Should my raspberry plants being showing signs of life yet?

southerly

I bought some raspberry plants from Mr Fothergills online, it wasn't specified on the description, but they were bareroot, and the roots were dry when they arrived. I soaked them and got most of them planted the next day, that was a couple of weeks ago now. They are summer fruiting ones. You can see some buds on the stems, but they look brown and dead. If I scratch the stem, most of them are green underneath, but one is brown, (I suppose that one can be blamed on me as it is one of the 2 that didn't get planted so quickly). I am getting concerned about them, and am not sure how they would grow, will they produce new shoots from the base, and should it have started yet?I have some established autumn fruiting ones nearby, and they have new shoots from the base now. lt seems a bit late for bare root plants, but they are still for sale on the website. I suppose when it says 'canes' not 'potted' then bareroot is what you are going to get.

WestonDave

Raspberries can (in my limited experience) take a little while to get going. I put some summer fruiting ones in, in 2008 and for a while I thought I'd lost the lot. However with summer ones you aren't going to get any fruit this year anyway as they fruit on last years growth, so there isn't much of a problem if they are slow starting. I think of the 6 canes I planted I lost one and the rest are now 6ft tall and greening up nicely. Similarly the autumn ones I put in this spring are only just starting to shove out shoots and they've been in a few months - I reckon you've got a few more weeks yet before you need to get worried.

Whether it helps or not, for the last couple of years I've dumped a trowel of chicken manure pellets around the base of each one - it certainly hasn't done any harm.

Kay_Peel

Raspberry canes always look so unpromising to start off with, so don't be worried. As WestonDave says they take their time to spring into life - but when they do, they seem to grow a foot each week.

I have the Autumn fruiting variety and I know (now!) that they'll emerge at different speeds. Last year, I thought they were all dead in May, and they surprised me by growing over 10 feet tall and fruited until December. Some of them have appeared and are about 3 inches tall but the majority haven't.

I put some well rotted manure around the canes to stop the weeds and give them a shot in the arm around this time of year, but to start them off give them plenty of water.

So, relax - you did the right thing by soaking them and putting them straight into the ground and I bet you'll see signs of life in the next 3 weeks.

All the best.

ixwood

They will shoot from the roots, which I guess is what'll happen. Give it time.

Lotus-eater

As the others say, they can look like a stick for longer than you think, best to wait a few more weeks and even then dig down very carefully with your fingers to check they are not growing before you dig them up.
They can be very slow to start showing growth. But most do come through.