Raspberries not producing (much)

Can anyone suggest what I am doing wrong. I have a raspberry patch, it's been in place for the last 3 years and the plants do well as in they grow full and tall, but their production is terrible. I am 90% sure I have a summer fruiting variety as I cut them back earlier this year and the new growth has produced fruit. The plants are quite densely packed (about 30 to 40cm between each one) so maybe they're focusing on growing upwards to out compete each other which means they put less energy into fruiting?

Any assistance would be much appreciated, if I can't work it out by the end of the next year they're gonna get the chop.

In another thread you said you were in highlands of Peru and that you had quite a dry climate, is this where your raspberries are? Raspberries generally like a fairly cool damp root run, so it maybe this that is the problem, especially if they are a bit overcrowded.
Alternatively, you confuse me by your pruning technique. In the UK at least, summer fruiting raspberries fruit on last year's canes, so we are told to prune out the two year old canes to prevent overcrowding. Autumn fruiting raspberries are less common, and fruit on this year's new canes later in the season. If you are cutting out last year's canes then it may be you are cutting out the main fruiting canes of a summer fruiting variety and just getting a fortuitous crop from this year's new canes. I hope this makes sense?

On a side note. I don't prune my raspberries, summer or autumn varieties. Autumn varieties fruit too late to ripen here and I find that leaving the old canes gives some shelter over winter from our winds. I do snap off the old canes in the early summer - they are dead by then so easily snap. I just put them on the ground together with the nettles that tend to grow with my raspberries. This makes 'paths' for me to access the berries without getting stung too badly.

I get about a bit 😀 I am currently in the UK, sunny and dry colchester. I have a small patch of land in the Highlands of Peru that is currently on hiatus other than asking family out there to tend to it.

My pruning may have been the issue then, this year I will prune half and leave half and see which does better. My raspberries are sat in full sun and although the soil holds water fairly well and it's been a pretty wet year, maybe a different location and more watering would suit them better.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Hi Matthew,
The spacing sounds fine. If google converted cm to inches properly, then they are about a foot apart... which is just fine for raspberries.

As Nancy mentioned, they do prefer a cool climate, and they have very shallow roots, so they need a lot of water and/or mulch to grow well. However, since you say the plants look good, but there is not much fruit, then it is probably not water.

Do you see a lot of fruit start and then never form a berry or dry up after starting a berry? If so, it might be a disease of some kind. I had something similar with blackberries, turned out to be a virus affecting them.

If you see tons of leaves and not much for flowers, I might wonder if you have too much nitrogen in that spot. Excessive nitrogen can make the plants grow big and green, but can limit fruiting. Have you fertilized them at all? Could you do a soil test?

The fertility could be another issue then, the location where they're planted had been a pond which I filled with lots of compost, both homemade and store bought.

Pruning or not pruning depends on your goals, and land area available. The purpose of pruning is to make the plants produce the maximum possible in the smallest space possible.

If land area is not a big concern, just leave them alone. Raspberries are incredibly vigorous plants if in anything like their preferred habitat, and they adapt easily to a broad range of soils and climates. Leave them alone and they will produce good yields most years without effort on your part.

My guess is your low production is simply due to young age of your plants, exacerbated by excessive pruning. Give them a few years to grow and spread out and you'll have more berries than you want.

Perhaps it's the year too because this year, my Royal purple Raspberries didn't do much in spite of being as pampered as usual.
After a super mild winter [a brown Christmas ! In Central Wisconsin!] it did rain a lot and the heat has been terrible. I'm in Zone 4B Wisconsin, allegedly a zone 5 now.

I'm in southern Ontario and I used to have a place in the Laurentians Quebec, so that's hardiness zones 4a and 5a. In these cool environments, raspberries flourish in countryside roadside ditches in full sun, wild with no spacing, just a gorgeous mess full of bees. 4a does better than 5a, just to give you a sense.

My thought too: maybe this year is a bad year for (summer) raspberries. I have my raspberry-patch for about 10 years and they never had as little fruits as this year!

I read a comment here that pruning is not really needed. I think I'll exoeriment with that. Until now I pruned away old branches every time after harvesting the raspberries.

I think potassium generally encourages flowering and fruiting.  Ashes are high in potassium, but I am not sure how bioavailable it is, and it may be too easy to overdo.  Bananas are high potassium food, possibly so are the peels.  Maybe banana peels and other potassium rich foods would be helpful.

Hello, hooray, it’s raining and thunder is thundering and there is a sheet of whiteness in front of me.
It’s like a blank cinema screen with additional rain percussion.

Before the rain, I was harvesting scrofulous and agrimony. They deserve a mention because their names are simply wonderful.

