By Grantboel
Is it allowed to sale berry plants, which have been grown using a rooting hormone ? And how to be aware of that ?
In our bad experience we ordered 12 raspberries plants from Willis Orchard Co(GA). We received them in the end of February-they were sticks with shaggy roots(2 years old), and now is July,never been a one leaf or one bud . So, all plants already long time are dead. With all our good soil and good futile care.We live in Statesville, NC .
Thank you,
Sincerely, Elena and Boris
15 Jul, 2012
Answers
If you have left them in the ground you may find that they will grow from the base. This has been my experience with new stock. Usually when you first plant new canes you cut all the tops down to just above the ground and this lets new growth come, which bears fruit the following year. Having said that they may have been bad stock.
16 Jul, 2012
Thank you very much for your answers. I'm still some way worry about buying eatable fruits plants grown with harmful rooting hormones.Is there some control on that sellers or not.
16 Jul, 2012
You are eating the fruit of the canes not the actual canes and the rooting 'hormone', powder, will have no effect on this. Given that raspberry canes produce lots of offshoots I wouldn't have expected the grower to use a rooting powder in any case but, if they have, the fruit is still safe to eat.
16 Jul, 2012
Raspberies are rarely grown using rooting hormones, but even if they were, since you don't get fruit until the second year, the rooting hormones would have long been metabolized by the plants. Since your plants didn't even grow, I would suspect that they became too hot or too cold, or dried out too much in shipping, and arrived dead. I would contact the grower about refunds or replacements.
16 Jul, 2012
We appreciate very much your messages about powder that make our worry so much. This company already send letter to us and the promise to replace most of plants.
Recently we were in Lowe's and noticed on shelf small bottle with name "Rutting Hormone"and there was a small brochure about this powder , and it says: do not use on plants that are to be used for food or feed. Probably we misunderstood that meaning.
Wishing you a good summer days!
17 Jul, 2012
In this case, those instructions were probably a means of covering their legal vulnerabilities--to be polite--against those who would dust their veggies with it a week before harvest. It sounds ridiculous, but I have seen stranger things in 27 years in the nursery trade! : /
18 Jul, 2012
Yes, we agree.
Thanks.
18 Jul, 2012
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I don't know about the USA but in the UK raspberry canes are usually sold 'barre rooted' in late autumn early spring. You plant them immediately you receive cut the can down to an inch or so and keep them well watered. How do you know they wre grown using a rooting hormone?
16 Jul, 2012