I’m a new grower, and I’ve having some trouble with my blackberry plant (among others). I’m in Richmond, VA right on the 7a/7b edge. It’s got a problem that I can’t easily match to common diseases.
I don’t think it’s orange rust, since the underside of the leaf doesn’t show the symptoms. Does anybody know what this is?
The bottom of the leaf.
Is it possible the plant is just going dormant? When that happens the leaves weaken before they are dropped, leaving them susceptible to certain things that are usually harmless, just a product of a weak leaf with no energy going to it.
I suppose it could be, but it’s still in the 60s here. The leaves farther along the cane are still green and the cane is growing.
This was my first year of significant gardening, and I planted a bunch of blackberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, blueberries all in containers. Plus a grafted apple tree and cherry tree. So I’m still pretty clueless. I’m pretty sure it was too hot and humid for my currants and gooseberries, as mildew pretty much devastated them.
The blackberries were champs at tolerating my lack of skill until recently.
I agree the leaves look to be showing there fall colors
Well, I’m glad to hear that. I’ve had to fight cedar apple rust, cherry spot, leaf eaters loving my cherry tree, and tons of mildew on my gooseberries & currants. I was really worried I had a serious problem with my blackberries too.
Older leaves nearer the main cane or ground will change color first during normal dormancy. By “farther along the cane”, I assume you meant towards the tip end, or newer growth, those leaves would be expected to remain green longer. Different blackberry varieties go dormant at different rates.
Grog for your apples & ribes did you select more disease tolerant types or just whatever you wanted? I’m curious as I’m moving to the south next year and wanted to plant pomme fruit and ribes.
I know you didn’t ask me, but asked Grog, but I’d like to weigh in my two cents here.
I used to live in the mid-Atlantic, zone 6a or 6b. That can be difficult, but the Deep South is a whole 'nother animal. The heat and humidity and the resulting disease pressure can easily kill things, or at the least leave you with problems you’re battling all season. The heat alone is often enough to kill some plants and trees that thrive elsewhere. Sometimes the heat will also kind of break down your fruits and make them taste…not as good, I guess? Also, in addition to being more favorable for disease, the bugs also thrive in the heat and humidity as well.
That’s not to say some things won’t grow wonderfully here, but unless you’re quite committed to a spray program, or you’re willing to experiment and have some losses, I’d highly recommend looking up varieties that are said to do well where you live. Extension offices can help with that as well.
(This is assuming you’re moving to the Deep South, and not to say, the Virgina mountains or something, which I imagine would be more like the North than otherwise.)
I agree if you are moving to the east coast zone 7b or hotter you can forget about red and white currants and most gooseberries too. Black currants survive but barely. some gooseberries and jostaberries survive the heat if grown in shade but production is very low.
Suburban Atlanta (Roswell) most likely. Don’t know if that is considered “deep” but I lived there once before and the summers are hot & humid.
Coming from CA it’s very easy here, minor bug/disease damage, no spraying. My biggest problem is squirrels and roof rats. I don’t like the idea/chore of spraying (I was reading one guys post where he was spraying something every 5 days!) but if something just needs one or two sprays I could live with that.
I found an old blog for a guy in Atlanta who grew Fejoia, Currants/Gooseberries, even Loquat. Gives me a little hope!
I didn’t really know enough to pick disease resistant types since I didn’t even really know what was prevalent in my area. For the ribes I just picked things more or less at random from Raintree. There isn’t a whole lot of info that I found about them, but I’m right on the edge of their range I think. Mildew/fungus was a serious problem in short order once summer came around. I’m hoping to do better by moving them out of containers and into a shaded bed. The containers were on my driveway since I didn’t have anywhere else to put them, and I’m sure that made the heat problems worse. I could easily believe that ribes just won’t work here. I can list what I bought if you want to know.
The gooseberries did better, but still had significant mildew/fungus problems.
For apples, I wanted to plant some of the famous varieties and a 4 in 1 with Spitzenberg and Golden Gem was too good to pass up. It’s been pretty proof against the mildew and leaf rollers, but I didn’t jump on the cedar rust properly.
I think once you move things into the ground it will be better. It’s hard to manage plants in pots, they can become nutrient/heat stressed and that can lead to more disease. Probably best to get morning sun leading to evening shade if possible, and prune the ribes bushes so there is good air circulation. Maybe look at things that don’t have many disease issues, mulberry, fig, persimmon, jujube…
Good luck but don’t invest too much into them I tried about 40 different ribes in my zone 7b garden and only a few are still alive. the red and white currants where the first to go even in shade it was just to hot. I’ll get the names of what all is still hanging on tomorrow.