The recalcitrant raspberries have already featured on permies.
They travel, they grow where theoretically they should not and can’t.
I have just picked a very reasonable amount of fruit from the canes that have installed themselves right next to a walnut tree which isn’t supposed to like company!?!
The raspberries have a carpet of wild strawberries which I picked a while ago.

What should one do with whatever?
Sometimes the answer is ‘not a lot’.
Most parts of the land under my stewardship get loving visits with comments like’well that’s interesting’.
There are moments of frenetic activity when someone’s wise words inspire action.

This year’s mad rains in spring, followed by heatwaves means that little housekeeping was possible.
Usually, I thin out the dried canes, shred them and put the shred back on the canes.
No watering, just compliments as I walk past. Not this year apart from the compliments.
The canes are surrounded by very tall grass.  
There appears to be no competition, everyone is doing nicely and the raspberry harvest will continue, more buds and flowers.

I wish us all well. I will enjoy the coolness with apricots and raspberries this evening.

Wow, Marie-Helene, your garden sounds wonderful, and your love for its processes as well!

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:My thought too: maybe this year is a bad year for (summer) raspberries. I have my raspberry-patch for about 10 years and they never had as little fruits as this year!

I read a comment here that pruning is not really needed. I think I'll exoeriment with that. Until now I pruned away old branches every time after harvesting the raspberries.

When it comes to various kinds of brambles, you have to remove all dead wood, just for your own sanity [and avoid scratches]. You were correct to remove the dead wood: Those for sure are not going to fruit.
My canes are biennial, so they grow one year,[but do not fruit], fruit the second, and will not fruit the third and any subsequent years. (Many dead canes might shade the fruit excessively too).
Perhaps I was a bit shy with the potassium, but we've had a very rainy spring/summer, so that might be it as well.
I'm going to make some ashes from some very clean, natural mulch. [I also need to help my chooks remain lice-free, and they need ashes in their dust bowl too, so I'll kill 2 birds with one stone!]

I've been trying to get consistant fruiting out of my Fall Gold Raspberry run (15' long)  for several years.  They generally throw a sparse crop in Summer then their main crop well into Autumn.  Summer last year, everything changed with a heavy infestation of Japanese Beetles.  It wasn't until after they'd descended on my 50' long privacy wall of Virginia Creeper that they set about skeletonizing half of my three stands of (beloved) Woodsii Roses.  THEN they lit upon all the Rasp buds with a vengence.  I'd assumed weeks earlier that the dead leaves at the bottom foot of the Rasp run had resulted from a dry spell.  Wrong.  It was the Evil Baby JB's emerging - hungry - from having over-wintered beneath the run.  I've since learned that JBs 1) apparently love the Rubus/Rosaceae plant family 2) are no-doubt here in Colorado for keeps and 3) are on the move across our Nation to decimate the crops of those who make a living growing said species. That said, I feel like a whiner.  I mean, my suburb lot is only a fifth-acre and although I squeeze as much food crop out of it as I possibly can, my investment is nothing compared to Permies who strive for self-sufficiency on large-scale terms.  You know who you are.  I am sorry for the traumatic changes required of you.

I don't get to sit and chat with anyone very often so this has been a treat today.  In fact, just sharing this ordeal with the raspberries has helped me make a decision I'd been putting off: That Rasp run has amounted to little more than a chronic pain in the ass.  Holding fast to the fantasy of a lovely Raspberry crop in this miserable climate (High Plains - East of Denver) has brought no joy. Rubus appetites or not, the JB's have never touched my Blackberry runs, the Crandall Current run,  my Goumi tree trio, the Mount Royal Plum, the newly planted Jujube, the Carmine Jewell Cherry tree trio, the dozen High Bush Blueberries nor the trellised Rambling Roses from which I harvest hips.  And while they chow down on the Woodsii leaves, those hips, too, remain untouched.  Moreover, the JBs leave all of my vegetables alone so my food grow is wholy in intact.  So, I am going to say goodbye to my Fall Golds by digging them out and investigating what I might plant in their stead... with a nod to Blazing Saddles: We don't need no stinkin' raspberries!  

The very best to you all from Cherrie' in Colorado (Not The Armpit of Colorado but close enough to it to be maybe The Arm Dangle of Colorado)

Hmm...this sounds a bit like our urban raspberry patch.  They are a type that fruits on new wood, so I have cut them down every year...it isn't the greatest for sun exposure (mature neighbourhood, so there is some shade), but the plants are happy (and will happily pop up in the nearby lawn after sending roots under an 18" sidewalk).  We don't usually get much more than a taste.

Interestingly, at the behest of She Who Must Be Obeyed, some of the volunteers from the lawn and thinning efforts have made their way to our acreage, about 60 km SW of us (37 miles or so).  The location they are in there gets full sun and some of the plants have survived, but haven't grown very tall.  I seem to recall a few having fruited, but can't say with certainty.

