Dont mean to de-rail this thread… but new diseases are affecting older cultivars… no sprays or chemicals seem to help. Its in the PNW now…but will likely be everywhere in a matter of time.
In other threads they talk about the big worry of spreading diseases from border to border… but the US spreads its own diseases thru commerce. There is big talk that the USDA manages this but they cannot as of yet.
East Coast varieties will likely suffer… but that is unknown as these diseases keep emerging.
Plenty of West Coast nurseries selling bare root and potted plants all over the USA. All of my trailing west coast varieties come this way. Not only do they not test for these new viruses… they have no real understanding of them either.
damn! i wish i had heard of this earlier. i wouldnt have ordered any. same reason folks from the west coast arent allowed to buy hybrid hazels from out east, as the fungus that kills the European filberts grown there, is carried by them. wonder if spraying with a compatible fungicide will have any affect? i have some immunox on hand.
Hey everybody! Unfortunately many things as mentioned can cause this. My first thought when seeing the pic was herbicide damage. Even a small exposure can cause growth distortion. The good news if this happens is they can recover if small exposure.
Columbia Star did well for me seems a lot hardier than some of the older trailing cultivars. I love west coast trailing types and have grown them here for about eight years. Production is low here as they are not well adapted but I like them so much better I have found ways to make it work. This year with the mild winter almost all my canes made it. Production is the best I have seen.
dont panic just yet… its new news. This may only affect PNW and it could possibly affect the East Coast…nobody knows… it could even affect rasps… it could possibly be what is happening in the OP’s plant…
How can you manage something that is unknown?
If it gets real bad then they will just quarantine and deny sales etc… my collection is complete except for Zodiac and Celestial… those are in tissue culture and wont be released til next year at the earliest.
The first year it happened, I had used RoundUp about 10 feet away to clear a new bed. I also suspected herbicide damage, so made sure not to use it anywhere near them since - still getting it, so I’m thinking it’s not herbicide damage.
welcome back Drew! i overwintered a Colombia giant under the snow last winter as a trial. all canes survived and are growing out nicely. got 2 Colombia star starts from ebay. thanks for the tip Kris. ill be trialing them on my other property.
There is some good advice in that grow… things that grow like a weed at your location.
Sometimes you have to take a good look at the situation… and figure out what you should should be growing more or less of…or in some cases yank it.
Some things you have to make do well… with lots of extra effort (as Kris mentioned) and some things you plant them and give minimun care and they thrive, reproduce easily, fruit perfectly.
Depending on how much extra work and care you want to provide… those things you can only grow with lots of extra work/care… perhaps grow them but grow less of them.
Sometimes you really just need to observe your land and realize what works.
I have been growing fruit here for 20+ years and just recently discovered that my fields produce persimmon seedlings like crazy. I bet I found 50-60… 3-4 ft tall seedlings yesterday.
I have 10 varieties of persimmons growing very well here now. Going with the flow. They grow like weeds here.
like that here with raspberries/ blackberries, honeyberries, rhubarb, crab apples, blueberries, aronia and serviceberry. plant it. it will grow no matter what. rhubarb grows better than comfrey so more rhubarb.
@steveb4 — I got a Canada red rhubarb this spring and planted it… it came up and then quickly died.
I got it from Gurneys… and it was a odd looking thing about half rotten… I think I just got a bad one… but not sure. I may try a fall planting of rhubarb next. It it comes up and dies… I am going to get the message… it does not grow like a weed here
if you want to save coin i have it here in 4 patches as well as a heirloom my great grandfather brought from QC back in the 50’s. give me a yell in oct and ill send you some good chunks to plant. they need a thin anyway.
Trying rhubarb as well. 4 out of 5 bare roots from Urban Farmer came up for me. As bareroot, they looked like shriveled up baby carrots. They do seem to attract a lot of pest where I live, all of mine are getting shot holes from something. Too big to be flea beetle.
That’s good, you can eliminate that. My next thought then is it’s a virus.
Thanks, although I won’t be around much until fall.
That’s cool. I use leaves when I can get them under leaves. Works pretty good too. I save or borrow neighbor’s leaves to do it. So I have bags and bags of them.
i also used some old heavy fleece blankets i got from a tag sale. they’re synthetic so water doesn’t stay in them, rotting the canes. i take them off as soon as the snow melts.
