Blind Raspberries

[SparrowhawkMember]

Dear Charles,

I hope you can help. I have a problem with some of my raspberries which have been growing on my allotment for a few years. Every year we have a few canes which are what I think you describe as blind, i.e. no flower and no obviously no fruit. Is there a reason for this. We grow them in a light soil and mulch each winter and feed with a general fertilizer each spring. Most canes fruit well.

We also get trouble with raspberry beetle and wonder if you have any advice for preventing this problem.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Gill

[charlesModerator]

 Hello Gill
I would not worry about this as I think it is quite common and I certainly have some blind canes every year. Another factor is that bad weather in early and midsummer this year did hamper flights of insects to pollinate the flowers. At least it sounds as though you have plenty of fruit now. My raspberries were poor in August but are good now.

Regarding the beetle, I do not know.

[Sahira WardMember]

Hi All

Charles has kindly posted on his home about this. The link for you to sign the petition is this one.

https://www.causes.com/actions/1654472-protect-bee-populations-in-the-uk-by-banning-neonicotinoid-insecticides

Brigit Strawbridge Facebook Campaigner and the leaders of The Green Party for England Wales and Scotland are in London today handing over the petition. This is the first time that a political party has teamed up with a social media group.

Charles has 4000 members on this forum so we could make all the difference but we only have a few days left before it goes to the EU for the vote on Monday 25th February 2013. It only takes a few minutes to sign the petition on Facebook and you can invite up to 50 friends. If you are not on Facebook then email your MP using the link Charles posted there is a template for your email, and you can put in your postcode and find out who to send it to.

Thank you so much for reading this please can you pass the link to your family and friends to sign the petition and help us save our bees.

Kind regards

Sahira

Useful links
http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2013/02/19/green-party-backs-insecticide-petition/
http://markavery.info/2013/02/20/guest-blog-flight-neonicotinoids-matt-shardlow/
http://www.buglife.org.uk/

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