I live in northern Ohio too and maybe you need to wait a little longer for your berries to blossom. Rain has been spotty in this area and has been dry here. The weather has been difficult on some plants. My red raspberries just started blossoming a couple of weeks ago and just getting some light fruit now. Hopefully yours will come.

If the raspberry leaves are green, and they look healthy, then the patch has enough water. Clay soil holds water well, so you might be OK. Our patch of everbearing red raspberries gets watered only during a prolonged drought, and we have had plenty of rain this year. I don't think it would cause any problem to water the patch, maybe once a week, until it rains. I suspect that the lack of blossoms is due to a mineral deficiency, possibly potassium. Our patch is heavily mulched with shredded maple tree leaves in the fall, with a layer 6 or 8 inches thick. The leaves break down in a year, and supply the roots with minerals. I have used both Miracle-Gro and Schultz's plant food on our blueberry shrubs, in part, to make sure that the shrubs have what they need in the spring for making blossoms. A tablespoon per 4 gallons of water, per shrub, is all it takes.

Thanks, I'll have to be sure to mulch - we certainly have enough leaves to manage that. Is it possible that leaf mulch will spread disease or is that not really a concern?

Raspberry canes will poke up through a thick layer of leaf mulch in the spring. If the leaves have been shredded with a lawnmower, they will break down and disappear in about one year. I think that worms come up to the surface at night and feed on the leaf fragments. I have not seen any sign of disease in our raspberries that might be attributed to leaf mulch. We have a problem with bindweed, and this year, it is difficult to work in the patch, because of too many mosquitoes. There is an insect that bores into the canes, and causes loss of foliage. Also, we see japanese beetles every year, & I go after these with the soapy cup of death. Our raspberry patch is generally healthy & always productive. The first fruit appears in July, and fruiting continues through mid-October.

I live in NE Ohio and mine are doing fine, the first batch does poorly (I think because of the heat) and the second batch that is growing now looks nice, the berries are alot bigger. I don't fertilze or anything & I cut them waste high after the first snow. I never cut mine down to three inches, and I can't tell you if that's good or not. Do you have sun on them all day?

from what I've been told is that if you cut the everbearing varieties down to about 3 inches after fall dormancy then you will get only a late crop of more and nicer berries. I cut mine last fall with a brush hog and they are starting to produce now.

That's correct Luke. If you mow everbearing raspberries when they go dormant, you'll only get one, larger fall crop of berries. So, I believe what Kath85 has seen thus far is normal, and as long as nothing else is wrong, she should be getting some tasty berries soon. -Glenn

Oh, I hope you're right and that the berries come on soon!

Shasta, the patch is pretty much in full sun being on the south side of the house.

We did have lots of japanese beetles earlier in the summer which I tried spraying with garlic water to no avail. I need to get over my fear of venturing into the depths of the patch, though I have a pretty good inkling that something lives back there.

I would be less concerned about my patch fruiting if it weren't for the fact that when we moved into the house by mid-September of last year, all of the berries were long gone. So, we'll just wait and see and try mulching with leaves later on. Thanks for all of your suggestions and comments!

If the patch seems too dense to enter and weed, you might have to dig out some clumps in the late fall. A healthy raspberry patch will send out lateral runners, and very quickly move into an open area. I have to remove some clumps every fall, and this year is no exception.

I live in Northern Wisconsin and have Red raspberries that bloom one time per summer. Mine blossomed and grew berries that I harvested during the end of June and the whole month of July. This is the 4th summer I've had this bush.
I don't know the brand. I got the plant at a yard sale. The family had potted up some of there plants that were popping up in odd places in their garden. That first summer I was just happy the plant lived through the summer and I was surprised the next spring when it came back. That year the bush was maybe 4 feet high and only gave me a few berries. Last year the bush was much taller but it took the whole month to gather a Cool Whip container from this bush. I would just keep adding picked berries to a container in my freezer because I wanted to see how much fruit comes of one bush. This season I was getting about two cups of raspberries per day from the one bush.They were delicious and I still have some in the freezer. They have been finished for the last 3 weeks or so. A couple weeks ago I cut out the branches that have bloomed and let the rest live on. The branches standing there now are very long. They say that next year's berries will come on growth that was new this year and did not bear. The branches that already did give berries should be cut back to the ground because they will never produce fruit again.
Raspberries need quite a bit of water during the time the berries are growing. A raspberry is made up of lots of water.
I think I will cut the long branches back to about 2 feet now ...just to make the plant look better. And next spring I expect this year's growth to grow up again and give berries.
I hope I am right and can cut things back now.