I planted 6 thornless blackberry plants last summer. They are in a raised bed,mulched & watered well. They looked great this spring & have long stems & lots of blooms. Now they have set berries & are just withering up. Anyone have any ideas what is causing this? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks, Kaye in W.Central Ill

-- Kaye Reno (klreno@irtc.net), June 24, 2001

Answers

Kaye, The canes may have been "ringed" by white grubs. To check, grab a withering blackberry cane and give it a slight jerk upwards. Not hard enough to rip it from the ground if the cane is healthy. However, if it does easily come out of the ground, look at the area of cane that would have been an inch or so under the soil. See if it has been "ringed" by white grubs. That sometime happens at this time of the season. If this is the case, dig around in the dirt until you find the little bugger and feed him to your chickens. Of course, the "ringed" canes are a loss, but you'll prevent the others from being damage.

-- Steve Nelson (alpine1@prodigy.net), June 25, 2001.

When I read your post the first thing that popped into my head was blight. If it's not what the previous poster suggested then maybe this is a possibility. I looked it up in Ortho's Home Garden Problem Solver and this is the description they give: Branches wilt and die in midsummer. Brownish purple areas where wounding has occured extending downward, sometimes encircling the stem. Infected canes can turn gray in late summer. It's most likely to occur in wet weather in late spring to early summer. They say it's caused by a fungus.

-- Diane (dshogren@uswest.net), June 25, 2001.

Yep, my blackberries are doing it too! And we had a really wet spring here in Ohio. Looks like a fungus to me. Hm, just cut em off, I say. Tren

-- Trendle Ellwood (trendlespin@msn.com), June 27, 2001.

Kaye, I reread your post today to see what other answers you have received and I noticed you're in west central Illinois. Anywhere around Quincy? I grew up there. Had my blackberry patch in Iowa until this spring when I moved to Wisconsin. Too far north to grow blackberries up here, especially the thornless varieties. Or so I've been told.

Anyway, good luck with your blackberries.

-- Steve Nelson (alpine1@prodigy.net), June 27, 2001.