My Tiny PlotIron Deficiency in Raspberries
If your Raspberry leaves are starting to look like this, kind of variegated and in some cases a bit yellow, they probably have an iron deficiency, and possibly a manganese deficiency too. I know because mine look like this!
I first noticed it a few weeks ago and actually thought it made the whole plant look a bit more interesting. But I looked it up in my edition of ‘Growing Fruit’. And, yep, there it was, iron deficiency.
The book recommended reducing the amount of water I gave to the plants in the short term and in the long term applying iron sulphate (bought from garden centre) to increase the iron in the soil. And if that doesn’t cure it some Epsom Salts to top up the manganese.
I will also be culling the canes (again) this Winter as I still have way too many Raspberries and I think the close proximity to each other is aggravating their growing conditions. It’s all go in the Raspberry bed right now!
Epsom salts don’t contain manganese (if that is in fact what you’re after) Epsom salts = MgSO4ยท7H2O = magnesium sulfate.
I hope you manage to restore them! Raspberry Crumble is one of my all time favourite desserts so I’ll hold thumbs for you!!! x
I’m new to raspberries and have been loving the fact that mine have fruited twice and keep popping up new shoots everywhere, although I think they might take over the garden soon. Interested to read that you will be culling some of yours. Should I cut them all back to ground in the autumn or leave them be?
I didn’t know that raspberries had this problem. My raspberries have the problem of being swamped by nettles!!
Timely post – mine have looked like this for a while and I kept meaning to look it up!
It hasn’t really affected the crop this year – I have more than I know what to do with again (jam anyone?!)