Any talk of raspberries takes me back 45-50 years to the patch a great-aunt had.  It seemed to me to be quite massive, but things do seem bigger as a child.  It was large enough though as she always made a lot of jam and we would go for a few pickings during the summer.  She always had me take a small pail to a neighbour down the street...she only spoke French and I didn't have much, but I always received a coin for walking over.  I don't recall if my sister ever did that once I stopped being the youngest...then again, Aunty Alice did move while I was still in school so my sister may never have had the opportunity.  Time to come back from this reverie on Memory Lane....

Wonderful choice on Carmine Jewel Cherrie'.  I believe it was the first of what became known as the Romance Series cherries developed at my alma mater, the University of Saskatchewan.  One year we got over 50 c. of pitted cherries from our one in the urban yard.  Since then, we planted 6 more at the acreage and 10 Crimson Passion.  They make fabulous tarts and vodka liqueur.

Just a few suggestions  1.  test your soil    2.   give them lots of water    3.  sounds like they are crowded (there for 3 years)  so you may want to remove a few   (I only grow everbearing as they are so much easier to take care of)

Good Growing

Mary Jean Kersey wrote:Just a few suggestions  1.  test your soil    2.   give them lots of water    3.  sounds like they are crowded (there for 3 years)  so you may want to remove a few   (I only grow everbearing as they are so much easier to take care of)
Good Growing

Welcome to Permies, Mary Jean! All good ideas. I don't have any experience with everbearing. How do they differ in their care from conventional summer berries or fall berries?

Cherrie' Singer wrote:I've been trying to get consistant fruiting out of my Fall Gold Raspberry run (15' long)  for several years.  They generally throw a sparse crop in Summer then their main crop well into Autumn.  Summer last year, everything changed with a heavy infestation of Japanese Beetles.  It wasn't until after they'd descended on my 50' long privacy wall of Virginia Creeper that they set about skeletonizing half of my three stands of (beloved) Woodsii Roses.  THEN they lit upon all the Rasp buds with a vengence.  I'd assumed weeks earlier that the dead leaves at the bottom foot of the Rasp run had resulted from a dry spell.  Wrong.  It was the Evil Baby JB's emerging - hungry - from having over-wintered beneath the run.  I've since learned that JBs 1) apparently love the Rubus/Rosaceae plant family 2) are no-doubt here in Colorado for keeps and 3) are on the move across our Nation to decimate the crops of those who make a living growing said species. That said, I feel like a whiner.  '

Interesting. I'm in North Carolina, and Fall Golds do fantastic. Their summer crop is so prolific it makes me want to call them a different name! One of my favorite berry varieties of all time, I love how sweet they are.

As long as they have plenty of sun (like all raspberries like), they need next to no care and are very prolific in our region.  We're very wet here, 60 in a year. So that's different.

And I do notice that the raspberries can't handle drying out-- I have some (all different varieties) in large pots, and they went a few weeks without rain/watering this summer and they dropped their fruit from drought stress Although my neighbor didn't water hers, which were well established and in the ground, in this time period and they were fine.

The main thing for raspberries in my mind: lots of sun, and a few years to get established.

This week my Autumn fruiting raspberries have started giving their first fruits. Both the red and the yellow (golden) ones. It looks like they are doing better than my Summer raspberries this year.
But the difference might be in where they grow: the Autumn raspberries are on the allotment garden, while the Summer raspberries are in my front yard. The soil here aournd the house is mostly sand, while at the allotments it's more like black soil (more organic matter probably).

Hmm... I'm little off the topic but  for the first time ever, I do not have even one flower on my blackberry bushes. Just green bushes. So, maybe it's just a "weird thing" this season.
I haven't changed or done anything different at all.
Maybe I jinxed it because I bought a big jug with a plan in trying to make wine since last year I had such an abundance of huge fruits,  I was giving them away. Weird LOL

Ela La Salle wrote:Hmm... I'm little off the topic but  for the first time ever, I do not have even one flower on my blackberry bushes. Just green bushes. So, maybe it's just a "weird thing" this season.
I haven't changed or done anything different at all.
Maybe I jinxed it because I bought a big jug with a plan in trying to make wine since last year I had such an abundance of huge fruits,  I was giving them away. Weird LOL

Not too far off topic: They are all brambles. You don't tell us where you are from or the type of blackberries. I don't grow any here [zone 4b Central Wisconsin] but for a change, the season has turned wetter than normal and the wild ones are juicier and more abundant.
It does feel like the climate is changing and becoming more erratic, [a number of my crops are seeing dramatic changes] but "not even one flower" sounds like a change in the soil composition. Perhaps the bushes have been there too long?