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mcleester_gw

raspberries not growing

13 years ago

I planted raspberries in May (I'm in Maryland). The plants don't seem to have grown at all. Is this normal?

We have lots of wild blackberries around, so I figure the soil is suitable. I have been watering them about once a week once they were established.

The plants are only around 6-12 inches tall...which is not much bigger than when I bought them. Any help is appreciated.

Comments (7)

  • 13 years ago

    A close up photo would be more useful. Hard to diagnose at this distance.

  • 13 years ago

    Beeman -- Thanks for offering to take a look. Here's a close up picture.

  • 13 years ago

    What state and zone are you in? Your soil looks excellent. You have new growth on your canes. Sry didn't see Maryland at first. Your plants should be quite large by now with canes up to five feet long. Did you water the new plants enough? Doesn't look like it.

  • 13 years ago

    I think they'll be fine, they take a couple years to get established. Those green canes will be your fruiting canes next year, so you won't have much of crop next year but you should at least have a taste. Next summer (2014) they will put up new canes that will produce fruit in 2015... I would expect those canes to be normal size, now that they'll have spent a year settling in.

  • 13 years ago

    Thanks for the thoughts, Mrs. G. I wish that was my soil! It's a leaf compost I put on top as a fertilizer and weed block. I suspected that it was not enough water. But there is also occasionally damage from deer. I didn't know if that could be the cause. I'm kind of surprised because there are a lot of other natural brambles around. I would also thought the "natural" pruning should stimulate more growth, not totally stunt them.

  • 13 years ago

    I see a light green/yellow cast to the leaves, usually a sign of lack of nitrogen. Lack of water could give a slightly yellow leaf.
    Try a foliar feed with Epsom salts, two tablespoons per gallon, see if that improves them.
    If they green up, then you'll know they're short of nitrogen, blood meal will be the answer, or a 10-10-10 fertilizer.

  • 13 years ago

    I have had some be this slow, well one. It did finally catch.
    But it is poor performance. I planted 10 raspberry plants 5 months ago, and have hundreds of raspberries today.
    It looks dry. Make sure you are watering enough. You may want to try a different cultivar (variety). Or plant a few others to compare.
    They can be this slow, but they also can grow a foot a month.