Berries

[littleminnie]

Thanks Larisa. I like the idea of putting them in after garlic.

do you think it would be better to do June bearing for CSAs? My boss just ordered 50 day neutral plants for $1 each I guess. I could have gotten in on that. I am still having problem motivating myself to not put all sweet potatoes there and to just get some berries. I would love to have berries for my CSAs. Maybe my lack of motivation comes from the fact that I am in the red right now business wise since my CSAs put some money down earlier and now will pay the rest in early June. A lot of cash will come in then but right now I hate buying more stuff. I just have to decide on these berries!

[littleminnie]

Now I am looking at that Nourse Farms. I am starting to think earliest June bearing would be best so that would fill in the CSA lack at that time of year. Of course not this season, but I have to start sometime. I have 50 feet available that can be several feet wide since it is on the edge. I am thinking of ordering 100 early plants. Comments?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

When I start a new strawberry bed, I set the initial plants about 18" apart. The runners fill in during the first growing season. So I'd put 3 dozen plants in a 50 foot row. At the start of the second growing season the bed is around 2 feet wide.

Around here, pricing on bare-root day-neutral strawberries from the nursery is around $4 to $6 per dozen. I haven't priced other varieties.

[12540dumont]

On May 30 with did a marathon Memorial Weekend planting of the Mara Des Bois Berries. We had berries by late August, and enough for the CSA in September. Granted they cost $54 + $15 for a phyto certificate. Plus the lumber for the raised bed, and extra compost and the irrigation. I suspect the final cost for planting to be just about $125 smackers. Over this weekend my son was out stuffing himself with berries. I think in 2 weeks I'll have them for the CSA. I did not let them runner the first year, so that I could get berries quicker. I signed a non-propagation agreement to get them.

The third year we are supposed to pull them out and replant. Since these kinds cannot be mowed, they do take some work to lift up their skirts and trim and pull out the brown leaves. Otherwise those plant decomposers get in there and make a mess of the berries.

They are a lot of work to pick. About an hour for a 50' bed. Plus the baskets to put them in. I'm lucky that my CSA collects them and saves them for me.

So you are right not to jump in without thinking of the early costs. I always start the season in a hole, and hopefully climb out by the time the corn is knee high.

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[littleminnie]

Now I am thinking of getting half early June bearing and half day neutral.
If I want my berries ripe in mid June should I get the earliest type or would that be earlier? Around here the U pick farms are open in late June.

[12540dumont]

Rueing the day I planted these blackberries. They are eating the artichoke bed. I'm going to have to hack them out.

You know the reason I chose the Mara des Bois, is because it reminds me of the wild berries that grow in the fields in Minnesota. As a child at Granny's, I would spend all morning hunting them in the meadow. Let me know what you end up choosing.

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[littleminnie]

The wild berries are awesome, but I think I want a variety that has larger fruit to ease picking.
Many varieties are now sold out as I am so slow to decide!
I am placing an order tonight.

[oxbowfarm]

We do strawberries but a little more conventional than some of the rest of the folks on this thread. We've been using the California plasticulture system without the plastic, but we've decided to switch to a modified plasticulture system using heavy duty woven rowcover with planting holes burned into that can be re-used. I cannot bring myself to do conventional black plastic and we cannot afford to use the Bio-Telo bioplastic yet because the rolls are very expensive and we cannot justify a whole 5000 ft roll for the small amount of strawberries we put down.

The variety we've been using is Chandler which is an obsolete California berry but has worked well for organic growers using the annual bed system here in the northeast. Basically we start the number of Chandler tips we need in 50 cell plug sheets under an el cheapo homemade mister for about 2.5 weeks till they are rooted in. We start them in about mid-August. Then you treat them like any old flat of transplants for two more weeks or so and then transplant them into the field mid-September, with a good rain or nice soaking from some overhead sprinklers. Then you have to just keep the effing deer off till you cover them with row cover for the winter.

We found that we can sometimes get away with harvesting our own tips off an old planting and we've done that a few times. That is way cheaper but you definitely will get some dud plants from viruses and such. I'm sure that after a few years they would start going down-hill from viral junk. You can get guaranteed virus free tips from nurseries in Canada and there are also some down in North Carolina. We have some family in Canada so it is cheaper for us to drive up and have a fun visit and get our tips, but we are relatively close to Canada, otherwise it would be better to get them overnighted from a place in the states.

