I thought these red bud-like things would open to blossoms, but they never have. If you peel back the red 'leaflets" there is a very small green berry inside. Now, do I just wait and things will progress?
This morning I called Willis Orchards. The lady who answered cut me off in the middle of my oration with "I'm sorry but there is nothing we can do about that." NOT A GOOD START, MAAM!" After I said a few more things, she connected me to Jay. He put me on hold twice before listening for a bit. Then his response was that I should contact my county agent because something was wrong with my soil. I told him the blackberries, boysenberries, yellow raspberries and blueberries had no problem with my soil when I realized I was talking to no one. Dead air. I called back and told the lady that Jay had hung up on me, she said "Just a minute". After a bit, Jay said hello and I said "Did you hang up on me?" and I was greeted with a second time of dead air. I called back a third time and the lady said they were having phone problems. Do tell! At least this time, Jay was more civil and we had a decent dialogue. It was obvious then that he wasn't the one to talk to as far as technical issues. So I emailed some pictures and he is going to have his horticulturist take a look.
Also, Canby raspberries are listed as "thornless", but these are covered with short, very sharp thorns. The lady told me "All raspberries have thorns!"
We'll see what comes of all this. If any readers have experience that relates, I would love to hear from you.
I grow Canby, and they definitely are a thornless cane. I've never seen a red bud like yours on mine at all.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, Canby is a one crop summer berry. You buy and plant one year old canes in the spring, which will give you a handful of berries that first year but begin putting out the suckers that will be your fruiting canes for the following year. In the fall, you will cut those original canes back to the ground, then chose about 6 strong new canes at each "hill" to grow for the next year's crop. All the other canes will be cut back to the ground.
From the time I planted my canes, including pruning information, all through my trial and error period, are on my blog at:
http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-31-2011-raspberry-patch.html
Here is a photo of the canes blossoming:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jJnfL00VJ28/UZBZHKCC5GI/AAAAAAAAOsE/nH7ZJaZ-rxg/s1600/2013-05-12+Blossoms+(01).jpg
It looks like I got it right the fall of 2010/spring 2011, as that was the year I got my largest volume of fruit. I should follow my own advice and check back through my archives! This year I didn't top off the canes and all the fruit growing clear up on the tips is small or unformed. It certainly wasn't a lack of pollination, as the bees were abundant this spring.
I found a better photo of how the blossoms should look....definitely not red!
Deletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ItZUD5em9A/UZBZHMFiYrI/AAAAAAAAOsI/qEL5nEzzxIs/s640/2013-05-12+Blossoms+(02).jpg
I see your picture. These never did flower at all; but today I noticed a few of the "buds" had opened into a small orangish red berry! I'll see what their horticulturist says, but I think I got some morphodite plants or something.
DeleteThe good news is....I picked about a half pint of blueberries today and 3 or 4 blackberries! Won't be long!
First of all, that Father's Day meal looks and sounds wonderful! And so pretty too. I think the women did fantastic. We just got through eating and I'm hungry just reading your menu.
ReplyDeleteAnnie's Kitchen Garden sounds like she is the one you needed to talk to about your raspberries. I bet you were about ready to slam a few phones yourself. Do you think they sold you the wrong variety in the first place?
Dewena, it was a great meal. And I had leftovers for lunch today!
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