Raspberries Not Ripening Evenly

[chell123]

Hello;

I have a raspberry patch where the berries are ripening unevenly and I was hoping someone might have some insight into the problem.

Basically the bottom half of the berry ripens ahead of the top half. This happens to the vast majority of the berries. When the bottom half is ready for picking, the top half is unripe. By the time the top half gets ripe, the bottom half is overripe or starting to go bad.

Michelle

[applestar]

I have two ideas —

1. Has it been hot where you are? I’m finding better berries hidden under the canopy. You may have to devise shade cloth or something?

2. Upper portion of the berries are prone to predation by sucking pests like stinkbugs and beetles. Is it possible what you think is unripe is actually less plump?

… thought of a 3rd — maybe like fused blossom tomatoes, the berries are being unevenly pollinated — high humidity, rain, etc. so that as you described, bottom part of the berry’s individual drupelets are on pollinated first and upper part not until a few days later….

ONE MORE
*** If you are not seeing enough pollinating insects ***
You might have better luck if you run a soft watercolor paintbrush or maybe cotton swabs over the flowers to assist in pollinating them.

[BloomingBrilliant]

Hey Michelle! That's definitely strange, uneven ripening can be frustrating!

I've heard of this happening due to inconsistent watering, especially during fruit development. Maybe some parts of the patch get less sun or are a bit windier?