I sort of went "all in" on a blackberry planting. I planted a bunch of plants from 72 count trays 15 days ago. I've done a ton of studying but I don't really know what I don't know about blackberries specifically and farming in general. These plants are irrigated and we had a very heavy rain (3+ inches in a hard storm) just yesterday. I watered them daily for the first week then started doing every other day. About 24 hours before the storm we sprayed with aluminum tris (Aliette) because I saw what looked like fungus on some of the leaves.
I'm a little freaked out because I had what looked like fungus on some plants and the bottom leaves don't look all that great, though I assume they just weren't getting much light when in their 72 count trays. I'm also worried about what looks like curling leaves towards the top. I walked the field today after the big rain yesterday and saw this curling. That just has me worried that something is about to be "really wrong".
Am I unnecessarily worried? Do you see any problem here? Note that these came from a really reputable nursery as tissue cultured plants.
First pic is from today. Second pic is from 3 days ago, before we applied the fungicide and before the big storm. Note that it's a different plant shown.
That first picture is pretty emblematic of what plants are looking like today... the curling at the top.
Other notes: Plants have been irrigated as described above. No fertigation has been done yet. Soil samples were taken before planting and we had a pH of about 5.8 and added about 100 pounds of nitrogen/acre. (P and K looked good, as did the micros). White on black mulch was laid with fumigate injected under plastic 21 days before planting.
I never planted blackberries so it's hard to be sure but those look OK to me after being recently transplanted. They are rowdy in the wild & don't need additional water or care of any sort. Since the plants are from a reputable nursery I wouldn't sorry about them too much. I think give them a chance to get established. They seem to prefer living in disturbed soil on the edge of the woods. Hopefully the permie fruit experts will have better info.
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