Wilting blackberry :(

[Steve Kind]

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.

[songbird]

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

[Steve Kind]

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 :)

[songbird]

Steve Kind wrote: ...

probably it. :)

songbird