Rasberries

[nohorn]

My rasberries bushes are 7 y.o. They have dwindling production this year. Lots of leaves, robust looking plants, few berries. I believe they have plenty of water this year, I hope at the right time, I have seen quite a few pollinators. I have not ever added fertilizer to them in the spring. I am in the far north, so production of many things can be difficult, alpine (mtn) area. I need advice on the problem. Cjould it be:

1) Berry plants are too old, except for saplings that got away. Should I rip them out this fall and start over?
2) Try adding steer manure next Spring.
3) Could it ba a problem that perhaps the temp dipped too low one of the chilly summer evenings and dropped the blossoms and fruit didn't develop. It seems the local wild blue berry crop is not very productive either.

3) Eventually whatever the problem is this year, does anyone ever retire (rip out a rasberry patch when it is elderly) or do you just depend ona few saplings to carry over.

[Ice.Maiden]

Some fantastic ones sprouted in my garden last year nohorn, and this year, we've had loads of beautiful swet fruit. I'm just going to do the same as last year and cut them back - then leave them to nature.

[bullpen]

May I suggest giving them a feed of sulphate of potash next April. Soft fruit need an annual feed of potash. Also give them a mulch of farmyard manure this winter

[edjones]

Raspberries renew themselves every year, with new stems. The old ones may give a few fruit, but will die back (so much so that eventually they'll snap off at the base). I hope you haven't being removing the new stems and trying to keep the old ones!

[Mr Veritas]

As edjones indicates,you must prune out the canes that have fruited,bur DO NOT prune out the new canes that have not fruited,these are the fruit bearing canes for next year.
IF you appear to have NO new canes,as may be possible if your raspberry bed is now congested,then you can cut ALL the canes down the ground,but you probably won't have any fruit next year;and will have to wait till the following year for the canes to recover.

We NEVER feed our raspberries,as we would probably get lush growth and little fruit.
Temperatures can affect fruit growth,but not to the extent of few berries(again that sounds like overfeeding).This year just as the raspberries wer setting we had a really hot spell,this was followed by one short,intense fruiting.After approx 6 weeks the fruits were over.This was at the end of June.
Usually our raspberries are late fruiting (August/Sept) and on till the first frosts,So you can see temperatur conditions can affect the fruit.
I wouldn't rip out the bed,just cut back the canes as suggested,and see what happens next year.
However,do stop feeding them.They will only put on too much leaf and little fruit.
ON the whole raspberries are great fruit,needing very little attention,except as stated above.
Good Luck.

[nohorn]

Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful comments!
I am so happy i have such a wonderful site to ask these questions and get wonderfu answers.
nohorn