Raspberry plant not looking good?

[catfishhoward]

My Fall Gold, Baba & Heritage just finished fruiting, here are a couple pictures of the cane that didn't bud out of the lower branches, these plants were planted last year in June from root stock plants and didn't fruit last year. Any idea way these buds didn't fruit on the lower half?

Additional info: I watered these plants every 2-3 days last year in the 80-90 degrees, I didn't really water them this winter, had about 3" mulched leaves around the plants, I planted them with nice soil and I didn't fertilize this spring? There are a lot of tree roots in this area as well. They are in 50/50 sun/shade in Atlanta, GA.

[JONA]

One question CFH,
We're these canes ones that grew last year?
Primo canes crop on one year old wood.
So any canes left over winter will only crop on the new wood that's produced on the ends of the existing cane.
A lot of growers cut the plant completely down to ground level so that all the cane is new. This will come into crop and then continue until the first frosts.
Some though leave a few old canes so that they give a few fruits earlier in the season.

[catfishhoward]

I see, since they are everbearing they should have fruited last fall from the lower buds which they didn't and from the top buds this summer. They were just planted last summer so maybe this year they'll do better, they are producing lots on new shoots so will see. Thanks.