What the heck is going on with these berries?

[skeeter9]

These are Heritage Raspberries and Black Satin Blackberries. We put 2 in last year and 2 in this year. They have started looking really ugly and all of the little berries on them have dried up and died. I searched the internet and studied pictures, but I can't seem to figure out what's going on here. The same thing happened last year - they seemed fine at the beginning of the season, then. . . Anybody have any ideas?

This is a raspberry - something is obviously snacking on the leaves and the baby berries are dead.

Raspberry - same issues

Raspberry - same issues

Blackberry - leaves are curling and baby berries are dead.

Raspberry - closer image -

Raspberry - another closeup

Blackberry - you can see the detail

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I had the same happen with some raspberries I bought. They were suppose to be yellow. They looked great and started growing, new shoots came up, but then the leaves started dying and the berries were like yours. On the other side of the yard are my red raspberries and they were fine. This year the so called yellow ones look better, but the berries are just little beads and they are red not yellow. The plants look healthy until the berries come on and then they look stressed, but they look better than last year. There are a lot of new shoots and way taller than last year, so I am not sure if I want to pull them or not. I can use the canes and leaves for the rabbits I guess and give them one more year. I hope somebody knows because I looked and looked and never could find the answer. I do not have the holes in the leaves like yours though.

 

[skeeter9]

It's just very frustrating isn't it, Gardens with Rabbits? I'm sure someone on here will have some answers or suggestions for us, though.

 

[catjac1975]

Have you had a drought? They look dried up. Berries take a few years to thrive especially blackberries. If they are not dry, I don't know. They do look like they have been eaten. Japanese beetles perhaps?

 

[bj taylor]

I don't know berries, but my first two thoughts were they were dried out at the roots or they have had a chemical burn

 

[journey11]

It looks like many of the lower leaves are curling too, even though they are still green. Perhaps heat/drought stress. Another possibility is cane borers. Check out these google images ...they look a lot like yours, with damage starting at the tips. Do you see any bulging, splitting, and scarring going on in the canes at ground level? I have had cane borers in my blackberry patch before. What I ended up doing was mowing them completely to the ground and letting them come back anew the next season and have been more diligent about spraying them and keeping the weeds out. Sorry for your bad luck...I know how disappointing that is to see them bloom and then lose your crop.

 

[897tgigvib]

I was reading along and looking at the photos, and had not yet scrolled down, but I was thinking they look like they have not had enough water, and not enough nutrients too.

I was leary of posting my thought though because i was not sure of something...

SOMETHING

Then I read the other's posts, and they basically mentioned what comes to lack of water.

The something is, that, it might be a disease of the roots, and I have read that berries have several root diseases that I sure hope mine never get.

Have you been watering them well and deep with good drainage? Bramble berries enjoy slightly acid soil to medium ph soil. They enjoy early season nutrients like Fish Emulsion.

Then those bug bite holes, they do look like those green (not) ladybug looking things have been there more than a little. The actual damage of the bugs does not look too bad, for a healthy plant, but on a stressed plant, ouch. I wonder if the bugs may be carriers of some disease.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/dg1152.html

Scroll down on this webpage to where it says phytopthera root rot...that's even a hard word to look at! the word description there, does it seem like it?

I googled

raspberry diseases

 

[skeeter9]

Journey, I haven't found any evidence of borers, but I will look again. Could have missed the signs.

Marshall, BJ, and Catjac, they shouldn't be lacking water as I deep water them every few days, which is when the first couple inches of ground are completely dry. We gave them each a good dose of general purpose organic fertilizer in the spring, but that's it. I don't think they are burned from that. I suppose it could be root rot, but I will have to do more inspecting to see if I can tell.

If we end up mowing them down, could we do it this time of year, or should we wait until fall?

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

When it happened to me last year I had read about the root rot and worried mine had been watered too much. My good patch of red ones are on higher ground and do not get watered as much. These are close to the garden and get watered a lot, but the blackberries do too and they are thriving. It could be mine are getting too much water, but just to let you know, mine had the dried out looking leaves too.

 

[skeeter9]

Hmmm.