One month ago in early April I purchased dormant raspberry plants
(heritage variety).  I soaked the roots, prepared the soil, and
planted them in a well drained sunny spot.  They look like nothing is
happening.  How soon will I
know if the plants died or will eventually grow.  Each plant looks
like a little stick poking up out of the grown (brown and bark on the
stick) with no green on them.  Does the new growth come from the root
system up in the form of new green stalks of does the stick that was
attached to the root system grow.  I can't seem to find any
information.  I have gone to many websites that state how to plant but
never say how you know if that take or not how how the new growth
occurs from dormant starts.

Hi rjy73,

New shoots will start appearing out of the crown soon - don't give up
hope! If you want to, you can take a sharp knife and slice a bit of
the bark off - if it's nice and green, it's fine and dandy. However,
it would be best not to fuss over them too much, just give them a few
more weeks.

"All the new growth that will arise from the transplant will come from
primary buds just below the soil line. If one examines the crown of
the plant you will see 2-5 small buds or shoots just above the roots
at the base of the crown."
"It takes 4-6 weeks for new growth to start showing so we normally
leave 3-5 inches of the old top above the ground to 'mark the plant'
in the row."
http://www.weeksberry.com/BLACKBER.HTML

"The "sticks" may not put out any new growth; this will come only from
the shallowly planted buds of the root crown."
"Sounds like new canes will appear from the crowns shortly. If the old
ones were cut below the point of there being buds they won't put out
much new growth, if any."
"I'm getting new canes from the roots of the raspberries I planted
around six weeks ago; so wait a bit."
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/nwest/msg0413111121728.html

"The most common mistake with raspberries is planting them too deeply.
Raspberries are woody perennials that send up shoots from the ground
every year...when a rooted cutting is made, the cane is cut off and
discarded. The remainder of this cane, attached to the cutting, may
die back or sprout new leaves, but the root crown is the part that
will give rise to the new plant, and this is the portion that must
have access to light in order to grow. (See photo below.)"
http://www.sln.potsdam.ny.us/pgraspberries.html

Additional Links of Interest:

Raspberries for the Home Garden
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/horticulture/g1176.htm

Department of Horticulture
Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service ? West Lafayette, IN
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-44.pdf

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please post a
clarification request *before* closing/rating my answer and I'll be
happy to reply.

Thank you,
hummer

Google Search Terms Used:

planting rasberries new shoots
rasberries new shoots first year

Thank You!  The explination was great as were the photos and illustrations.