Help - Berry Bushes?

[ShellieESterling]

I know a picture says a thousand words, but I don't have my camera handy at the moment. I got a berry bush in a swap and it arrived bare rooted, without leaves and the tops are black and curled over...

Is it even save-able? Or should I just chalk it up as a loss?

 

[ShellieESterling]

Anyone?

 

[patandchickens]

Chances are it is probably a goner. However:

Do the roots seem dried out and dying, or were they packed in damp newspaper or moss or whatever and still have a reasonable amount of good-looking parts?

Also, how far down the branch (towards the base of the plant) do you have to go before you hit live tissue? (You can find out by starting near the tip - try to snap the branch between your fingers. If it snaps easily in a dead-twig way, it was dead there. If it snaps to reveal green cambium under the bark, it was alive in that part. If it just wants to bend not snap, scratch a small longitudinal line in the bark with your fingernail or a knife or whatever and see if you see living green under there (between the bark and the whitish woody part). So either prune it back into living tissue (iteratively, as a means of determining the extent of Life), or just identify it with your hands and eyes and mentally model what the cut-down version would look like.

THen ask yourself, does that seem likely to have much hope of survival (at least, in comparison to how much I would/wouldn't like to go to the trouble of potting the thing up in nice potting soil and putting in in a shady cool protected location and coddling it along to see what happens).

Oh, and you can look for any (*any*) signs of new growth along the lower parts of the stems (tiny buds freshly swelling?) or at soil level amongst the branches (tiny new shoots starting to head upwards?)

From what you describe, I would not hold my breath, and even if the thing lives it may take several years before it can really *start* growing properly, but if you have time space and energy I suppose it can't hurt to TRY, on the principle that free is free

Good luck,

Pat

 

[robbobbin]

Excellent info Pat. I just LOVE how you always take the time to really spell it out. I learn lots from you-just wanted to say.

 

[ShellieESterling]

Thanks Pat. I figured they were dead. I can't believe I wasted $10 shipping for these Live and learn.

 

[patandchickens]

Thanks Pat. I figured they were dead. I can't believe I wasted $10 shipping for these Live and learn.

You might take it up with the sender. Pretty dumb thing to send, except in a time of year when the bushes are naturally leafless and dormant anyhow

Pat

 

[ShellieESterling]

Thanks Pat. I figured they were dead. I can't believe I wasted $10 shipping for these Live and learn.

You might take it up with the sender. Pretty dumb thing to send, except in a time of year when the bushes are naturally leafless and dormant anyhow

Pat

I'd rather not. I'll just chalk it up as a loss. No point in arguing shipping. I'll just go jack some of my father's bushes. They're massive.