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Fruit & Orchards

Raspberries too late?

14 years ago

I live in Northern Ohio, zone 5. I planted Autumn Britten and Caroline red rasperries this spring. I can't remember exactly when I planted them, but the mail order nursery waited and sent them when they deemed appropriate, so I think they were probably planted at an appropriate time. The first ripe berries from the Autumn Britten did not appear until early September. From what I read, I was expecting earlier. Is early September normal? The Carolines are even worse. There are many berries on the Carolines, but not a single one is ripe. I expect that none will ripen before they are killed by frost.

The plants look healthy. They are planted in nearly full sun.

Is my zone inappropriate for Caroline? Or are they late because they were just planted this year? Should I rip out the Caroline this fall and replace with another variety in the spring? Any suggestions on earlier varieties? I plan to maintain these berries as fall bearing only.

Thanks.

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Comments (4)

Michael
14 years ago
lsoh: My Carolines were planted 3/21 this year and the first fruit was harvested 8/10, production peaked about 9/10 or a little later. The plants still have many unripe berries but there won't be enough heat to get them to the picking stage. The bed was prepared by spading and tilling in about 6" of compost in the Spring of 2008 and left fallow until planting this Spring. When did you plant? Are your plants still sending out shoots? How many did you plant and did they all survive? If they were alive and growing well through the summer I'd leave them in next year.

BTW, I'm in central KS, just below the NE border.

Michael
ericwi
14 years ago
Here in Madison, Wisconsin, its been a tough year for fruit & vegetables that need heat for ripening. Our tomatoes are late, and our raspberries peaked in late September. We had an unusual amount of overcast and cool weather, I think it was mainly in July. If it were me, I would be inclined to give the raspberry transplants another season, before deciding to replace them. The roots are established now, so they can get off to an early start next year.
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Hi....Raspberries will keep growing and putting out fruit until the first hard frost kills your berries, but the plant won't go dormant until 36 hours below 42 Degrees Fahrenheit. I'm in southern New York State Zone 7 I have several varieties like Nantahala, Double Gold, Crimson Giant that don't start fruiting until October and will continue until the first hard frost kills the berries......this year my Nantahala started early in September.......but don't worry you can get late fruiting varieties that were designed to set fruit late in season at least until dormancy sets in, or a killing frost. Several of my other Everbearing like, Kiwi And Fall Gold, Caroline, Polka, Josephine, Prelude are fruiting now steady now.........my Lauren which is a summer variety is getting ready for a rare fall crop, happens with a complex parentage....no complaints here about a bonus crop !.........Heritage way behind this year but in a couple weeks maybe a couple berries. Hope this answers ur questions, btw ...what varieties you have planted ?
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franktank232
14 years ago
I've got Caroline here and mine are on their second season. We've been picking them since late Aug or so... I don't have a huge patch, but enough to go out everyday and eat some berries. They've been great, but i can tell this recent weather has really slowed them down. The lack of sun is really taking their toll. Mine are still flowering! and still a lot of unripe berries.

Eric-
The weather models are saying its game over this coming weekend. We may be lucky to get out of the 30's by Sun/Mon with lows solidly in the 20's at night. Maybe colder yet. Minneapolis has put snow in their forecast later next week.
athenainwi
14 years ago
Raspberries are definitely off a bit the first year you plant them. Mine have always been much later that first year. And this year has been bad anyway since it's been much colder than usual. So I'd wait and see if you get a better harvest next year. I actually had a much better summer harvest off my Heritage this year at least partially because the Japanese beetles at all the fall ones before they were ripe and the weather has been so lousy.

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