# Rasberry crop failure again



## Dune (Jul 5, 2009)

This year, I was sure I had a good crop. Plenty of flowers, but when I looked at them today, all gone. Ocasional partial berry, mostly just nothing. Same thing happend last year. My parrents had a patch that never did this. Any Ideas?


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## hh3f (Jul 6, 2009)

sounds like birds to me. When you say partial do you mean growth or just part of a berry left there? I have raspberries too and the Mocking birds,cat birds and chipmunks  love them.


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## Dune (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks for the input. It is mostly dead flowers and a coulple berries that just developed one or two lumps. No sign of having been eaten. We had a lot of rain, and I wonder if that could have caused this.


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## Dune (Jul 6, 2009)

Yeah, it really seems like a plant disease or something.


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## gpcollen1 (Jul 6, 2009)

Raspberries want it hot and sunny...


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## Gooserider (Jul 7, 2009)

I know that the rain has hurt my garden a lot, and has brought out a lot of slugs...  

The other thing to look at is what sort of pollinators you have in your area...  Raspberries are very dependent on getting insect pollination, if they don't get it, you don't get fruit...  Do you see honeybees in your area?  What about bumblebees and other small pollinator insects?  Do they spray alot in your area?  That could be a part of your problem...

Gooserider


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## EatenByLimestone (Jul 7, 2009)

My tomatoes are just starting to take off.    I hope they get some strength before the tomatoes get any bigger.  A 1 foot tall plant doesn't do well with those big beefy tomatoes holding it down.   

Peas like it cooler so they did well.   Beans are just starting to come out.  We'll see how the squash and melons do.  They look like they are finally getting going.  

I don't know if it was the rain or the lack of sun.  I'm thinking lack of sun.  My beds are raised on top of a sandy soil.  Drainage shouldn't be a problem.    

Matt


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## Dune (Jul 9, 2009)

Thanks for the input folks. Two years in a rw is pretty disapointing.


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## Gooserider (Jul 9, 2009)

Deffy said:
			
		

> i know how you feel. i stare at the barren garden all winter long, waiting for summer to hit and then what do you know, no summer this year.
> 
> anyone know why store bought tomatos are so terrible? what do they do to them? i can take one of my garden tomatos and mail it cross country and it still tastes the same so it isnt the truck ride.
> i should try growing seeds from a store tomato and see if i get the same bland tasteless blob.



It is called the store bought tomatoes are a different variety (which probably won't grow well from it's own seeds as it is a hybrid), that was bred for marketting purposes - i.e. resistance to bruising / shipping damage resistance, extended shelf life, ability to be picked green and ripen after being picked, etc...  The garden tomatoes, especially "heirloom" varieties, are bred for taste, etc. since nobody would want to go to all that work to raise something that comes out like a store tomato...

Gooserider


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## Bobbin (Jul 9, 2009)

I'll wger it's too much rain and not enough sun.  Local berry growers are all singing the same tune and so is just about everyone else.  There were just about 5 (count 'em!) sunny days in June and we received well over 15" of rain (nearly 3x normal) which has set up optimal conditons for rot.  

Stories on the local news just last included a tomato grower who has Botrytis in his greenhouses (very rare) and an alert to be on the lookout for Blight, an airborn fungal disease that entred the state on tomato plants from a big box store and is now threatening the state's potato crop (the same blight that killed huge portions of the population in Ireland).  

Our lettuce and broccoli looks fine (so far), the tomatos are holding their own, but the eggplant may turn out to be a bust this year.  Brussel Sprouts look good, as do cabbages.  What has saved us has been the fact that the vegetable garden is all raised beds so the soil drains well, but the plants still need some sun and some warmth.  

The annuals in the windowboxes have put on some growth but nearly what they have done in years past.  Hostas and Hydrangeas look good, but the Peonies had a tough year.  The rains arrived at the end of the run of Bearded Iris and Papaver so I was able to enjoy those!  Weeds doing marvelously, as are the slugs.


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 9, 2009)

We planted raspberries this spring.  How do you keep the birds off the fruit?

