Yellowing Raspberry Plants

Question

I’ve planted about 8 raspberry plants in two sets of 4.

Set 1 consists of 3 bare root and one @ one gallon potted plant that I planted about two weeks later than the first 3. These plants seem very healthy and the bare root plants have almost caught up in size to the potted plant that was about 18″ tall when I planted it.

Set 2 consists of 2 bare root and two @ one gallon potted plants, again planted about two weeks later than the first 2. These plants are not doing so well. The bare root plants are 1/4 to 1/3 the size of the bare root plants in set 1. All four of these plants are yellowing. The potted plants are going from green to yellow. The bare root plants are kind of half green and half yellow in their stunted state.

I prepared the ground the same for all plants, and try to water equally. Can you advise from this description what may cause the lack of development and yellowing?

I live near Seattle WA where berries typically do very well

Answer 1

If you got the plants from 2 different sources, it is possible that the sickly set has a fungus or virus that came on them. There are several it could be and they all cause yellowing. A fungus can be treated, a virus cannot. Try treating the plants with a fungicide and see if that helps.

They may also be suffering from transplant shock and will need more water to recover from it, so you may want to increase water.

There also may be an air pocket in the soil around the rootballs. Make sure the backfilled hole is sufficiently collapsed and that there are no air pockets.