catfishhoward , Sorry... I didn't click the checkbox for updates on this thread or I would have responded sooner. By the end of year 2, your tissue culture plant and the 3-year raspberry plant will be the same size, so there isn't much value in buying bigger plants, at least in my opinion. Older plants in pots often need to have their roots trimmed because the very quickly circle the pots they are in and won't grow as well unless you trim the roots, which will set the plant back a bit. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you... hopefully Willis delivers live plants...they don't have a good reputation for online orders. I did notice that Bay Laurel Nursery will offer Baba next year, if you change your mind or need replacements. I know you want to get big plants fast but the fruit business takes some patience because if you do it right, these plants can provide fruit for 10 years or more. Put in bad stock and you'll be doing this again next year. One of the better ways of getting a lot of raspberries fast is buying rootstock. I have purchased Anne, Caroline, Tulameen, and Cascade Delight raspberry rootstock from Scenic Hill Farm Nursery and it worked great each time. The plants establish quickly and you have a whole patch instead of 2 or 3 plants. I'm not sure they are in season but they sell through Ebay as well. If you plant the rootstock for Fall-bearing varieties like Caroline or Anne in the early Spring you should have fruit by the Fall. By the next summer you will have a whole patch of healthy raspberry plants. If you go with bareroot stock, you will get a bigger root system and the price is usually pretty low. All of my black and purple raspberries were planted as bare roots, except one.

Good grief..."it has been very well kept" -- as in the last 5 years the top was almost never exposed to the air?

i had plants i wanted on my WISH LIST .. for over a decade ... you need to focus on sellers sites ... if you want to find things to buy .... because they dont produce old plants .... just like the new car market.. they produce the newest and brightest stuff ... so the older common stuff becomes hard to find ... info from botanical gardens can be a false lead .. in the sense.. they got the thing a decade or 3 ago ... when this was a new intro .... for many of us .... the hunt is more than half the game ... ken

If the plants look healthy and don't seem to need fertilizer, why mess with what's working? I think a lot of gardeners add fertilizers because they believe the advertisements from companies like Scott's, but there are at least as many questions on these forums that seem to be related to the misuse of fertilizers and other supplements as lack of fertilizer. Fertilizer companies are in the business of selling, not doing what is best for plants. So unless the plants show off-color, I'd let them be.