[NAFEX] Raspberry winter kill

Caren Kirk quirky at videotron.ca
Sun May 24 20:59:13 EDT 2009


Sorry Bill, I'm just catching up with my e-mail...

Interesting to hear your theory about the dry spring.  I'm trying to work 
out how I've killed my peach and apple tree and that was the thing that has 
struck me the most. April was unusually warm and very dry here (and then May 
has been cold), and I just can't help but think that this might have had an 
influence.

Does anyone know of documented (or anecdotal) affects of dry springs for 
young (2nd year) plants?

Caren
Zone 4b Quebec.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William C. Garthright" <billg at inebraska.com>
To: "NAFEX List" <nafex at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:44 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Raspberry winter kill


> Most of my black raspberry canes died over the past winter, or at least
> the tops of them did. The roots are all fine, and many of the canes
> sprouted out from the bottom two feet, or so, but only a very few leafed
> out all the way. I've been growing them for close to ten years, I think,
> and this has never happened before. This will be easily the worst year
> I've ever had (although, admittedly, last year was one of the best).
>
> I asked the county extension office if other people here were
> experiencing winter-kill in their raspberries, but they didn't know of
> any. They just said they'd heard of "some" winter-kill of other plants
> (which, I suspect, is pretty much what they'd say every year). Well,
> they've never seemed to know much about fruit, anyway.
>
> But I was wondering...  One difference this year is how dry it's been,
> even for Nebraska. We've only received 2.72 inches of precipitation YTD,
> which is six inches below normal. I usually spend all summer watering
> like crazy, but I don't normally worry about it in the spring (since I'm
> always exceptionally busy then, anyway), unless I've just planted
> something. So I'm wondering if that's why the old canes died. Do you
> think it might just have been too dry for them? The roots are still
> sprouting out new canes like crazy, though.
>
> I can't think of any other possible reason for this. It didn't get
> exceptionally cold over the winter (down to -12 F. once, which is close
> enough to normal). The temperature dropped to 23 degrees F. in April,
> when they were just starting to leaf out, but that's a lot better than
> some years, and the cold really didn't seem to bother any canes that
> were still alive. I can't see any insect problems (I've never seen any
> evidence of borers), and I've never had disease problems (the canes have
> always been covered with spots that I suspect is anthracnose, but it's
> never seemed to make any difference).
>
> Just thought I'd see what people here thought. After all, I can't learn
> from my mistakes if I don't know what they were. :-)
>
> Bill
> Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
>
> -- 
> From the perspective of my hunter-gatherer forebears in the Pleistocene
> Era, everything in the room I write in - the ceramic cup and the
> carpentered chair no less than the electric light and the computer - was
> as imaginary, as unreal, as fantastic as Narnia or Hogwarts. - Alison
> Gopnik
>
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