Black raspberries tiny berries, low yield

A couple of years ago, I purchased a southern type raspberry (Darrow by name I believe). The canes have been very vigorous, however, there wasn't much flowering (now the 3rd year) and what flowers there were, only a few achenes set...so there's only a tiny berry.
Ideas? The only one I came up with is there is no cross-pollination...all are the same plant (vegetatively).

I know with some things too much nitrogen can bring about lots of greenery but little fruit. (peppers and tomatoes in particular) I don't know if this could be the case with raspberries or not.

I have some red raspberries and they came up so thickly this year (second year I am growing them) that I am concerned I didn't thin them enough. They are fall bearing so I should know in a few months if my suspicions are right. When they were small they didn't look as thick as they do now. My bed is about 3-3 1/2' wide and thick as it can be. If the yield isn't what I think it should be I think I will half the width next year.

I have not fertlized these in any fashion. Foliage and new growth is lush though (raspberries tend to be fuller than blackberries in my previous experience).

My black raspberries have finally produced some fruits in their third year, but the fruits are small. Last year was the first year I got a few fruits from the red raspberries (same age), and this year the reds are much larger. I'm thinking the size and quantity of the fruit may simply be a matter of age. I'm hoping for a nice crop next year!

My BB are kind of small too! Planted in 03; canes are abundant; there were many flowers; they continue to proliferate. I thought they would also continue to grow, then swell; not a big difference in size yet. Later, Suzi :)

not enough sun will also stop or at least reduce a plant's flowering. My first blackberries had very few flowers although once it got established it was throwing up canes and started to run. It only got a peak at very early sun and another shot late in the afternoon. I eventually got rid of them just because they were such a vicious grabby bush.

The thornless blackberries in a different location are starting to take off.
I've got 3 kinds of raspberries. The gold ones are in a different location that doesn't get as much sun and don't fruit quite as heavily as the red and purple ones.

Oh, mine get *plenty* of sun -- all day long! I think it's just a matter of giving it another year or two for the canes to get established, especially as their first year was rough (I think it was the wettest year on record here).

I read some advice from Nourse Farms about black raspberries that might be helpful to you. It was in the planting guide I received when I ordered red raspberries. It doesn't say it's copyrighted so I hope it's okay to copy it here.

"Black raspberries and purple raspberries break buds from their crown region in the hill and send out few, if any, suckers. Prune plants to 4-6 canes per hill. Both of these types of raspberry plants respond well to a process called tipping, whereby the 1-year-old canes are pinched back as they reach a height of 5-6 ft. This practice encourages fruiting lateral branches to break from the main cane and keeps the plant height in check. Laterals, in turn, can also be headed back in the spring to 10-15 inches. Pinching back laterals prunes away winter damaged buds and can help increase berry size."

All of the blueberry, raspberry, and asparagus plants I bought from them are fantastic. They have been great to help me over the phone because I am a novice at growing these plants.

Thanks Looney Linda for your comments about Norse. I have their catalog; have been thinking about ordering from them... Can never start looking for next yrs stuff too early! Actually, they didn't make the cut for this year's spending, although I might have been better off ordering from them instead! ~ Suzi :)

I continue to try to grow some black raspberries but I never grow a very good crop. What few I had this year were small but tasty. Some people have better luck growing black raspberries but not me. I've had great luck in the past with red raspberries but over time the patch died out from disease or something. I think having disease free plants are a must for berries.I have had great success with my blackberries though and they've been easier for me to grow. Gardening and problems in the garden sometimes go hand in hand I guess!

I don't know if you all know that you are supposed to keep Black Raspberries plants at least 50 feet away from the Red Raspberry plants. I understand that if you have only a small area to grow them in that might not be possible. Still I think it would be best if one could grow them as far apart as possible.

When I am pruning the berry plants I thin out the new growing canes to at least 8 inches apart. I had lovely large blackcaps this year, and the robins loved them!!!!!!!!!! I may have to put bird netting over them next year. DonnaS

Unfortunately, I had not heard that until after I ordered & planted the "Family Berry Patch" from Miller, which is half black and half red raspberries! Hopefully both kinds of plants will continue to be disease free, so their proximity to one another won't be an issue.

I'm getting lots of new growth on all my canes, so the bed is looking good. We're hoping for a "real" crop next year!

