Summer’s Work in the Berry Patch is in Full Swing

The berry season will soon be over and that means it’s time to tend to the berry patch. Serious times for a berry farmer. All those wonderful berries of black and blue will soon be a memory. To be ready for next year means a lot of hard hand work now.

For the blueberries, we do the final irrigation through the drip hose. At the same time we hand pull the weeds and grass from around each of the over 3,400 plants. We then weed trim the grass and weeds short between the plants. After that, we stretch the irrigation hose and make sure each plant is near a water emitter. The final step is to add about 1-2 cubic feet of shredded pine mulch around each plant. The mulch degrades to give the plant the acid and organic matter it needs and this also cools the roots and retains moisture in the summer. In the winter, it insulates the shallow roots. We have been working on the first 12 rows of berries planted in 2006 and 2007 and they look good.

The blackberries require a different set of work. The new canes and branches that will provide berries next year start to grow in early spring and by April or May you have to start to prune them off at about 3-1/2 feet. This is repeated every 3 weeks or so during the growing season. By the end of July, lateral or side branches have grown and they also need pruning. In August, after the last berry as been picked, the canes that produced this year’s berries die. Their death is measured. One day the cane is flush with bright green leaves and over a few days they all curl and wither turning brown. You can make no mistake which canes need to be pruned. They all have to be hand cut at ground level and pulled out of the trellis. This is about half the vegetation standing and is not an easy task. Once out, we burn the old canes to avoid spreading any virus they may have on them to the new brambles. We continue to prune the new canes until frost and in January cut each lateral branch 12-14 inches long. This sets the stage for the new growth in the spring.

Growing berries is a lot of work. It is much more than just mowing the grass so the berry patch looks nice. The good thing about all this is that our many customers appreciate what we do and how nice it is to pick here.

In the winter, we plan on planting more blackberry brambles and blueberry bushes to complete the 9 acre field. This will be a different set of tasks we will share later.