Are your raspberries already doing 'something'?

14 years ago

Hello

Last year I planted bareroot blueberries and raspberries. The blueberries looked great, but the raspberries never really took off.

Now, the blueberries are already opening their leaves, but the raspberries haven't done a thing. At my elevation, there are some other items that are still dormant, i.e. the birch trees and the gingko.

I'm concerned that the raspberries are goners, and I'm hoping that I still have a chance to get some new ones in the ground.

So, for those of you with raspberries, are yours already starting to wake up for the year? As a follow-up, whether with these raspberry plants or the replacements, what could I have been doing wrong? I planted them in raised beds filled with organic garden blend planting soil (compost and dirt).

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Comments (11)

barbe_wa
14 years ago
My everbearing (Heritage) raspberries are leafing out now. We're at 1100 feet elevation.
reg_pnw7
14 years ago
Mine are just leafing out. You don't say what zone you're in so I can't say if yours should be later than mine even with the elevation difference. I'm at about 100ft.
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cherylco
Original Author
14 years ago
I've never been able to drill down on a zone map to figure out exactly where I am, but I usually guess it as zone 7B. I'm at 900 feet in the foothills east of Seattle.

I think I might go get a couple more raspberry plants just in case. Here's my follow-up:

These guys didn't look healthy most of the summer last year, so obviously I was doing something wrong. As stated, I used vegetable garden planting mix in raised beds about 10" tall and supplemented with the Steve Solomon fertilizer mix. I irrigated for several hours with a drip hose every week. What could I have been missing? I assumed that these would be EASY!
barbe_wa
14 years ago
I don't see anything that you did wrong. Maybe they were simply unhealthy plants to start with. Can you return them to the nursery where you got them and get a refund or replacements?
botann
14 years ago
Mine got nipped by a frost a week ago and the deer nibbled a few nights ago, but they have some leaves left.
I'm at 750 ft. near Maple Valley, east of Renton.
hemnancy
14 years ago
One nursery recommends planting roots shallowly, only a few inches deep, as too deep will kill them. Most of my raspberries do fine but I've had some disease problems and one year all six new plants died, either from not enough water or disease. Latham has been very good for me in disease resistance. Mine are leafing out now.
cherylco
Original Author
14 years ago
Many thanks for the suggestions! I decided to dig up a few and saw basically no new shoots coming off the roots. I do believe that I planted them too deeply, as it looks like I planted the roots straight down rather than trenching them. I got them from Raintree, which, considering that last year it took them over eight weeks to get the plants to me, I don't think I want to deal with in trying to get replacements.

I called a half dozen nurseries and, this late in the season, I had to take what I could find, which was 'Willamette' bare-root. They already had some little offshoots coming off them and were starting to leaf out. I trenched them and then sprinkled some bloodmeal on top.

Anything else I should do for the replacements to make them feel at home, maybe some compost? Anything that I should 'undo'? Should I cut the cane back? When I surf the web, I see a variety of instructions, none consistently.

Many thanks!
sea_jen
14 years ago
Hm - I've had the same question bugging me. I bought bare root canes at Molbaks in early March and there's only one of them with the tiniest of buds so far. I suspect they weren't good to start with. The guy warned me they were a little dry, so brought them home and watered them immediately. I then soaked them in a bucket for an hour before getting them in the ground the next morning. And still, not much happening -two of the canes look totally dead. I did save the receipt, so maybe I should go back and bug them.
cherylco
Original Author
14 years ago
sea jen

I feel for you! It's especially hard as the time to get them in is NOW (or actually last month), so if they don't work out, it seems like you're out for the year.

As you can tell, I'm not the one to offer advice on this. I can tell you that, if you need to replace them, you won't have much luck at Molbak's right now. They're the first place I called yesterday, as I assumed that they'd have a better variety more suited to our climate than the 'big box' stores. They'd told me that they had a lot of bare-root raspberries left (no plants), but, when I got there (after a 45-minute drive), all they had left where a bunch of black raspberries and couple of gold. Nothing against those colors, but, for my first raspberry garden, I really want the more 'traditional' type.

Let me know what happens. I left my old canes in the ground 'just in case'.
briergardener_gw
14 years ago
Raintree? Usually their plants are healthy and they are good with replacement. Try to call them.
botann
14 years ago
Gold colored Raspberries are really good. I had some for years.
I'm trying to get rid of the normal ones now because they have spread into my ornamental garden and are becoming a nuisance. The deer are nibbling on them, so I don't expect much in the way of berries.