I bought a very sick looking tayberry two years ago. With much tlc it produced 4 very long shoots last year, but did not flower and fruit. There are no signs of new shoots at the moment. Do I cut these old shoots down to ground level? I am a bit worried as they cannot really be called old fruited canes.
Di Willis
Photographs courtesy of Adrian Baggaley; see also comment below by Adrian.
For more on the Tayberry see our main web-site: The Origin of the Tayberry by Derek Jennings, who raised this fruit and The Glorious Tayberry by Ian Harrison, a great admirer of the tayberry.
Under no circumstances should last years new growth be cut down. There should be fruit on those canes this summer. After cropping then the old canes can be cut down. I find that they take a while to establish, then they get quite vigorous and may produce twenty plus canes after a few years. As you can see from the picture (above) the new growth comes from below ground.
Over the years there has been much debate as to whether the spineless Tayberries are as good croppers as the ones with spines, mine has spines and is a superb cropper; flavour is excellent.
Help please. Are new shoots on my two year old tayberry with 5 leaves rather than 3 leaves just suckers and should I attempt to pull them out?
If these new shoots are coming from the ground, close to the base of the plant, then they will carry next year’s fruit and should be retained, if they are new growth on the plant they would normally bear fruit this year. Any new growth well away from the plant could be from other plants or even seedlings. I don’t remember counting leaves. A photograph might be useful?