North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Black raspberries were my first great crop here in southeastern NY and my Jewel and Allen varieties were prolific and tasty.  After a few years they petered out and by then my tree fruit were cranking so I never tried replanting.  I've had the same results when planting black raspberries for clients and also with blackberries and even red raspberries that don't bear on primocanes.  It's pretty difficult to isolate the plants from viruses here if that's what's doing them in.

Blackberries get these weird twisted leaves that almost look like severe aphid infection.  Seems I can extend their usefulness by promptly removing distorted canes.  The wild blackberries generally suffer the same affliction, but what I don't understand is that some years the wild ones will be healthy and bear nice crops.  I've never had a pathologist diagnose plants with these symptoms- does that sound like a viral problem?