Question: Last year we had tremendous blossom development on our raspberries, but then nothing happened - not one berry. I thought it might be a lack of pollination, but our blackberries, red currants and scarlet runners produced more than we could eat, and I watered and manured them the same as the raspberries. Any ideas about what it is that I'm missing?
Forston Tylor,
North Vancouver
Answer: Raspberries have some ability to be self-fertile, although they produce far more and larger berries when pollinated. Even without pollination, you should have had a few tiny, half-hearted attempts at berries. Did you actually see bees around your raspberry flowers?
Disease is my main suspect. I wonder how old your raspberry canes are. The older raspberry canes get, the more likely viral disease becomes. If you acquired new raspberry plants, planting them in the old raspberry bed would have exposed them to whatever problems the old canes had.
Symptoms of viral problems include curly leaves, yellowing leaves or yellow mottles and streaks on leaves. You might try digging up one old raspberry and checking whether the roots show round root galls. This disease can be spread from wild blackberries.
I wonder what kind of manure you used and whether it had been composted for a while before it was spread. Fresh manure can cause problems. Certain manures such as chicken, sheep and Llama manure can actually burn roots if spread fresh.
I'd suggest experimenting by buying one, new certified virus-free raspberry plant and planting it in another part of your garden far away from your under-performing raspberry bed.
It would be helpful to clean any tools used on the old raspberries with a bleach solution before using them on the new raspberry or its new area.
Question: Last year I tried green dragon cucumbers. The writing on the package says “never bitter." The plant was a heavy producer but the fruits were all bitter. Could you tell me what would make cucumbers bitter?
Bernie Epting,Vancouver
Answer: Even the so-called non-bitter cucumbers can become bitter if they're stressed enough. My guess would be that our long, hot summer is the cause – not from the heat, but from the extremely dry conditions.
If we get another summer/fall that is so hot and dry, it would be best to water twice a day and mulch thickly around the plant to hold moisture in by slowing evaporation.
Good drainage is best for most crops, but in drought, water moves through well-drained soil too fast and if you do spot-watering, the dry surrounding soil quickly wicks water away from the target plant.
If you get the same problem again, increase watering even more and wait until a new flush of fruit is ready. By then the bitterness should have vanished.
Question: Since beans need warm soil, would you advise wrapping the plant pots with bubble wrap?
Carol Moore, New Westminster.
Answer: I don't think you'd gain enough extra growing time to justify bubble wrap for green beans. Bubble wrap protects deeper soil in a container from colder temperature fluctuations. But beans need to be planted much closer to the surface, which remains at the temperature of the surrounding air.
Anne Marrison is happy to answer garden questions. Send them to her via [email protected] It helps if you can add the name of your city or region.
