Josh Hinton

Doesn't seem to have a lot of power or accuracy. With the distance she is shooting, it seems a little over engineered with both the abundance of natural material around and that a basic curved pvc pipe and twine seems to put out much more power.

I made my kids some heat formed pvc recurve bows that punch through quarter in plywood. Might see if I can engineer something of a cross between a recurve and a compound bow out of all the irrigation pipe I pulled out of the lawn.

The second and last pictures look like there might be a potassium shortage, with the dark veins and yellowing around them.

I may be heat and sun as you suggested. I didn't opt for polana because I didn't think they would hold up in the Colorado heat.

As for netting, I have a couple of plants that need shade and their companions haven't grown quickly enough to provide it. I made the posts out of 2x2s and tacked cheese cloth over them.

I have my zone 6 asparagus planted in a long row, with rhubarb on one side and strawberries on the other as ground cover. Basil is interplanted, with horseradish and ginger on either end of the row. An about 10 foot pollarded mulberry is off to one side with a grape trailing through it, giving it some protection during the hottest hours of the day.

I've had a similar issue with my summer bearing raspberries from Nourse. Mine were planted on a new hugelkultur berm that was made from cleared brush and subsoil from digging a pond. They started off great, got a few feet high, and did the exact same thing as yours.

I talked to the owner of Nourse farms (I sent an email to them asking for guidance and was pleasantly surprised when he called me) and the issue with mine seems to be lack of organically available nutrients they needed to establish themselves fully. They basically expended what was stored in the bare roots and burned themselves out. Once they were in a weekend state they started to be attacked. Rather than compost, nourse recommended trenching the sides and generously applying fertilizer. I did this and managed to save about half of them.

I don't think over watering is an issue. I have another set growing on a year old hugel that is directly bordering an irrigation ditch, and the soil is continually damp. Those are producing like crazy, though I'm snipping off the berries when they form to let the plants get well established.