Now, to quickly answer your questions in case you don't want to read the entire article...Yes, there are different kinds of fertilizers. Plants have different needs when it comes to plant nutrition. Some need lots of nitrogen, while others will seemingly need no nitrogen at all. Also, some plants do best in acidic soils and there are fertilizers available that will help adjust the acidity of the soil so that your acid-loving plant will do better.

Hey Kadra...These are excellent questions, and I think many gardeners have similar ones. I actually wrote a plant care article on this very topic. If you copy and paste the following link into your web browser's URL, you will find the article that I wrote. http://easybloom.com/plantlibrary/care/why-do-i-need-to-fertilize-my-plants

Margaret, I'm happy to help :) Dr. Robby

To summarize everything, it sounds as though your last growing season was unfortunately wetter than would be suitable for a clay-based soil. Raspberries can grow in pretty much any soil as long as two criteria are fulfilled: 1) must drain well, 2) cannot be extremely acidic soil. (notice the use of the word "extremely"; slightly acidic soil is perfectly fine) To me, from what you have offered as possible reasons for your raspberries' symptoms, it sounds like the soil was soaked for too long which caused an oxygen stress (hypoxia; this was the basis for my PhD dissertation). I hope this is all helpful to you. As mentioned before, please feel free to ask more questions as I am always willing to answer them. Cheers...Dr. Robby

Additionally, it sounds like you're doing the right things with pruning. You might also want to prune off the canes as soon as your summer crop has been harvested. (That is of course if your raspberries produce a summer crop, which it sounds like it didn't happen last season.) If you prune everything to the ground, chances are you will go another season without berries because you would have pruned of the floral buds. You should always leave about 1 to 2 ft of cane to induce the lower buds to sprout and flower.

Hey Dr. Y...First off, it's my pleasure to respond to these forum posts. I saw a few key phrases that raised some red flags: "clay soil", "an inch of rain every week...", "no sign of disease"... The fact that you didn't see any signs of disease makes me think that you probably shouldn't use any fungicides or pesticides. You mentioned that the raspberries are planted on a hill side, which usually means the soil will drain well; however, you also mentioned that it was clay soil. There is likely a clay pan that all that rain couldn't penetrate easily and there was some stagnant water. The combination of clay soil and lots of rain can be a bad one. Also, members of the rose family, which raspberries are, are known to have trouble with pollination when it constantly rains.

Hey Kadra...You can likely go to a hardware store, garden center, or even a hydroponic supply store. Sounds like your grandma has an incandescent grow light bulb, which is what I would ask one of the associates at the store to help you find. Generally, these lights are used as supplements to natural light and will not completely replace them. There are other types of grow lights, but these require special manifolds to house the bulbs. An incandescent grow light bulb will fit in a normal light socket. The important thing for these grow lights is that they produce relatively more colors in the spectrum of light that the plants use for photosynthesis. Those colors are specifically red and blue. The light may still look to be white when you look at it, but it should be producing more red and/or blue light for the plants. I'm not too sure where you can buy these bulbs online, but I'm sure a simple web search on "incandescent grow light bulb" will result in some fine sites. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions...Dr. Robby

Hey Kadra...the 1/2 full bag of left over soil should be fine to use. I would pre-moisten the soil however. The old soil could have dried out considerably and sometimes wetting it can be troublesome. Also, if it's so hard that it has become a brick (or at least very hard), be sure to break it up some. You don't want the old soil to become a cement for your plants. If you fear that the old soil will not be able to provide the drainage that your plants probably will need, go ahead and purchase some perlite, sand or pumice pebbles. You can treat your soil with these amendments to increase proper drainage and air porosity. Also, if the old soil was impregnated with any kind of fertilizer, that fertilizer may have broken down, leached out, etc...You may want to add a little fertilizer (go light on the fertilizer at first) when you use this soil. I hope this information is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Cheers...Dr. Robby

I hope this is helpful. I apologize for the long diatribe on anything that could've caused a fruit production reduction in your raspberry. There are many possibilities, but my money would be on soil status. Of course if you have any further questions, please ask. I will try to keep it shorter next time. :) Cheers...Dr. Robby

Having said all this, my final advice comes from my first post on this issue. Raspberries do best with constantly moist soil that drains well. If your soil does not drain very well (there is consistently standing water after you water), then this may cause the issue. Also, standing water increases the humidity around your plant, which in turn increases the chance of fungal disease infection. Also, if there was a quick bout of water stress during the flower development, you could see the flower abortion. Basically, when it comes down to it, fruit production is a costly process. Flower abortion can be a result of many kinds of stress. By aborting the flowers, the plant will cut its losses before too much is invested in the next step (fruit production) when the plant is experiencing some type of environmental stress.