Keep or ditch?

[RickF]

Hi all.. So.. My blackberries, which I've asked here about in the past, are up on the discussion list today. I'm wondering if my overhead watering (via mini drip sprinklers) is the cause of what you see in the pics below. The plants are dying except for those areas not touched by the water since it's < 18" high for the sprays. This is my guess.. I'm wondering if its yellow rust or something.. Anyway, Below are a few pics I took this AM -- even found some bugs of some sort. These plants are about a year to 1.5 years old now and I've not gotten but a single berry off them.. I'm tempted just to cut my losses and perhaps trim them down to next to nothing and move them into pots for the time being with drip irrigation and see how they do in that environment and perhaps plant a few more blueberries in the places they were living as I've already got a blue in the same planter and its doing well.

Here's the buggy one -- not sure what these "mites" are but they're different than any I've seen and I see none elsewhere. I trimmed off that leaf and chucked it.


here is some of the dead parts (at least leaf wise) of the canes..


here's some of the good stuff amid the not so good...


Here's kinda a wider shot showing the overall..

 

[thistlebloom]

It doesn't look like rust to me. Rust as I'm familiar with, makes more spotty raised orange or yellowish bumps that spread.

That first picture where the leaf margins are dead looks more like burning to me, which could be caused from excessive heat/drought.

The new green growth higher up could be the plant recovering and pushing out new growth. I see it's growing against a wall, I think you mentioned somewhere else that they are shaded?
If not the reflected heat from that brick could be a lot of what's going on.
How much water do they get in a week?

 

[RickF]

That first picture where the leaf margins are dead looks more like burning to me, which could be caused from excessive heat/drought.

I'm in the desert and it, at the peak, runs for about 3 months with helps in the mid to upper 90's and within that 3 month period about a month to 2 months its over 100F..

The new green growth higher up could be the plant recovering and pushing out new growth. I see it's growing against a wall, I think you mentioned somewhere else that they are shaded?
If not the reflected heat from that brick could be a lot of what's going on.
How much water do they get in a week?

The plants have a shade cloth protecting them but it just gets darned hot here. If these aren't going to do well I'd just assume throw in the towel and move on. I will state that for about 3 weeks now they're getting daily (early AM) watering via mini drip sprinklers every day. I primarily do that for the blueberry in the same planter cause I know it needs the water with its shallow roots and it's doing just fine. I just dislike the notion of keeping these plants for another year or two without more than a berry or two -- if this climate is just a bit too much for them unless they're more protected, etc. We also get a fair amount of wind which I suppose might not help.

thanks by the way!!!

 

[thistlebloom]

Yeah, I don't think you have the best climate for blackberries without doing a lot of hand holding and babysitting.

 

[RickF]

Thanks! With that note I might just proceed to dig them up and prepare for other plants.. Thanks much!!

 

[Nyboy]

How much space do you have ? If space is limited rip out, if you have plenty of space try moving to different spots. I planted 3 grape vines purchased at same time. I planted in different areas of garden 2 are doing poor 3 loaded with grapes.