In almost every garden you can find raspberry bushes. With proper care, they can produce a phenomenal amount of berries, which are equally well suited both for fresh or frozen consumption, for making wine or liquor, and for use as jam or jam.

Selection history

Cascade Delight raspberries were bred by breeders at the West Washington Research Center. The variety was obtained at the end of the twentieth century due to the hybridization of Chilliwack and WSU-994.

Description and characteristics of the variety

A popular high-yielding summer fruiting variety (June-July). The plant has a powerful root system, forms a large number of ovaries. Shrub capable of growing up to 3 m.

Thanks to vertically arranged shoots, it is quite compact. On long stems there are small spikes located far from each other. The berries are very large (weight 0.06-0.07 kg), elongated, conical, shiny and very strong.

They have excellent taste and aroma. The variety has demonstrated good resistance to root rot. The cascade delight is suitable for manual collection, but not for machine cleaning.

Did you know? In the 50s of the 20th century, the Raspberry Express train ran from Scotland to London, transporting the best raspberries from one country to another.

Advantages and disadvantages

This raspberry variety has been planted by gardeners around the world due to many positive reviews.

• The advantages include:
• high productivity;
• high density pulp;
• large size of berries;
• long shelf life fresh and good transportability;
• significant disease resistance;
• excellent taste and pleasant aroma;
• easy harvesting process;
• separation, dry during harvest, ripe berries;
• universality of the use of the grown crop;
• the possibility of growing on an industrial scale.

There are drawbacks, but with proper care, their number can be minimized.

• These include:
• uneven development of the bush;
• need for regular pruning;
• exactingness to agricultural machinery;
• exactingness to the soil;
• obligatory regular watering, pruning, thinning;
• uneven coloring of berries, on the one hand a whitish hue emerges;
• over time, a decrease in the size of berries;
• the possibility of damage by gray rot;
• susceptibility to raspberry aphids.

Drought resistance, frost resistance

Cascade delta resistant to drought, but it is worth noting that with extreme heat and insufficient watering, the berries can "bake" in the sun and become soft.

Good frost resistancehowever, if there is little snow in the winter, the branches can ice up and recover in the spring for a long time, so it is better to make a shelter for shrubs.

Productivity and fruiting

High yield varieties - almost the main advantage. With competent and caring care from 1 bush, you can collect up to 5 kg of berries. But, to collect such a crop, you have to work hard in the raspberry.

On average, on an industrial scale, they collect from 3 to 4 kg of berries from 1 bush.

Fruiting, depending on weather conditions, can begin in the last decade of June or in the first decade of July, and end in August or, in some areas, even in early September.

Landing Features

Raspberries are easy to grow, but they need good conditions: rich soil, well-drained, which will retain moisture in dry weather with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. She needs a lot of sun and, ideally, shelter from a strong wind. The berry does not tolerate wetlands.

If the soil is acidic, clay or loam, then raspberry bushes will develop poorly, and this will not affect crop yields. Mandatory liming is subject to acidic soil.In autumn, you need to start preparing the soil for planting: remove weeds, dig, fertilize. Composition of fertilizer: 10 kg of humus or rotted compost should be added under 1 raspberry bush.

Adding a layer of organic compost in late autumn is a great incentive for future plant development.

The timing

From the second half of April to mid-May raspberry bushes can be planted. This process is best started before the buds open. The soil should have time to warm up to the depth of the planting hole.

Choosing the right place

The plant grows best in a sunny, sheltered from the wind. Shrubs will grow poorly near fences - this is due to a lack of sunlight.

Important! When planting raspberries, choose a place so that after lunch the main amount of sunshine falls on the bushes.

You also need to select such a terrain for planting Cascade Delight, so that if there are several bushes, a distance of 1.7-2.5 m is maintained between the rows.

Tomatoes, strawberries and potatoes have similar diseases with raspberries, so it is not worth planting cascade delight seedlings in the place where these crops grew.

Selection and preparation of planting material

It is best to buy seedlings in specialized stores or nurseries. The root system of an annual plant should be healthy, without rot, well developed.If the plant is to be transported or planted not immediately after purchase, then the roots will need to be moistened well, wrapped with a cloth and wrapped in a film, i.e. not even the slightest drying of the roots should be allowed.

