Bountiful Berries
Notes prepared by Karen Sutherland from Edible Eden Design
Berries are great produce plants to grow for several reasons. Although they have a reputation of being difficult to manage, in fact most berries are easy to grow and can be highly productive. Most fruit in their second year after planting, much more quickly than fruit trees. They are expensive to buy, as well as nutrient dense, so having them in your garden means you save money and benefit from their antioxidants, Vitamin C levels and other nutrients. Commercially grown berries have a high environmental cost, due to their packaging and refrigeration. So, let’s take a look at some we can grow in our back gardens.
Berries can grow on ground covering plants, shrubs and canes. Despite this, most berries have similar basic care requirements. They need rich and well-drained soil with lots of organic matter and need mulch around their roots. They need regular irrigation to grow and fruit well. Regular fertilizing will keep plants healthy, and they all require some sort of netting or protection to protect the fruits from birds.
Raspberries
Raspberry plants fruit best in full sun but can tolerate light shade. As plants sucker, they are best grown in a contained raised bed or similar, lined with geo-textile fabric. If growing them in a pot, a half wine barrel is best as plants need space to produce new canes each year. Canes can be trained against a fence-line, making it easy to net them, or grown inside wires threaded through steel posts.
There are two types of raspberries. Summer fruiting, produce at the beginning of summer and often have a smaller fruiting again in autumn. New canes should be tied in, as these will fruit next year. In winter, remove all canes that have fruited down to ground level.
Autumn fruiting plants produce in autumn and all canes are cut down to ground level in winter.
Thornless Blackberry
As these plants are sterile, they are legal to grow, unlike thorny weedy blackberries. Plants need a strong metal trellis, around 2 m high and 4 m wide, to be trained on. If you have a small garden or grow in pots, look for ‘Waldo’ as these plants only reach 1 – 2 m high and 1 – 2 m wide. Although they don’t spread by seeds, if the tips of the long canes touch the ground they do form roots and can spread that way, so plants need to be checked each winter when pruning. If you adjoin bushland or waterways you might consider not growing this plant.
During spring, summer and sometimes autumn, plants grow vigorous new canes that need to be tied in regularly, to avoid them becoming woody. If this happens and they can’t be trained where you want them, these canes may need to be removed, compromising next year’s harvest. In winter, cut back any canes that have fruited to ground level. Fruits ripen in summer and need to stay on the plant until fully ripe, to become sweet, although they are not as sweet as wild blackberries.
Blueberries
Although not the easiest to grow, these berries are super popular! If you follow a few simple rules, you can have bountiful amounts of blueberries.
Firstly, choose varieties suited to your climate. Cool climate gardeners should grow northern highbush types. Also choosing a mix of early, mid and late fruiting varieties will help spread your harvest,
Secondly, your plants need to grow in full sun to grow and fruit well. Thirdly, grow your plants in acidic soil of pH about 4-5, or use azalea potting mix. Check your soil with a pH tester kit before planting and adjust soil pH if necessary, as per instructions in the kit. Mulch your plants with (brown, not fresh) pine needles, such as old Christmas trees, to retain moisture and also because these help to increase acidity.
Number four, make sure your plants have perfect drainage and also don’t dry out. If you’re growing in pots, use self-watering pots to achieve this. Number five, fertilize with azalea fertilizer or a balanced mix of pelletized chicken manure, with added rock dust, seaweed, fish meal, blood & bone, in early spring as growth begins, then again 6 weeks later and again just after harvest.
Lastly, prune your plants according to your varieties’ needs.
Strawberries
These tasty berry plants are easy to grow if you know how. Choose a position in full sun. Strawberries are best grown in raised beds or large pots, if you can manage this, as they are more susceptible to pests and diseases when grown in the ground. Strawberry plants prefer a pH of 6.5 – 7. They like being mulched with pine needles, which helps discourage snails and slugs, keeps roots cool and also helps keep soil acidic. Grow a mix of early, mid and late season types and keep up the water in hotter weather. Remove runners when they appear to keep plants fruiting well and replace plants after 3 years.
Hope I’ve inspired you to find some space in your garden to grow some bountiful berries!