Why don't our rasperry canes grow? :(

[Storm]

Back in November I planted bare root raspberry canes (Glen Prosen and Polka) from a reputable supplier in a raised bed that had been enriched with manure/compost. I followed the planting instructions to the letter but the canes refuse to thrive. They were planted through holes in black weed supressing liner which has kept the beds weed-free and moist.

They vary between 15 - 20cm in height - the same heights that they went in as - none have grown a single centimetre or have born new canes. All the plants appear to be otherwise healthy with no signs of disease and all have got small healthy leaves from one or two buds that grew on the short canes. A few even flowered and have got the beginnings of fruit on them. They are in full sun and blackcurrents and strawberries growing nearby are rampant.

Other allotment holders' canes put in at the same time are far bigger and more vigourous.

Am I just being impatient? Will I have to wait until next year for my efforts bear fruit? - no pun intended!

Or are they lacking something vital? Water? Food? Our plot is very windy - are the canes "stunting" from the wind as wild bushes do on a mountainside?

Any ideas?

[Keith2202]

I thought that raspberries put up new canes from the roots, the old canes don't grow. Hence your "weed suppressing liner" will be suppressing the new canes??

Someone else will know better

[Storm]

I thought that raspberries put up new canes from the roots, the old canes don't grow. Hence your "weed suppressing liner" will be suppressing the new canes??

Someone else will know better

The holes are 10 - 15 cm in diameter which I would have thought was enough for new canes to poke up through. There don’t appear to be shoots “pushing up” at the liner in other areas of the bed either.

Perhaps I should try taking the liner off?

That said the black currents, gooseberries, jostas etc. are all grown in the same way and are thriving.

[gojiberry]

I had a job establishing a new raspberrry bed and had the same problem of no new canes in the first year of planting. however in the second year (this year) they have all put up strong healthy canes and next year will be a bumper year. But it has taken 2.5 year to get the bed well established.

Ian

[roitelet]

Take up the weed supressing it is probably stopping the new canes. They are not tidy and come up all over the place. You could replace the fabric with straw about a foot deep which I find works, as well as keeping the ground miost.

[jogette]

Last November I also planted raspberries (Glen Ample) bought from a reputable supplier. I emailed them when there was no new growth at the beginning of May. They said to wait a few weeks longer - I did and still there was no sign of growth. The Autumn Bliss that I also ordered from them and was planted at the same time was going great guns.
I emailed the company again about the Glen Ample canes and they immediately sent out a new batch which was planted out immediately and has been cossetted ever since. When I dug up the original canes, there was no sign of life at all
An email to your supplier explaining the problem and asking advice about when to expect growth might prove productive.

[jogette]

Another thought is that if the site has had a lot of wind, then perhaps the canes are drying out too quickly. I think that wind is worse than sun for dehydrating plants in exposed positions. Are you watering them enough?

[Alison Adams]

I put both glen prosen and polka in this spring from bare root canes. The glen prosen (summer) are in a row with a bark chip mulch and until about a month ago looked like a row of dead sticks. They are now sending up shoots, one or two from the old stick but most are new from the roots and the biggest is maybe a foot tall now. One only started to show this week - so it does take patience, but none at all yet sounds odd - I go with the 'take up the liner' theory for that, just to have a look see. Our polka are about 18" and have fruit buds on them, so we should get some berries this year - they seem more vigorous, ours are growing in clumps of 3 which I will stake together rather than train on wires. Would have expected them to show something by now. Ours are in rubbish soil, in good sun but with strong sidewinds - the poor conditions dont seem to bother them.
Good luck with yours, Im sure once they get going they will be fine.

[FB.]

I've also had poor establishment problems with raspberries.
From my experience, about half of all canes die. The remainder take a year or two to get going. Even though you can't see much happening above ground, they grow plenty of roots below ground, which will grow canes in future years.
Sometimes, I think it's a bit of a shock for plants to go from a nursery and into the big, wide world.
Most fruit trees/bushes/canes seem to have a lag phase of 1-3 years - presumably until they are happy with their roots and have acclimatised - then they really take off......

[Storm]

thanks for all the suggestions.

I will take the liner up and give it a try - maybe a bit more patience is needed too!!!

There are a couple of canes in another bed that have been in for 18 months now and they are still very small with just one or two canes up. they have not even reached 1m height (compared to the other fruit bushes such as jostas and black currants that are thriving). perhaps it is lack of water too. I will water and mulch as suggested. the compost heap is just ready for that now!

cheers,

[Two_Sheds]

One thing we know about raspberries is that they don't like having their roots disturbed ... so being transplanted is going to really make them sulk.

Saying that, I moved some earlier this year, and although they looked dead to begin with, they are now leafing up.

they won't produce any fruit until next year at least, though.

[Storm]

One thing we know about raspberries is that they don't like having their roots disturbed ... so being transplanted is going to really make them sulk.

Saying that, I moved some earlier this year, and although they looked dead to begin with, they are now leafing up.

they won't produce any fruit until next year at least, though.

Unless the high wind in their current exposed spot proves to be a factor, I think that I will leave the canes where they are. The replacement canes we got earlier this year (to replace ones that had died) seemed rather dry when I got them so I suspect that this has been in part responsible for the high mortality rate and poor showing of the survivors.

I will take up the liner as suggested and empty the well rotted contents of the compost heap onto the bed as a deep mulch and start watering thoroughly on days when we have no rain.

I was also reading that raspberries, in contrast to blackcurrants, prefer to be planted very shallowly - some even advocate the root base being 5 cm or so beneath the surface. I planted ours deeper than this - more like 10-12 cm deep but I don't know if this makes a significant difference!

At least we're getting buckets of strawberries right now and given how the gooseberries and plum trees are buckling under the weight, it's going to be a good fruit year at least!

[zazen999]

We put some in from T&M and they did nowt for ages; then suddenly half perked up and grew leaves and shoots [the autumn fruiting ones], then the rest suddenly went bonkers. Including throwing up suckers quite a distance from the original canes [they only went in during a very wet muddy day in winter].

Needless to say, what has happened again is that they were growing a good root system before growing above ground - often happens!!

We put our own home made compost in the trench when we planted them - they had been heeled in the old sweetcorn bed for about a month before moving into their final positions.

[Two_Sheds]

I planted ours ... 10-12 cm deep

Ah.
You may have rotted the cane if it's been planted deeper than it used to be

[Two_Sheds]

I will ... empty the well rotted contents of the compost heap onto the bed as a deep mulch and start watering thoroughly on days when we have no rain.

Don't water on top of a mulch.
The point of a mulch is to trap moisture under it ... so water thoroughly first, and then you don't need to bother again.