Reuben blackberry....anyone had fruit?

[starloc]

I got them earlier in the year from ideal world at a guess it was about march , they came in pots, 3 of them, 3 for the price of 2, one is in the ground , 2 in large pots , all around them are the other blackberrrys and raspberrys, all of them have grown fine this year

apart from the reuben....

there suposed to fruit on this years canes so i got them to see if they would.......

shortly after planting they grew to about 18 inch tall....and thats it no growth since , one has a new cane just started growing this week, no flowers, no fruit they look healthy enough, just not growing

I remember other people got them at the time, has anyone elses reuben done anything?

I know they say a small amount of fruit first year but they havent exactly grown at all,never mind any fruit?...
Has anyone with the reuben got anything from them this year?

[WrexTheDragon]

I grew Adrienne and Waldo last year and got a small crop. This year The plants grew well and flowered. Lots of small fruit, but they did not mature despite all the wild blackberries doing very well.

I did water them quite a bit earlier on. I will wait and see how they do next year, if they don't produce lods of fruit I will rip them up.

Strawberries have also been a disappointment this year, I picked the last one in July, last year I was still picking them now.

[starloc]

My strawberries have been the same so maybe it is the weather, i had a few in July, that was it, loads of varieties some in pots, loads in the ground, maybe the equivalent of a punnet from the supermarket, last year i had loads of them

ill leave the Reuben over the winter and let them have next year to see if there better , but they dont seem very vigorous growers, last years Netto ones are much better and i could have got nearly 10 Netto canes for the price of one of the Reuben

the thing is the apples , plums ,raspberries and the other blackberries have been fine, peaches and nectarines were very large crop this year even though i had bad peach leaf curl on everything

i also lost all the fruit from all the blackcurrents, they didnt even flower, due to the frost damage to the buds and the birds eating the buds in the snow

[Sylvan]

Did they ever produce anything for you?

[Travellers]

I decided to try Reuben (contary to the advice against) it was a pot grown one, I planted it last autumn, it had one main stem about 1m tall which I cut back to about 6ins, it did start to produce some growth before Xmas but the 1st hard spring frost has burnt all the foliage. So I am now waiting to see if it has any life left in it.

[Sylvan]

Thanks Travellers. Sounds as though it wouldn't be a good idea for us then, since we've had frosts even in the 3rd week of June. :-/

[starloc]

The Reuben i planted are rubbish... an utter waste of space plant!, They dont grow well in the UK or in Bulgaria..... different soils, different weather and they just dont grow much or produce fruit.... never mind fruit on this years canes.....,if they had fruited ever on `this years canes` one fruit would have squashed the tiny thin canes

I have some still alive....they dont seem bothered anymore by the frost , they just dont grow much and dont ever flower and the floppy green shoots are about 3mm wide and 6 inch to 2 foot high every year...more and more of them, but never any bigger and never any flowers

All my other blackberries are better, best ones so far are Bedford giant and Himalaya giant

[Sylvan]

Oh good, I have a Bedford Giant. I'll look forward to this year with it then
Thanks.

[digon]

My two & half yo Reuben are rubbish too. They have never fruited and are less than a foot high.
This winter and last they put on most growth at xmas time and the leaves have just died off in the last few weeks the same as they did last year.

[divvy]

I have had Reuben's for 3 years now and not had one blackberry


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum

[Sylvan]

They sound truly terrible!

[beaufontboy]

Yes I have, must admit that I have not got anything to compare it to, but last yr was its first yr and it had a dozen or so, this year it is 4 ft tall and starting to bud, so fingers crossed :-) (they were pretty large too) have also got two loch ness this year

[divvy]

I just had my first 3 blackberries after 3 years of waiting . They were the size of wild blackberries but tasted lovely . Do I cut the fruited branch back now like raspberries or just leave it ?


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum