Berries
Aside from grapes, we grow blueberries, Doyle's Thornless Blackberries, strawberries and Hardy Kiwi.
Aiding us in our efforts are a host of bees, wasps and assorted flies to pollinate our berries, fruits and veggies. Honeybees alone pollinate over a third of our nation's food supply and 90% of wild plants. Wasps and other beneficial insects - besides pollinating - help keep the bad bugs in check.Without these busy workers our lives would be much poorer. Daily our hands are poking around the garden among the bees and wasps. They pretty much leave us alone and ignore us. Often our hands are inches from them and they do not care. You only get attacked if you wave your arms wildly or threaten their nests.
Ground hornets or wasps are one exception. They like to build their nests in rodent burrows. Accidentally roll over them with a lawn mower and you will immediately get attacked. If this happens, wait till nighttime and pour in abut 3 cups of liquid ammonia into each hole. Large nests in trees or on your house can also be a problem. Generally we leave all the wasps and hornets alone unless they become a threat to us. After all they are helping reduce the population of bad bugs and helping with pollination. A single small wasp nest can kill thousands of bad bugs in your garden.
Growing wild are thorned blackberries - they grow everywhere in our yard, that is not cultivated, and is is time consuming to cut these fast growing, invasive brambles back every year. They have huge thorny canes. The quickest way to cut them down is with a scythe. They taste okay but are seedy and on the small side.
The SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila, aka Asian Fruit Fly) attacks all of these berries and grapes except for possibly the Hardy Kiwi which has a thick skin. We keep experimenting with ways to protect our fruit from these nasty invaders from overseas - nets, bags, etc. Unlike in East Asia, locally there seem to be few natural local predators to keep these in check. SWD is a recent invader in our area (Connecticut) - first seen in 2011. We did not see them on our site until 2018. Here is information on the SWD from UCONN.
Aiding us in our efforts are a host of bees, wasps and assorted flies to pollinate our berries, fruits and veggies. Honeybees alone pollinate over a third of our nation's food supply and 90% of wild plants. Wasps and other beneficial insects - besides pollinating - help keep the bad bugs in check.Without these busy workers our lives would be much poorer. Daily our hands are poking around the garden among the bees and wasps. They pretty much leave us alone and ignore us. Often our hands are inches from them and they do not care. You only get attacked if you wave your arms wildly or threaten their nests.
Ground hornets or wasps are one exception. They like to build their nests in rodent burrows. Accidentally roll over them with a lawn mower and you will immediately get attacked. If this happens, wait till nighttime and pour in abut 3 cups of liquid ammonia into each hole. Large nests in trees or on your house can also be a problem. Generally we leave all the wasps and hornets alone unless they become a threat to us. After all they are helping reduce the population of bad bugs and helping with pollination. A single small wasp nest can kill thousands of bad bugs in your garden.
Growing wild are thorned blackberries - they grow everywhere in our yard, that is not cultivated, and is is time consuming to cut these fast growing, invasive brambles back every year. They have huge thorny canes. The quickest way to cut them down is with a scythe. They taste okay but are seedy and on the small side.
The SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila, aka Asian Fruit Fly) attacks all of these berries and grapes except for possibly the Hardy Kiwi which has a thick skin. We keep experimenting with ways to protect our fruit from these nasty invaders from overseas - nets, bags, etc. Unlike in East Asia, locally there seem to be few natural local predators to keep these in check. SWD is a recent invader in our area (Connecticut) - first seen in 2011. We did not see them on our site until 2018. Here is information on the SWD from UCONN.
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The 'Illinois Everbearing' Mulberry tree we planted grew virgoursly and healthy and was a beautiful tree, but it grows too high, too fast and shaded other garden areas so we needed to remove it. The Mulberries were fair in taste but you needed a long ladder to climb up and reach them. I prefer short trees and bushes that I do not need to climb. One slip and fall might result in being laid up for a long recovery time.
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Strawberries love to spread and grow beyond the area planted.
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Our Wild Blackberries
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Our Cultivated Doyle's Thornless Blackberries
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Our Cultivated Doyle's Thornless Blackberries
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For Doyle's Thornless Blackberries, the soil pH needs to be between 5.0 and 6.5. If the pH is above 6.5 they will die or do poorly. This variety is non-invasive and does not spread like the wild ones. These are very productive and produce large tasty berries that I use to make Blackberry Brandy. They are fermented similar to grapes when making wine.
Production was very low in years 1-4; years 5 & beyond however are very productive - from 5 plants obtained a total of 3 gallons of berries which produced 4 wine bottles of brandy).
Sandy loam is best for all brambles as the loam retains the moisture and nutrients while the sand lets excess water escape. Good drainage is important, everything else is secondary.
Production was very low in years 1-4; years 5 & beyond however are very productive - from 5 plants obtained a total of 3 gallons of berries which produced 4 wine bottles of brandy).
Sandy loam is best for all brambles as the loam retains the moisture and nutrients while the sand lets excess water escape. Good drainage is important, everything else is secondary.
Our Hardy Kiwi Trellis, 2014
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Our Hardy Kiwi Trellis, 2017
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Details of Hardy Kiwi Trellis, 2014
The leaves of our Hardy Kiwi are healthy and beautiful
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This is a Hardy Kiwi berry - it is about the size of a grape. This trellis can produce thousands of these. In the store they sell for about $7 per pound.