The combination of the grade of the garden terraces and a lot of free mulch from the city pile has mitigated the extraordinary amount of rain we have had.  Hopefully the sun in the forecast will give the plants a chance to take advantage of all that moisture in the ground.


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## billb3 (Jul 9, 2009)

I've had a little bit of grey fungus / mold this year.
My cherries all split from the rain.

I've had small berries in the past, but htat was with very very old canes / plot.

When I lived on the Cape (Sandwich) I had two inches of dirt for a lawn on top of sand.
Rasberries never got big , neither did the canes and the leaves were a bit yellow. 
Trying to grow Rhubarb was a joke, too.
I dug a trench next to the row of rasberries about a foot deep, removed half of the sand and added compost and peat and let the canes send thier runners into that and eventually keeping those plants in that bed.
It helped, but sand isn'r very good for gardening in. :-(

Where I am now in SE Mass has better soil and I use oak leaves for mulch and wood chipps from chewed up branches. 
Don't have much problems with birds (that I see), but the japanese beatles here are awful. Those bag a bug thingies  worked well last year.


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## Bobbin (Jul 9, 2009)

I see a lot of people using netting over blueberry bushes and they'd work pretty well on raspberry canes, too.  But you have to watch them because sometimes birds get under them or get caught in them.


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## mbokie5 (Jul 22, 2009)

I haven't got any raspberries yet and the mulberrys weren't as plentiful.

Overall a very bad summer for crops.

Tomatoes are now coming in. Have a few peppers and some zucchini, beans and not much more. Lettuce did well and the carrots are now about ready. Garlic, ok.


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## Delta-T (Jul 22, 2009)

i'm not sure whats going on with Dune's berries. I've seen lots of wild raspberries while hiking this year. I'm not sure how much different they are from "domesticated" ones, but they don't seem to be too bothered by the rain. I'd point to pollinaters as Goose mentioned. I know lots of the insects have been adversely effected by the moisture. Lots more fungi attacking insects (note the short gypsy moth season this year, reportedly due to some fungus that kills them off). I used to have raspberries and those things are like weeds. Took me 3 years of cutting and burning to wipe them out. As an added bit of knowledge......To the best of anyones knowledge, there are no poisonous cluster berries (raspberry/blackberry looking berries). Neat-o!


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## Gooserider (Jul 22, 2009)

My friend has what looks like a great tomato crop coming in, but they are about 2 weeks behind their usual schedule...  My pepper plants are finally starting to make a little, but again they are smaller and later than I would expect for this time of year...  OTOH my neighbor is getting a decent crop of raspberries, and looks like a really great crop of blackberries should be coming in w/in a few weeks.

Seems to me like the rain and cold weather has slowed things down, but not stopped everything...  The biggest problem I've seen this year has been slugs - the rain has really brought out a LOT of them, and it has been so wet that it hasn't been practical to put out much of the slug bait that I normally use...

Doesn't pose a big problem, but the wood in my backup piles that I've been moving into the shed is covered w/ an amazing number of slugs - I often see two or three on every split...  They go away within a few days after getting the wood into the shed though, as it dries quickly once it is no longer getting rained on regularly.

Gooserider


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## Dune (Jul 23, 2009)

Yep, my garden is a bust this year, except for some blueberries that are looking pretty good so far. Tomatos might still come in, but it's not looking good.


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## pybyr (Jul 23, 2009)

The only thing here that seems to be liking the weather is the cabbage.  Even the zucchini plants look as if they basically want to give up- and I can't ever recall a time that they didn't thrive (or try to take over...).


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## gzecc (Jul 23, 2009)

I am in north central NJ. We are having a very good rasberry season.  They are just wild, along the hedgerows.  I don't do anything to help them.  I picked some and ate them today. Come take some if you want!


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 23, 2009)

We planted a dozen or so starts in the spring that started bearing fruit in the last week.  Our 3 year old seems to be more than able to consume all they produce but I am happy they made it.


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## Gooserider (Jul 29, 2009)

My friends tomatoes are finally starting to come in - he put some out for sale today for the first time this year.  

