Abstract

A record was kept in 1957 and 1958 of quantities of waste vegetative material - mainly spent fruiting canes and surplus new canes - removed from a 5-6 year old raspberry plantation containing plots of six varieties. The average weight of waste material was about 57 cwt. per acre per annum. The amounts of dry matter and of the nutrients N, P, K, Ca and Mg removed in the waste were greater than the amounts either in the fruit harvested or (except possibly for potassium) in the leaves returned to the soil. The results are discussed in relation to manurial practice.
From the data for the individual varieties, factors relating annual fruit yield to annual removal of vegetative waste have been calculated and found to reflect closely the general experience of ‘manageability’ among varieties.