[Market-farming] Blackberry Problem

Bill Shoemaker wshoemak at inil.com
Thu May 29 09:45:05 EDT 2008


Do the plants still look healthy despite the fruit failure? If so, you may 
be lacking pollenizers (bees). If the flowers are not properly pollinated, 
they will look fine briefly, then abort. The fungal diseases noted in the 
Texas A&M publication are foliar and cane diseases. They shouldn't affect 
the flowers. The primary bloom fungal disease on most small fruits is grey 
mold (Botrytis). While it could be grey mold, it would probably only affect 
the crop in rainy weather, it would not ruin the whole crop, and it would 
probably be worse on one variety than the others. You would also see grey 
fuzzy fungal growth on the fruit, like you see on berries in supermarkets at 
times.

My guess is you aren't having bees visit the flowers. It should be busier 
than rush hour with bees pollinating at flowering.

Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research Center
www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TxBeeFarmer" <TxBeeFarmer at HotPop.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 7:40 AM
Subject: [Market-farming] Blackberry Problem


> I've brought this up before, but never really found an answer.  Maybe
> someone will know this time.
>
> I have three kinds of thornless blackberries.  They grow great and look
> great, but no berries, or at least very few.  They bloom in great numbers,
> but after the blooms, what look like immature berries, just dry up and 
> never
> mature.  What could be happening?
>
> Thanks
>
> TxBeeFarmer (Mark)
> West Texas Zone 7b
>
>
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