This is my first year growing blackberries. I bought a 2 gallon Arapaho thornless blackberry in January, and planted it in a 20 gallon container. It leafed out fine and seemed to be doing great. I was out of town for a couple of weeks and come back to find that the new leaves on the blackberry are deformed. The plant is in sun and received water through drip irrigation while I was away. The new leaves are still coming in weird. I have 4 other blackberry plants that do not exhibit this behavior. The leaves that were there initially are not deformed or crinkled, however, they are cupped upwards.
The soil was 60 percent pine bark (partly composted) and 40% sphagnum peat moss, I used a little of Berry-Tone fertilizer. Would appreciate any pointers to what is going on here.
New Leaves when I got back from my trip
Older leaves that were normal before my trip, but are now cupped upwards.
New leaves after I sprayed the plant and leaves with insecticidal soap. Seems to have gotten a little better, still deformed though.
Thats almost a blueberry mix… not sure theres enough going on with that mix to grow blackberries though.
Anyways… it could be that new mottle virus thats going around… the feathering of the leaves kinda look like it but im not a pathologist by any means.
I would get rid of it myself… Arapaho to me isnt really worth growing anyways on top of that but if thats what you want then buy one from a good nursery with virus free plants that arent in soil and potted from who knows where…thats a good fresh start i think.
Could be too much stress on the plant with that mix… i cant really say for sure.
I agree it looks like phenoxy herbicide damage. 2,4-d can vaporize in hot weather and drift long distances. I have a grape vine that does that every spring when someone in the neighborhood gets their chem lawn treatment. It recovers just fine after a few weeks.
If the soil isn’t adequately moist during periods of heat, the leaves of certain plants will cup inward as well. Especially in pots so if you aren’t watering regularly and its warm where you are, that might be the leaves cupping inward reason.
I had a notion of herbicide damage as well because tomatoes in the past have also shown similar leaves when exposed
We can rule out moisture since I check the plants everyday, sticking my finger in the soil
I do not use pesticide, or insecticide, or even use fertilizer/weed killers on the lawn. I checked with my neighbor and he has not sprayed anything, plus I have a 8 foot fence between us. There are other blackberry and blueberry plants around this plant and none of them are showing this deformation,
The soil could be acidic since I was using a similar mix for the blue berry plants, however, I went with 60 % pine instead of 60% peat moss like I did for the blueberry plants, I know that pine bark is also acidic. My four other black berry plants are doing fine in the same mix.
@ TNHunter - Some of the leaves were showing a yellow and red margins, so, I thought it may be a nutrient deficiency and gave it some diluted miracle gro, that is probably those leaves are a darker green.
So, I think like someone mentioned, it may be a virus that I am dealing with in this plant
Looks like overdose of fertilizer. It is locking out other nutrients.
I also see what looks like webbing on the leaves. Check for spider mites. I have seen new growth like that on medicinal cannabis.