Landing algorithm

In the soil enriched in autumn, with the advent of spring, you can begin to plant raspberry seedlings.

Between raspberry bushes when planting should be a distance of about half a meter. It is preferable to arrange the seedlings in a checkerboard pattern.

There is an option of a tape (trench) landing with mandatory support (a laborious process, suitable for large-scale cultivation). It implies that plants are planted in 1 solid line with a distance of 20-30 cm in a vertical position.

The roots of the seedlings should be well spread. The distance between the trenches should be within one and a half meters, and a depth of up to 40 cm. All excess shoots must be trimmed. Only those that need to be tied to a wire should be left.This garter will protect the young plant from being broken by gusts of wind. The first row is tied from the ground to 30–35 cm, and the second row is 1 m. After planting, the soil must be slightly tamped. The root neck cannot be deepened too much, nor can it protrude from the soil. Then you need to water the seedlings (5 l of water is spent on each bush).

Did you know? Unlike many other fruits, unripe raspberries do not ripen after harvest!

Care

When raspberries are planted, from the very first days you need to monitor the watering. Watering must be timely and plentiful. Watering method - sprinkling or irrigation into furrows. If you leave the plant for a long time without watering, then the berry will begin to fade, a sour taste will appear.

A prerequisite for the full development of seedlings is mulching the soil. Use for this: straw, dried peat, humus or other organics.In the first year after planting, fertilizing is not necessary only if the seedlings were planted in fertile soil. Later, you can fertilize the plant with phosphorus and potash fertilizers.

Weeding, pruning of dry shoots, preventive measures against diseases should be carried out in a timely manner.

Harvesting and storage

The Cascade Delight variety is manually harvested in dry weather as the berries ripen. Fruits can hang on branches for a long time (up to 7 days) without falling. At separation remain dry. You need to put the crop in a dry container. Over-ripened foods should be folded separately.Raspberries are stored in different ways:

1. Fresh raspberries have a short shelf life of only 2–4 days. They put it in the refrigerator, away from the freezer. Also, do not place containers with berries nearby with products that have a strong smell.
2. Fresh, grated with sugar, in a proportion of 1/1, stored in the refrigerator under a nylon cover.
3. In the frozen state.
4. In dried form.
5. In preservation: compotes, jam, jams.

Winter preparations

Biennial shoots after harvesting require pruning. It is necessary to remove damaged and dry shoots. For the winter, usually 5-7 growths are left, in which the tops should be cut to 20-30 cm, the leaves also need to be removed without damaging the kidneys.Shrubs sometimes do not shelter at all, only the snow cover serves as a shelter, while shoots bend to the ground and strengthened with wooden or metal staples.Peat, coniferous sawdust or rotted foliage can also serve as a covering material. The ideal period for sheltering raspberries is between the end of leaf fall and the start of frost.

Important! If you have not used a covering material for raspberries, then you need to make sure that no solid crust of snow forms on the snow. It must be removed immediately when it appears, otherwise a lack of air can lead to the death of the plant.

Breeding methods

There are several ways to propagate the Cascade Delight raspberry variety.

1. Lignified offspring. They should be dug up in October, with the preservation of the roots up to 15 cm.

2. Green root offspring. They must be healthy, without damage. Reproduction time is spring.

3. Root cuttings with 2 buds, each stalk up to 10 cm long. Breeding time - spring, autumn.

4. Dividing the bush.

Diseases and Pests

This variety is loved by gardeners, because the plant is not affected by root rot.

However, it is worth noting that there are some diseases and pests that are worth fearing.

1. Viruses: the mosaic and the “witch's broom” often hit bushes in raspberries. They bear a growth lag (dwarfism) in a plant, leaf damage in the form of a mosaic. The only proven way to get rid of them is to uproot the affected bushes. Buying seedlings from trusted suppliers and disinfected planting equipment is the most reliable virus prevention.
2. Pests: aphids, raspberry fly, gall midge, raspberry beetle. Preventive spraying is allowed after flowering and harvesting only with proven products purchased in specialized stores.

This is not to say that the Cascade variety is easy to maintain. To grow a decent raspberry crop, you have to be patient and fulfill all the conditions for care. But for the sake of obtaining large and sweet berries, it is still worth trying to grow it.