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["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

One of the new (just sprouted this year) canes in my black raspberry 
patch is blooming right now. If my understanding is correct, that's 
called a primocaine raspberry, isn't it? One that bears fruit on the 
current year's cane, rather than on canes from the previous year?

I wouldn't think anything of it (the birds planted my raspberry patch to 
begin with, so almost anything could probably show up the same way), 
except that it seems to be part of a clump of "normal" canes. Is that 
possible? Can a raspberry plant produce one cane that's a sport, that 
flowers completely differently than the others? Or am I just mistaken 
that it's part of the same plant? It LOOKS like it's in the same clump 
as neighboring canes, but I suppose it's possible that two roots are 
entwined. But it's a good-sized cane. It looks big enough that it must 
have a well-established root. Of course, I might have just missed it in 
previous years, since I wouldn't expect raspberries later in the year.

Note that it's definitely a raspberry cane, but the flowers and buds 
don't look exactly like the others do. I cut out all my old canes this 
weekend, and tied up the young ones, so that's when I noticed it. 
(Incidentally, I didn't get a single black raspberry this year. For the 
first time ever, the robins ended up eating every one before they got 
ripe.  <Sigh!>  I guess it's bird-netting for me, after this.)

Thanks,

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)


--
We are as gods and might as well get good at it. - Stewart Brand, Whole 
Earth Catalog