One row of raspberries is thriving. The other is very definitely not.
It could be that the soil is just heavier and colder here, and that these canes are just behind - our plot does have bands of clay in various places, and this may be one of them. But looking at such leaves as have started to emerge from the buds, I see that they're stunted and wilting, as if afflicted by something. Could it be a virus??? Several of the stools have new growth coming from the base, but a couple of stools have nothing fresh coming through. I'll adopt a wait and see policy, but if nothing much shows in another few weeks I'll take the dead canes right out and leave the ground fallow until the autumn. Then, as I've found from a BBC Gardeners' Question Time transcript, since I can't relocate the raspberry site completely I'll dig out the soil to about 18 inches and infill with new soil before putting in new canes.
This is disappointing in what we'd hoped was our first full year of a raspberry crop. I guess we'll savour what we do get all the more.
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6 comments:
That is so disapointing about the raspberries,every year brings either new set backs or surprises.
Raspberries seem to be a very tricky business here in the US as well. My neighbors plant them every year along with blackberries and some of the plants just don't thrive.
I'll send good thoughts for a great crop for you soon!
To grow raspberries at all would be great. here's hoping the best for them!
Hang in there and hopefully with time, they will come back. We have had a slow start on some ourselves however, they are starting to peak now. An unusual spring did a fair set back this year. Good luck.
Hope you figure out the raspberry mystery. I've always found them super hardy & adaptable--from the heavy clay soils of my native Pennsylvania to the decomposed granite of the Rockies.
The only problem we've ever had with them was when a student did some housesitting and thought she'd do us a favor by applying herbicide to rid us of dandelions. That knocked back the canes and it took 4+ years for the patch to recover.
Did you dig yet? I am finding big pieces of concrete in the neighbor's yard where I'm gardening. I wonder if there is something under the raspberries that aren't growing.
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