Help: Top 3-4' of berry plants drooping over

14 years ago

All of these are first year plants. I have Prim Jan blackberries from tissue culture plugs, Himbo Top raspberries and Illini Hardy blackberries from bare root stock. Everything was growing very well until Sunday when I noticed the top 3-4 " of 6-8 plants wilted and drooped over. There is a black horizonal stripe below where the wilting starts. I cut those off and put them in the bonfore. This has not effected my Joan J, Nova or Killarney berries yet. Any suggestions?

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Comments (10)

joberry
Original Author
14 years ago
The top 3-4", not 3-4'
ericwi
14 years ago
It sounds like a cutworm. We have similar damage to our everbearing red raspberries. Its pretty bad this year. I don't know of any effective remedy, maybe someone else does.
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glenn_russell
14 years ago
Hi Joberry-
Per our email conversation prior to this post... Do yours look like this? This is a picture that I took last year. I never found out what was causing it. A cutworm sounds plausible, but I'm having trouble finding pictures like this on the net. Thanks,
-Glenn

{{gwi:121935}}
firstyear
14 years ago
Hi Glenn,

That looks like Raspberry Cane Borer damage. The double girdle marks and puncture between them are a dead giveaway. I've had about 10 canes this year infected so far. Seems to be a bit of an annoying pest, but they only damage the cane and if you cut it a few inches below the lower mark, they appear to still develop fine.
price403
14 years ago
I agree with Firstyear. The same thing happened to a couple Anne raspberry plants of mine this year. I just cut the cane about 3 or 4 inches below the wilted part and burned them. The canes have regrown from the leaf nodes below the cut and are doing good.
glenn_russell
14 years ago
Hi firstyear & price403-
After a little Googling, it looks like you are right. Yeah, I realize they're not that big of a deal (which is why I haven't worried about them too much), I just like to understand what's going on. Great, now I have Rasperry Crown Borer, and Raspberry Cane Borer! Anyway, thanks for the ID!

Hopefully this is also joberry's problem as well. If not, sorry for hijacking the thread!
-Glenn
joberry
Original Author
14 years ago
Glenn

I didn't really notice the two black rings until you said something. I cut one apart to investigate and saw nothing.

That is exactly what I have going on! Is there anyway to prevent it? Is there any way to spot it before it happens?

Thanks for the help everyone!
glenn_russell
14 years ago
Hi Joe-
Now that we know who the culprit is, we can do a little more research. But from what I gathered, they're just usually not a big deal. The advice I saw elsewhere simply said that there really was no pesticide prevention, but rather to cut the cane and Inch or so below the bottom ring, and dispose of in the trash (or burn them). Are they a really big problem for you?
-Glenn
hoseman
14 years ago
Keep in mind the raspberry cane borer has a two year life cycle. The borer is the larvae of a longhorned beetle. If any of the larvae managed to hatch and burrow into the base of the cane, you will see them feeding in the crown of the plant and they overwinter in the crown.

Hopefully, you got all eggs and larvae, if not you may have to destroy the crown and roots of the plant(s)
berry-nut
14 years ago
We have a similar problem with our black raspberries. Although there are no rings circling the canes, when given a slight pull the cane separates from the crown. Looking at the crown end of the cane it looks as if most of the tissue is dead (only a small piece of green to support the cane). We still don't know what's causing this.

Jake

Help: Top 3-4' of berry plants drooping over

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joberry
Original Author

ericwi

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Help: Top 3-4' of berry plants drooping over

Comments (10)

joberryOriginal Author

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