We had been transplanting them into beds that were thickly mulched with straw and that worked pretty great with outdoor strawberries, but I wanted to try pushing the berries and pulling a hoophouse over them early in the spring to try and get super-early berries. It seems that the mulch is my enemy in the hoophouse. I got A LOT more frost damage on the ones in the hoophouse than the outdoor berries, even with row cover over them on cold nights.

What seems to be happening is that the mulch is insulating the soil (of course) and so the soil isn't soaking up all that extra heat provided by the hoophouse. The air temp in the strawberry house is noticeably higher than in the other houses with unmulched crops, I attribute that to the fact that the soil is not acting as a heat sink in there. Likewise at night, the mulch keeps the soil from warming the air under the row cover and thus I get frost damage. So I'm switching to the woven landscape fabric, at least for the hoophouse berries. We'll see how that goes, every year is an adventure, I'm still in the hunt for May-bearing strawberries!
Here's a pic of the mister, these are already pretty well rooted into plugs.

[littleminnie]

Ok I have 75 plants due to arrive tomorrow- 50 june bearers of 2 different varieties and 25 day neutral. I prepped the bed today and have the straw on already. I wish I had had some sulfur to acidize the soil.

Should I put the June bearers in and then the day neutral at the end of the bed? I can't think of any other way to do it.
I suppose I should do 2 staggered rows in my bed so the runners can form- rather than 3? And I pinch all flowers on the June bearers (that will suck because it will be under FRC) and the flowers through June on the day neutrals? Is that right? Maybe netting would be a better idea on hoops?
Then you don't renovate the first year of the June bearers right? and not at all on the day neutral?
I just want to get it all straight before planting.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 8, 2012 21:33:23 GMT -5 littleminnie said:

And I pinch all flowers on the June bearers (that will suck because it will be under FRC) and the flowers through June on the day neutrals? Is that right?

I just plant them and harvest whatever berries are produced the first year.

[potter]

Apr 17, 2012 22:08:44 GMT -5 littleminnie said:

Should I start some strawberry seed now to plant out later or what? I am ignorant about berries.
So the raspberries aren't a bad idea right?

I can't see why not starting now..sooner you get them going sooner you will be cropping..though it propably won't be until next year now. (I'm not familiar of your climate)

At the moment I have about dozen different alpine/wild -type strawberry varieties potted in GH..over hundred plants altogether + all the big fruiting garden strawberries. All those are ready to go into ground in next couple of weeks..as soon as I have opportunity and time for it...and I've got another 6 varities in order..some old historical varieties from Holland.. ;D..next year is going to be BIG strawberry year... ;D
Most of alpine types are grown from seed, though once they grow bushy, they are easy then multiply by division.

[mnjrutherford]

Raspberries? Bad idea? WELLLLLlll... I'm not really thrilled about the ones I have. They don't produce well, they are nasty bug salad, they sucker like crazy, and they are thorny as all get out. So, personally, I say no. However, I DO love my "Apache" thornless blackberries. They do quite nicely, productive, large fruit, easy to pull out the spent floracanes at the end of the season, NO THORNS, they sucker enough to make them easy to propogate. You won't make a better batch of jam nor a tastier "Bubbly Pie" than with these fat juicy berries.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Just remember, I'm in North Carrotlina so things are a good bit different here.

[littleminnie]

I planted my 78 berry plants tonight after work. I started putting bird netting on but it got dark. One of my landlords was talking to me when I was putting the hoops in. Not that there is anything for deer to eat now.

So that is done.

[richardw]

I'm really into Marion berries myself,to me they are one of the nicest tasting fruits around,though they only have a small window when the flavour is at its best,unlike raspberries they dont send out suckers.

[mnjrutherford]

I'd like to try Marion berries. Actually, I've been on the lookout for boysenberries which I THINK (have been led to believe) are similar in flavor to Marion berries. In fact, this thread got me back on track in that vein and I made a request from GRIN for PI 553258 - COR - Rubus loganobaccus. It's a thornless variety which is in line with my desire for relatively "pain free" landscape. I also requested 5 varieties of hazelnut, 3 strawberries, 1 sugar beet, and 3 red clovers. I also asked them about acquiring some alder tree samples. We shall have to see what occurs from here.