Some of my peppers are starting to take off, but not all - I seem to be getting a lot of production from my Super Chili's, and have started to make on the Jalapenos and Cherry Bombs, but none of the sweet peppers have done more than flower yet.  My brocoli is getting tall and spindly, but no heads yet.  Most of my squashes, or at least the ones that are surviving, seem to be blossoming, and have been for a couple of weeks, but they don't seem to be making.  Onions look to be doing well...  Lettuce seems to be mixed at best, and some of it seems to be bolting.  Most of the herbs are also doing pretty well.

I've been getting MAJOR damage from slugs or something that eats lots of holes in the leaves of stuff, but there has been too much rain to put out slug bait...

It seems like my fence has been doing a pretty good job of discouraging the critters, though not perfectly.  We did see a skunk in the driveway tonight when we came home from being out, but I couldn't tell where it came from...

Gooserider


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## John_M (Jul 29, 2009)

Here in central New York my blueberries are a bountiful harvest again this year. There is lots of new growth on the plants. The only things making the plants grow is whatever nature provides. Perhaps all the rain has been the miracle worker.

John_M


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 29, 2009)

John_M said:
			
		

> Here in central New York my blueberries are a bountiful harvest again this year. There is lots of new growth on the plants. The only things making the plants grow is whatever nature provides. Perhaps all the rain has been the miracle worker.
> 
> John_M



We've had the same experience.  Tomatos, peppers, onions, lettuce herbs, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, fruits all are doing well.  The periods of sun in the past few weeks seems to have put all the moisture in the ground to good use.  The only spoilers this year have been the broccoli and cauliflower.


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## Bobbin (Aug 1, 2009)

Vaccinium corymbosum (highbush blueberry) is native here, loves the acid soil and soggy conditions.  They're loaded with berries and the birds snag them as soon as they ripen.  It's one of my favorite shrubs, rock solid hardy, unfussy, handsome bark and structure, impeccible foliage, and fruit.  What more could you ask for?  

Annuals are doing OK, but nothing compared to years past.  We've had reliable harvest from the vegetable garden but the tomatos are at least 2 wks. behind and I've not hear a status report on the eggplant so it may well be a goner... .  Most of the perennials in the borders are 2 wks. behind, too.  I generally have Oriental lilies by now and they're still only in bud; a later flowering Astilbe stand is in full bloom and is beautiful, but they're water hogs anyway.


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## Dune (Jul 4, 2010)

Well, the rasberry crop is a total failure again this year. I am not happy let me tell ya. The patch is big and vibrant, lots of new canes, PLENTY of flowers, was looking good, then the flowers turn all black and disgusting looking. I am thinking about plowing them all under. Glad I never invested in the huge rasberry farm I used to fantasize about. (Back in the early nineties I was told rasberries could produce 12-14K per acre. At the time, a bunch of cranberry bog was available cheap, due to oversupply.) ARGH.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 4, 2010)

Sorry to hear about the failed crop.  Are the flowers getting pollinated by bees?

Some raspberry plant varieties only bear fruit on last year's canes so too much pruning is not good.  If the new growth is too lush and green, the balance of nutrient could be off with too much nitrogen.  It seams that they thrive on neglect.  I like to mulch them with wood chips.  There is something about rotting wood that they really like.

I don't seem to have much of a bird problem.  My problem is when the hornets find them they will pick them clean in short order.


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## begreen (Jul 4, 2010)

Bummer. Can you post some pictures dune? I am wondering if this is botrytis? Do you thin out the canes?

You might try a small patch of a different variety in another location. Some varieties are much stronger than others. We have had great luck with Meeker (early summer) and Autumn Bliss (late summer) in our climate.


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## woodsmaster (Jul 4, 2010)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> Sorry to hear about the failed crop.  Are the flowers getting pollinated by bees?
> 
> Some raspberry plant varieties only bear fruit on last year's canes so too much pruning is not good.  If the new growth is too lush and green, the balance of nutrient could be off with too much nitrogen.  It seams that they thrive on neglect.  I like to mulch them with wood chips.  There is something about rotting wood that they really like.
> 
> I don't seem to have much of a bird problem.  My problem is when the hornets find them they will pick them clean in short order.



