I have had a cultivated blackberry briar (Bedfordshire something I think) growing on my fence for 24 years. Each year it puts up a new stem (in it's early days it was 2) which grows up to 18 feet in the course of the year while last year's growth is bearing fruit. In the winter I cut the old growth right back to the base, leaving the new stem to bear fruit the following summer.

Yesterday I noticed that this year's new stem, currently about three feet tall, had flopped over - the six inches of green growth at the end is completely flacid There is no sign of damage or withering leaves yet - but this morning it looks even limper.

Looking at the current fruiting stem, I reckon it has a lot less flowers than I'd expect for the time of year, and only on the lower half.

Do blackberry briars simply die of old age??? Or is this a disease? Is there anything I can do?

Advice gratefully recieved.

Steve Kind wrote:

I have had a cultivated blackberry briar (Bedfordshire
something I
think) growing on my fence for 24 years. Each year it puts up a
new
stem (in it's early days it was 2) which grows up to 18 feet in
the
course of the year while last year's growth is bearing fruit.
In the
winter I cut the old growth right back to the base, leaving the
new
stem to bear fruit the following summer.

Yesterday I noticed that this year's new stem, currently about
three
feet tall, had flopped over - the six inches of green growth
at the
end is completely flacid There is no sign of damage or
withering
leaves yet - but this morning it looks even limper.

Looking at the current fruiting stem, I reckon it has a lot
less
flowers than I'd expect for the time of year, and only on the
lower
half.

Do blackberry briars simply die of old age??? Or is this a
disease? Is
there anything I can do?

Advice gratefully recieved.

how is the other cane doing?

could be a lot of things,
can you describe the surroundings
more? has anything changed?
has the neighbor sprayed it with
herbicide? have you fertilized the
surrounding area recently? has
something else been changed or
dug up in the area?


songbird

The other cane (this year's fruiting cane) looks healthy - though I think there may be less flowers on it than usual.

The only change I can think of is that the briar is right next to an outside toilet that we are re-furbishing. A couple of weeks ago we laid new concrete on the existing cracked and broken floor - it is possible that some limey water seeped down to the roots. When I thought of this yestrday I doused the area round the cane with rainwater from the tanks - and it rained heavily later. This morning the droopy stem is beginning to come upright again

Steve Kind wrote:
....
The other cane (this year's fruiting cane) looks healthy -
though I
think there may be less flowers on it than usual.

The only change I can think of is that the briar is right next
to an
outside toilet that we are re-furbishing. A couple of weeks ago
we
laid new concrete on the existing cracked and broken floor - it
is
possible that some limey water seeped down to the roots. When I
thought of this yestrday I doused the area round the cane with
rainwater from the tanks - and it rained heavily later. This
morning
the droopy stem is beginning to come upright again

probably it.


songbird