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Hardy kiwi grows beautifully with healthy leaves and fruit using no sprays. You need a male and female vine to get berries. We planted two of each on a trellis in 2014 and they started bearing fruit 3 years later in 2017. The berries are about the size of grapes and have a smooth skin with no fur. They taste just like the large kiwi available from warmer areas.
Kiwi are pruned just like grape vines, that is, fruit grows on shoots emerging from one-year old vines. So, at the end of the season, keep the trunk but remove all the 2-year-old wood. Only leave wood from this seasons growth - fruiting shoots will grow from this in the next season.
Harvest usually takes place in late September and the fruit are picked before they are ripe. Fruit taste better when picked, refrigerated and ripened as opposed to ripened on the vine.
To determine when to pick, harvest a few fruit and allow them to soften for a few days. When fruit ripens to a suitably sweet flavor, harvest all of the fruit and refrigerate them. Fruit will store in the refrigerator for five to six weeks. Removal from the refrigerator initiates softening and ripening and should be done several days before eating. If you have too much to eat within 5 to 6 weeks, take them out of the frig, ripen them, then freeze them.
Here is an excellent YouTube video providing directions on how to construct this trellis.
You can get trellis supplies from Kencove Farm Fence Supplies.
Kiwi are pruned just like grape vines, that is, fruit grows on shoots emerging from one-year old vines. So, at the end of the season, keep the trunk but remove all the 2-year-old wood. Only leave wood from this seasons growth - fruiting shoots will grow from this in the next season.
Harvest usually takes place in late September and the fruit are picked before they are ripe. Fruit taste better when picked, refrigerated and ripened as opposed to ripened on the vine.
To determine when to pick, harvest a few fruit and allow them to soften for a few days. When fruit ripens to a suitably sweet flavor, harvest all of the fruit and refrigerate them. Fruit will store in the refrigerator for five to six weeks. Removal from the refrigerator initiates softening and ripening and should be done several days before eating. If you have too much to eat within 5 to 6 weeks, take them out of the frig, ripen them, then freeze them.
Here is an excellent YouTube video providing directions on how to construct this trellis.
You can get trellis supplies from Kencove Farm Fence Supplies.
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Blueberries - some are ripening while others are still green. They are harvested over several weeks. Different varieties have different harvest windows, so for a longer picking season plant early, mid-season and late varieties.
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After the bees polinate your Blueberries, cover with netting to keep the birds from eating your whole harvest.
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I Dug a bed for Blueberries 18" deep
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Then filled 14" deep with 50:50 peat moss: coarse sand, planted bare-root bushes in October, then topped it off with 4" of Pine Bark Mulch
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The above chart shows the harvest window for each common variety of Blueberries.
Blueberry pollen is sticky and heavy. It cannot move on its own and it is not easily blown around by the wind. Furthermore, the shape and position of blueberry flower parts effectively prevent the pollen from falling onto a receptive stigma. Therefore, in order to set fruit, the flowers of a blueberry plant must be pollinated by insects.
The primary pollinators are honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees. So, protect your insects by not spraying poisons.
Soil acidity is very important. Blueberries like an acid soil with a pH of 4.5 to 4.8. The ideal soil is a mix of 50:50 peat moss to coarse ("Concrete") sand. This mix has the perfect pH.
To plant the blueberries, I dug out the native heavy clay soil 18" deep and in its place filled it 14" deep with the 50:50 mix, then topped it off with 4" of Pine Bark Mulch - the best mulch for Blueberries. With each layer mixed and filled, I added water with the garden hose to dampen the peat moss.
I planted 3-year-old bare root bushes Oct 12 that I bought from DiMeoFarms. In the Spring, the blueberry bed is topped with fertilizer.
Blueberry pollen is sticky and heavy. It cannot move on its own and it is not easily blown around by the wind. Furthermore, the shape and position of blueberry flower parts effectively prevent the pollen from falling onto a receptive stigma. Therefore, in order to set fruit, the flowers of a blueberry plant must be pollinated by insects.
The primary pollinators are honey bees, bumble bees, and solitary bees. So, protect your insects by not spraying poisons.
Soil acidity is very important. Blueberries like an acid soil with a pH of 4.5 to 4.8. The ideal soil is a mix of 50:50 peat moss to coarse ("Concrete") sand. This mix has the perfect pH.
To plant the blueberries, I dug out the native heavy clay soil 18" deep and in its place filled it 14" deep with the 50:50 mix, then topped it off with 4" of Pine Bark Mulch - the best mulch for Blueberries. With each layer mixed and filled, I added water with the garden hose to dampen the peat moss.
I planted 3-year-old bare root bushes Oct 12 that I bought from DiMeoFarms. In the Spring, the blueberry bed is topped with fertilizer.
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We planted three cherry trees. After a few years, one died for unknown reasons. The other two ('Black York' and 'Regina') remained healthy. However, the birds get all the cherries, so we do not bother with these. The trees are too tall to use ladders and netting. I removed a second of these trees because it was shading some grape vines, so only one cherry tree remains.