The thing they like about the rotting wood is that it makes the soil acidic. I'm guessing the ph of the soil is to high for the raspbarries. I have some I planted 5 years ago that I never got 1 barry from. they had lots of blossems and bees. I sprayed them with roundup a few weeks ago. the wild ones around here were very plentiful, but not the same as those yummy red ones. You can add granuler sulfer to lower the ph but it takes years to work..


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## Dune (Jul 4, 2010)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> Sorry to hear about the failed crop.  Are the flowers getting pollinated by bees?
> 
> Some raspberry plant varieties only bear fruit on last year's canes so too much pruning is not good.  If the new growth is too lush and green, the balance of nutrient could be off with too much nitrogen.  It seams that they thrive on neglect.  I like to mulch them with wood chips.  There is something about rotting wood that they really like.
> 
> I don't seem to have much of a bird problem.  My problem is when the hornets find them they will pick them clean in short order.



Yeah, neglect is something I am good at. Doesn't seem to be helping in this case. I will certainly mulch them with wood chips.


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## Dune (Jul 4, 2010)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> Bummer. Can you post some pictures dune? I am wondering if this is botrytis? Do you thin out the canes?
> 
> You might try a small patch of a different variety in another location. Some varieties are much stronger than others. We have had great luck with Meeker (early summer) and Autumn Bliss (late summer) in our climate.



I will try to put some pictures up. Haven't had much luck posting pics so far, so the practice can't hurt. I looked up botrytis, seems like a likely suspect for sure. My parrents had a patch at the farm for many decades without ever a hint of trouble, till kudzo or some such thing took over. The old man mowed em down without thinking twice.


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## Dune (Jul 4, 2010)

woodsmaster said:
			
		

> LLigetfa said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Usualy here on Cape Cod the soil is plenty acid, from the pine and oak. Maybe I will do a soil test. It is pretty much sand with a hint of rotted turf. Thanks for the ideas.


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## laynes69 (Jul 5, 2010)

Our raspberries this year turned orange and died off. We got some berries, but I think its a possibility of rust. Its a shame because the vines were beautiful earlier in the season. As far as the slugs go, we had a billion of them this year. I was worried they were going to get my pickle patch. We had alot of rain, but I still treated the garden with sluggo despite the rain. Then when it would dry out some more sluggo would go in the garden. I now only see a few and there is no damage. Without sluggo they would have destroyed everything. I was skeptical but it works great.


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## benjamin (Jul 5, 2010)

Till em up and start over somewhere else.

I grow fall bearing rasberries, which I mow off some time after they bear and before they grow in the spring, no other pruning.  They will decline eventually from viruses and other diseases.  

You may want to kill off all rasberries around and wait a year to start over if you're not in a rush.


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## begreen (Jul 5, 2010)

If you are going to start a new bed, start prepping it now. If the soil is mostly sand, it is going to need a lot of organic matter added to build up its tilth.


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## Dune (Jul 5, 2010)

Thankyou gentlemen.  I asume from your comments that there is no cure?


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## begreen (Jul 6, 2010)

You can try thoroughly cleaning up the patch, open it up by removing crowded canes. Pull any diseases sections, cut off bad tops and be sure to leave no debris that can reinfect the crop. Then try a spray with a neem oil and sulphur mixed according to directions for each ingredient. (For the products I have that is about 4 oz of lime sulphur liquid + 1 oz of neem oil + 1 gallon water)


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## Dune (Jul 6, 2010)

You know, it is otherwise such a healthy looking patch, I am inclined to try your cure. Thankyou again.


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## benjamin (Jul 6, 2010)

You want to know if they are summer bearing or everbearing/fall bearing.  Summer bearing are a pain to prune because you have to prune out the ones that grew last year right now or soon.  The fall bearers can be mowed off in the fall once they've stopped producing.

With either one you want to try to keep the row narrow so the berries are bigger and much easier to pick, and give them plenty of organic matter.  You've got nothing to lose but time and effort by trying to rejuvenate them.


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## Dune (Jul 6, 2010)

Thanks Ben. I've done no pruning ever. I suppose that's not good huh?