I planted one blackrasberry plant last year and it has two canes right now about 1' long and running along my fence. Our climate is very hot and dry during the summer but right now the nights are still 18/20 degrees. The area where the rasberry is has somewhat sandy soil and full sun most of the day. Do I need more plants for pollination. I have a vegetable garden next to it in the summer but nothing else growing around it.

I don't think the raspberries need pollinators, they are self polinating. they need the best soil you can provide, I spread my homemade compost and also store steer manure over them early in the spring. I am also using Planters 2 and an organic type fertilizer that is available locally 9-3-4-

Goodluck to all with your berries. DonnaS

Lots of good compost and rich soil will help hold in the moisture in the soil and help the berries do well. Try not to plant raspberries and blackberries near each other. A little balanced fertilizer might be helpful if used very sparingly on some soils but don't get carried away with it. The best thing is to get a simple soil test and see where you need to go with your soil.

cuckoo

Donna,
You are right about the robins loving raspberries. Overall I have had very little bird trouble, but when they do pick berries, they are like a small child picking...they pick them one day before they are truly ripe and you can't get any.

My red and black rasberries are both producing pretty well this year! I've been picking a handful or two every couple of days... YUMMY!

The leaves aren't as green as I'd like, however... they've gone a bit yellowish. Is there any reason I can't fertilize them with the same stuff I got to put down around my fruit trees? (I think it's called Tree Tone, by the same folks that make Holly Tone but without the soil acidifying stuff.) If that doesn't work, I might try some ironite, as we have soil that is more toward the alkaline end at 6.6-6.9 pH. (Yes, I know neutral pH is 7.0, but my acid loving plants seem to consider my soil unacceptably alkaline without regular doses of ironite.)

On another thread, Mobi just told me that Ironite has a bad reputation for containing lead. You can look at it on the thread I started about trying to grow blueberries in Utah.

Sheesh, well, no Ironite for my berries then, for sure! Thanks for LMK. My hollies & rhodis are far away from any plants that we eat... whew.

My blackberries with vanilla ice cream is shore good. The only fruit better is good and cold watermelon.

For 3 years, we have been using lots and lots of compost from the water treatment plant for our thornless blackberries. We only put 6 plants in this bed at the end of a workshop bldg and should have only used 4 plants. We drove 3 fruit tree spikes around each plant about 8 to 10 inches from the cane. This crop was planted in the spring of 2005 and we are now picking about a 1 lb. strawberry container full every day. The small plants are now coming up so thick we are discarding them. I'll post a picture of the bed and then do another post of a picture of some of the berries we picked this weekend. it is amazing to see the size of the berries. I put a penny, a quarter and a dime on the page for comparison. They have to have a LOT of water and are planted on a small hillside.
Louise

Here is the picture of the berries. They are very sweet also.
Louise
I'll also post one more picture of a cluster of berries.

The last one - that is my daughter's hand in the picture-
Louise

Wow! Those are gorgeous and delicious looking blackberries. I bought 3 plants in February and have each growing in a 7 gal. pot. They have been growing like crazy...but all leaves. I think I've had 2 berries so far. What am I doing wrong?

Our plants were 2-3ft. tall when we planted them in the spring of 2005. There were no blooms or berries last year. They just really grew. This year, they are producing very well.

The canes for next year crop are already everywhere. Some are
12 ft. tall and should be cut back now so they can branch out for next year. The bldg. behind them is 10ft. at the eaves and14ft. at the ridge. It is going to be a challenge to cut out all of this year canes after all the berries are gone. There is a tall post at either end of the row with three strong wires connecting them. We spent all of one morning just tying the canes up to the wires with panty hose. If we hadn't, there would have been no way to get to the berries.

Louise

I stuck tomato cages around mine and cut them off couple feet from the top so they could make lateral branches for the blackberries to fruit on. Planted in 04, lots of blackberries in 05 and there are tons this year. Only 1 ripe one so far... Tasted pretty good!!!

I thought we were talking about black raspberries, not blackberries here. I too have had a similar problem to the original post (black raspberries with little or tiny fruit). I ended up digging them out last week. I grow black raspberries at two sites separated by several miles. Each site has a different variety. One site is growing Bristol, which does not have a problem. The other was Cumberland, which never produced and has benn removed.

Sorry I got the black raspberries and the blackberries mixed up. Are they very different in soil requirements and growing habits?