Hello! and help (!) I have a well established raspberry 'patch' of some forty or so plants...for the last 3 years my harvests have become increasingly big, and now suddenly, I have no berries!!! several of the more mature bushes are brown, and fruitless...it seems the brown ones are in one specific area, and about 2/3rds of the bushes are green and have young berries -- I have never had ANY problems before, and this happened so suddenly, I am wondering if the other bushes will be affected, or how I can fix the situation...I have not used any pesticides, and the only mulching is with coffee grounds. This year, I did notice beetles on a few leaves, but I dont think they could claim credit for the problem I am experiencing...I am able to post digital pictures if anyone needs to see them... thanks for any help you can offer! 54dobes
Are you cutting out the old fruited canes as soon as they start to die back? From my limited knowledge on raspberries they fruit on new canes each year. Margaret
thanks for your thoughts, if they were 3yr olds that didnt get cut back in the fall, would they have still produced this summer?? We have a long growing season here in upper-east Tennessee and in the last 2 years I have had continous raspberrys till mid November (Heritage variety) so I guess it really confounded me when certain sprays turned yellow and just stopped fruiting, as they were all in the same general area... would you cut them down low to the ground at this point ?? thanks again for your response! 54dobes
Hi I really am no expert - just a lover of rasps for breakfast and jam. From my understanding though they fruit on new growth so the old canes need to be cut back to soil level after they have finished fruiting and then the new ones can be tied up. My plants had been neglected for a couple of years and have certainly fruited well this year after a good clean out of old growth. I also understand that there are different fruiting patterns for different types of rasps. If I were you I would post a picture and my guess is that one of the more expert growers will be able to answer about the more specific types. Margaret
