This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Ailing raspberry plants
Quercusrobur81
Posts: 231
in Fruit & veg
Good evening, I have a row of raspberry canes in a really shady part of the garden. Two of the plants look pretty sick:
This one is puny, the leaves are turning brown and...
On this one the leaves are curling up-have read something about raspberry leaf curl disease, could this be it?
what would you do with these sickly specimens? They are tied to canes with healthy plants. Is keeping them going taking energy/nutrients from nearby plants that would benefit more?
thanks
0
Posts
How long have you had them?
Do you know the type? Primocane (autumn fruiters) and Floricane(summer fruiters have to be pruned differently.
Raspberries usually just have a mulch around them. They do not do well in competition with other plants.
Could they have been affected by frost? I had some on my allotment last year and they went brown and died off. I thought it might have been the unusually late frost that we had. They did grow back eventually later in the year though but I lost last summer's crop.
They were here when I moved in summer last year, produced lots of fruit late July. They are surrounded by London pride so probably don't like that...
Frost could have been the thing, although they are pretty sheltered.
I'm just not sure about them, I feel like they're in the wrong place to thrive, there's very little sun (lots of London pride) and I don't know if the way they've been grouped around stakes is correct-all other raspberry plants I see are growing along wire stretched between poles. Here's what I have:
What do you think? Sorry, I feel like I've tricked you into joining a longer-winded post than you anticipated!
I would let them fruit this year, and after they have finished fruiting, cut the fruited cane right down to the ground. You should have new canes coming up which will not fruit this year. You keep these to fruit next year.
Wow-how did you spot that! Yes there is a beech hedge... They could well be parched then.
I'll leave them be this year then might rejig things a bit around autumn, maybe find them a different home in the garden with some sunshine and space.
Thanks all for your replies and help.