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Fruit & Orchards

Prelude raspberry question

12 years ago

In spring 2010 I purchased 5 Prelude raspberry plants from Nourse. All five have sent out suckers that have flourished. However, I have noticed that one of the original plants, as well as its suckers, is much different from the other four. The leaf stems have a red streak on top of them. The canes have red-ish streaks as well. The leaves are bright green.

In contrast, the other four plants and their offspring all have a blue-ish tint in the leaves and canes, without any red-ish coloring at all.

The fruit of the "red-ish" plants is large and tasty, whereas the fruit of the "blue-ish" plants is much smaller and tasteless.

Almost all of the "red-ish" primocanes are putting out flower buds right now, but none of the "blue-ish" ones are.

Does the Prelude variety exhibit this drastic variation, or was I probably mistakenly given two different varieties? Do either of these descriptions match anyone else's Prelude plants?

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Comments (2)

Scott F Smith
12 years ago
That kind of variation can occur if the soil is very different. I have seen large variations in the same variety due to soil and virus activity. I would take a picture and send it to Nourse and see what they say. No raspberry sold today is small and tasteless, so they did not get your order varieties mixed up. It also makes me think there is a soil problem - raspberry fruits get small when the plants are unhappy.

Scott
ericwi
12 years ago
We have a patch of everbearing red raspberries, here in Madison, WI. I don't remember the variety-I purchased the potted starters, locally, 15 years ago. Every fall I cut the canes down, and heavily mulch the bed with about 8 inches of shredded tree leaves, from a Norway maple that grows in our front yard. The worms have a field day with the leaves, and they will be gone by the following fall. The plants are vigorous, and the fruit is of good quality. With regard to fertilization, the shredded tree leaves is all that they get. I do spend considerable time removing japanese beetles every summer, and sometimes I water the canes when we experience drought.
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