).
- Growing raspberries in one place no more than 7 years. Return to old sites no earlier than 3-4 years.
- Timely cutting and destruction of sterilized, damaged and infected shoots.
- Weed control.
- Use for reproduction only healthy planting material.
- Timely fight against aphids that transmit viral diseases.
- Do not allow moisture to stagnate in raspberries.
- Spraying plants with one of the chemicals (1% Bordeaux liquid, copper chloride, Khom, Abiga-Peak) in early spring, before flowering and after harvest.
Video: how to deal with purple spotting
In the description of the variety, its resistance only to the shoot gall midge is indicated. Most likely, the remaining pests of the plant can be affected under adverse conditions. Therefore, it is better to get to know the most common representatives in advance.
Table: Possible Pests of Raspberry Vera
| PEST NAME | CAUSE HARM | STRUGGLE MEASURES |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry and strawberry weevil | By the beginning of flowering, it lays eggs inside the buds and gnaws the peduncle. Buds fall off or wilted remain hanging on the peduncle. | 5-6 days before flowering and after harvest, sprayed with drugs Alatar, Fufanon, Inta-Vir or Iskra-M, Actellik |
| Raspberry beetle | During the extension of the buds eats them, as well as damage leaves and flowers. Lays eggs in young ovaries. During periods of mass invasion, they can destroy up to 30% of raspberry buds and flowers. | |
| Raspberry shoot aphid | Intensively propagated in shaded places. Settles at the ends of shoots and inflorescences. Damaged leaves curl, twigs twist, flowers dry out. Carries viral diseases | |
| Spider mite | Appears in dry and hot weather, sucks the juice from the leaves and braids them with cobwebs. White spots appear on the leaves, they dry and fall off. In the dry season, crop losses can reach 70%. | Timely watering in a drought and the destruction of affected leaves are preventative measures. To fight the tick, Fufanon, Akreks, Actellik and other insecticides are used. |
Photo Gallery: The Most Common Raspberry Pests
- Raspberry-strawberry weevil damages the buds and gnaws the peduncle
- Raspberry beetle eats buds and lays eggs in young ovaries
- Raspberry shoot aphid settles on the ends of shoots and leaves and sucks out the juice from them
- A spider mite feeds on leaves and braids them with cobwebs
Raspberry Vera is not discussed at gardeners' forums; no reviews are left about her. The variety is far from the standard and, perhaps, for this reason is not popular. Currently, many new varieties that have improved performance have been bred. Probably, raspberry Vera does not withstand competition with them and is gradually being squeezed out of Russian raspberries. Vera is an ordinary garden raspberry. The variety is fruitful, but in the conditions of the regions where it is zoned, it does not have sufficient endurance, it requires quite a lot of effort when growing and does not differ in high quality products. Therefore, most likely, raspberry Vera is already the history of domestic selection.