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## gzecc (Jul 6, 2010)

I've done no pruning ever and have great raspberries. Just grow wild.


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## benjamin (Jul 6, 2010)

If it works for you, that's good enough for me. 

I've been assuming that you have red summer or everbearing raspberries. Which can really thrive if you take minimal care of them. I ordered some new ones this spring from St Lawrence Nursery in upstate NY, for around $10+shipping and a whole lot of work I'll have a new row of a different variety that should bear well for at least several years until they start to decline. For all of the work it takes to pick raspberries I think it's worth it to get them started right and pruned, at least they don't have any significant pests or even weed competition.


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## billb3 (Jul 6, 2010)

Dune said:
			
		

> Thanks Ben. I've done no pruning ever. I suppose that's not good huh?




I've pruned and not pruned.
Pruning can keep the vines from reaching 6 to 8 feet and being unmanageable. theoretically pruning will get you more fruit and clustered making them easier to pick.


Sounds like you've got healthy plants and a fungus  or  something is doing the fruit in.

I have a cherry tree I'm fighting a fungus or rot with Captan. Thought I had it licked last year and this year I lost all but a handful of cherries. I'm ready to cut the tree down for firewood. 


I had one very dry year a few years back and the berries just didn't swell and ended up with these grey hard pits.

This year a lot of my berries have a top patch with no color, so the tops are white. It's not a fungus, there's just no color in the top 1/4 of the berry. Weird.


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## begreen (Jul 6, 2010)

For cherry blossom rot (quite prevalent out here) I am having best success with a simple copper spray = dormant oil. The critical time to spray is just before and after the tree blossoms. This disease also affects our apricot trees. Copper spray has really helped the trees recover. If your trees have high leaf loss, spread some high nitrogen, general purpose fertilizer around their roots (to just outside of the leaf drip line) now to encourage new leaf growth.


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## begreen (Jul 6, 2010)

What variety of raspberries are you growing Dune? Ben?


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## benjamin (Jul 6, 2010)

Polana, which does great but the berries are "zesty", a little on the tart side.  

Caroline, the flavor is described as a balance of sugar and acid, and I agree it's the best tasting.

Autumn Britten which is almost as good as Caroline.  Polana, Caroline and Autumn Britten I bought from Jungs.

I just planted Red Wing from St Lawrence Nursery but can't comment on the berries yet.  The plants arrived in great shape and took right off so I've got my fingers crossed to get some this fall.  

These are all everbearing, which means you can cut them down to the ground after they're done in the fall and you won't have a summer crop, but the fall crop will be better.


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## begreen (Jul 6, 2010)

We leave a few of the strongest young canes cut to about 18" high instead of mowing them all down. Usually this is thinned to about one cane stub every 2 feet. These canes will sprout early and will deliver a July crop of berries, while the new canes develop and start kicking in during August. Autumn Britten sounds very much like our Autumn Bliss. They are a really nice berry. Summer berry favorite here is Meeker.


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## Dune (Jul 6, 2010)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> What variety of raspberries are you growing Dune? Ben?



I could'nt guess. A neighbor planted them for me years ago.


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## benjamin (Jul 7, 2010)

According to the Jungs seed catalog Autumn Britten is an improved strain of Autumn Bliss.   I had some Autumn Bliss but they came from a friend who said that his had petered out and that's what mine did also.  

They also say that leaving any canes for a summer crop will make the fall crop later and smaller.  I can't tell the difference but that's what they say.


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## begreen (Jul 7, 2010)

Thanks, that's good to know. We get a huge amount of berries from a couple 20' rows, even with the mod mentioned.


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## kelleybean (Jul 7, 2010)

Dune, my Mom lives in Yarmouth and is having the same problem with hers this year.  My Grandmother passed away last year and my Mom is now living in the house and tending to the patch.  Outside of weather my only other thought was the need for fertilizer.  The plants use up so much energy growing and flowering that if not regularly fertilized they run out of energy to produce fruit. Cape Cod soil is very sandy and thus doesn't hold fertilizer like more dense soil does.


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