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wimble_gw

Partial fruit on red raspberries

wimble
11 years ago

For more than 10 years, I had very productive canes in the San Francisco bay area. When they stopped producing, I dug them up (probably didn't get all the old canes) and planted new canes. I planted new canes, purchased from various nurseries, for several years now and in a couple of locations in my urban lot. In all but one location, the berries produced are few, and the fruit itself has only a few globes of the berry rather than a full cone of globes. Suggestions as to what I should look for, test, etc. would be greatly appreciated. I'm not much of a gardener by am an engineer so I'm willing to read, but I don't know what to look for.

Comments (3)

  • ericwi
    11 years ago

    If you were growing raspberries successfully, and now you are not, despite having dug out the old canes, and planting new ones, then it may be something in the soil that is the issue. It could be a disease issue, or it could be that the soil is depleted and needs to be amended. Raspberries are said to thrive in slightly acidic soil, pH around 6.5. There should be organic material, like compost, mixed in with the dirt. There is also the possibility that something living in the soil is eating the roots. That is the kind of problem that can develop when the same plant is grown in one spot for decades. These are just guesses, I hope other folks have suggestions to add.

  • gator_rider2
    11 years ago

    You need to come up with one that fits your berries below. Your buying practice may be way came up with this problem
    There are several causes of crumbly fruit in caneberries, which include.

    1. Poor pollination: Extreme weather conditions, either hot or cold, affect pollination and druplet set. Honeybees do not move very well, if at all, in extremities of weather, resulting in uneven pollination that causes crumbly fruit. The current dearth of wild honeybees does not bode well for growers not employing professionally managed bee hives.
    Vascular injury: Vascular injury from severe cold or physical damage can impede water uptake in the caneberry plant, causing wilting, plant stunting, as well as crumbly fruit. Drupelets of the fruit need water to be filled; interference with water transport into the fruit results in uneven drupelet fill.

    2. Viruses: Viruses that can cause crumbly fruit in certain varieties include: Raspberry leaf curl virus, Tomato ringspot virus, and Raspberry bushy dwarf virus. Plants can be infested with viruses at the propagation stage, so it is imperative that growers only work with and purchase plant stock that is certified virus-free.

    3.Dryberry mite: Although not a problem on the Central Coast of California, dryberry mite is another cause of crumbly fruit in caneberries. Normally infesting the leaves of the developing primocane, this eriophyid mite can move to fruit during periods of high populations. Damage to fruit is distinct from crumbly fruit symptoms resulting from other causes because fruit infestation causes some drupelets to ripen early, leaving a badly misshapen fruit that does not necessarily crumble.

    4.The pattern of crumbly fruit development in individual caneberry plants as well as in the field is very useful in indicating the probable cause. Viruses infest the whole plant, and infested plants have crumbly fruit up and down the cane. Extremities in weather most often occur over a few days, so only those flowers and subsequent fruit exposed to these conditions will express crumbliness. Crumbly fruit then would be found through the whole field only at a certain height of cane or length of fruiting lateral in the case of exposure to extremes in weather. In the case of improperly done plant propagation, problems can be transmitted from an initially low number of plants to large numbers of nursery stock. In the field this will manifest itself as entire blocks that express the problem evenly throughout.

  • larry_gene
    11 years ago

    Less likely, but possible, to be something in the soil. If the roots are being eaten, very wimpy canes will be the result. Fruit may form, tends to form properly but dry out before ripening.

    Your garden description could be restated as: Out of two (couple) locations, one has poor berry production.

    Is there any difference in the two planting areas. Are bees visiting the areas equally. Are the two areas blooming equally.

    Are the productive berries a different variety from all the other berries?