Raspberry canes...

[Common_Clay]

Hi,
  I hope someone can enlighten me with this...  ;)

  I put 20 or so raspberry canes in the ground some time ago (first year though) and while some of them have leaves and are flowering the canes remain only a foot or so tall. We went to great lengths to put up the 'proper' sort of structure of wooden supports with wire at small intervals, ready and waiting for them to get bigger.
  Someone said that they're small because it's the first year, but I thought that they'd get to 6ft or so quite quickly? I'm growing different varieties, summer, autumn, etc, and hear that autumn raspberries need cutting back to the ground each year... if that's the case, how do they ever get the chance to grow? I'm very confused about this.  ::)

  Also, just to add insult to injury, many of the leaves are now turning yellowish and looking in need of something... just don't know what?

  Thanks a lot in advance.  :)

[Common_Clay]

[Jill]

I've never had a raspberry can go much above 4ft, CC so 6 ft sounds rather ambitious.  Mind you, I know next to nothing about them other than how delicious they are, so feel free to ignore me ;)  Sorry, can't help on the yellowing leaves.

[Mrs Ava]

Trying to recall when I first planted mine.  I don't think they grew to their full potential in their first year, but I reassured myself that they were putting on great root growth, and sure enough, last year, bucket fulls of lovely huge raspberries!

I have been googling raspberry problems and it is hard to pin anything down, tis a battlezone out there.  Maybe they are just lacking water?  They are edge of woodland plants so thrive in dappled shade which is cool...could they be hot and dry?

[Curryandchips]

Summer vs Autumn raspberries have been discussed elsewhere, but I am too lazy to look, so will try and repeat the basics here.

Summer fruiting raspberries grow on stems grown the previous year. After fruiting, cut the fruiting stems down, in Autumn. Meanwhile, new shoots will appear, which will yield fruit for next year.

Autumn fruiting raspberries grow canes and yield fruit off them all in the same year. They should be cut about February, then new shoots will appear in the spring.

I can't comment on the yellow leaves, but hopefully someone who is really knowledgeable about raspberries will post, and perhaps even correct errors I have made ...

[Common_Clay]

Ok, thanks for the help everyone. I think you're right Jill, I've looked at them and wondered how they're going to get that big, but so far in all the books I've read it says to use 6ft supports with wire in intervals of three...  ??? Maybe next year...  ;D

[MikeB]

Summer variety, next years canes are growing now and the best six canes from each plant will be cut back to 6' in February '07. The weaker/poorer canes on the plant will be cut back to ground level, some years you only get say 4 canes on a plant, so unless it is really terrible keep them all.



Autumn variety, all the canes were cut back in February of this year to roughly ground level, this is this years growth and as you can see there are no flowers yet, hence no fruit.  The flowers/fruit will be along later in time for autumn. All these canes will be cut back in Feb '07

[jennym]

Yes as Mike B shows, some varieties do tend to be taller, amd these also tend to be the summer types.

[Curryandchips]

Something I only learned yesterday from a lady gardener close to my plot, and that is that Autumn raspberries can be used to harvest an additional summer crop the following year, but not cutting the canes down. The concensus formed though was that two crops of one plant might represent overloading (and weakening) of the roots.

[tecker]

hi its not ambitiouse to think they will grow to six feet my sister has rassas growing in her yard and they grow to about 7 foot plus dont know variety they were there when she moved in they are starting to fruit know they realy are incredible the amount of fruit she gets is unbelievable and she doesnt realy do anything to them just cuts down fruited canes i got some of her last year late on they have come through but i dont know wether to cut them down or not they are about 1-2foot think i will cut them back actualy cheers

[MikeB]

It is not clear in the picture, so sorry for that, but my summer canes were cut in Feb at 6' and the Autumn cnes will be pinched out when they have reach 6' later in the year.

[RobC]

Common Clay

I have had the identical problem.  I spend ages putting up supports, dug some strong canes from a relatives garden, loaded plenty of manure, planted in autumn, cut back all canes to approx 12 inches sat back and waited.

Of the 25 canes planted (all summer variety) approx 20 dig nothing, 5 sprouted small growth (2 or 3 inches) of which 2 or 3 have survived but turned yellow.

I have asked on this board and amongst friends and relatives what I did wrong.

The only sensible things I have to say is

It might be the ph of the soil, I had some overhanging leylandi cut down 3 months before I planted.  Someone told be thay managed to kill perfectly good raspberries by pouring tea leaves on them.
I haven't watered enough (some one told me that raspberries like their feet in the water and their heads in the sun) However, I had failures in spring before the dry weather.
That raspberries are hard to start, and that every year I need to plant more and gradually I'll have a full compliment.

[MikeB]

That raspberries are hard to start,

Not in my experiance, you can cut a raspberry cane at a leaf bud joint, put the off cut straight into the ground, heh presto new plant.  Cut it back the following year to let it develop a good root system, after that treat it normally.  You can get as many as 6 - 10 cuttings from one cane. Choose a good healthy one if possible.

[jennym]

Common Clay
..  I ... planted in autumn, cut back all canes to approx 12 inches ...
Of the 25 canes planted (all summer variety) approx 20 dig nothing, 5 sprouted small growth (2 or 3 inches) of which 2 or 3 have survived but turned yellow....

I wouldn't have cut the canes back if they were a summer variety, they need the canes that are produced in the first year to produce fruit on in the second year.
Yellow leaves could need a dose of epsom salts. They don't like huge amounts of potash. They do like good amounts of nitrogen.
They are shallow rooted, was the manure well rotted? if it was fresh it may have damaged the roots.
Mine seem to do better in areas where they are sheltered by other taller plants - not next to them but, for example I have an area with some fruit trees and the row of raspberries behind them (in their shade at midday) do better than a row that I have which is out on its own. The soil in both areas is reasonably moist although not wet.
Have also found them relatively easy to propagate, and in very soft, rich soil they actually once over-ran the bed! Hope this helps.

[Common_Clay]

Wow, haven't checked back until now so thanks a lot for all the replies. Think I'm going to take a PH test of the ground and also add nitrogen, see if that helps at all in the short term, hopefully the leaves will perk up a bit.

Really appreciated the pics too, Mike B, thanks for going to the trouble... with a bit of luck they'll sort themselves out in time. 

RobC, sounds identical, you're right... at least I'm not alone!

Thanks again.  :)