This year we experienced out first real production from the berries. several varieties produced well, while several others did not produce well at all. The less productive varieties where the same varieties that froze back to the ground last winter. Some varieties produced a late crop in September, but these were hurt this year by a lack of water – our irrigation went off August 2, about a month earlier than usual. We did have a couple of rains later in the season, but it wasn’t enough and the berries clearly suffered from the stress caused by  lack of water.

The link below takes you to the embedded data table where we tracked all of the harvest from the last three years. Each variety was trapped in each harvest was recorded. Also we took several measurements of berry size by counting the number of berries required to fill Half pint container. Please note that the link below contains a spreadsheet with two separate sheets one she is for the quantity harvested, the other sheet is for the berry sizes.

View Berry research data tables

Summary of Findings

Overall one of the biggest overall conclusions was the importance of frost hardy varieties for our area. Even in the mild winter of 2011 – 2012, several varieties froze to the ground greatly reducing the following years harvest. Another important conclusion from the commercial harvesting perspective, is that blackberries are much easier to pick than raspberries. The thornless BlackBerry varieties we grew were exceptionally easy to deal with and harvest off of. In addition, the consistently large berry size of the BlackBerries meant that filling pints of berries went much more quickly. As I add to the Berry patch I plan to plant mostly BlackBerries from this point on.

The Berry Varieties – Observations & Results

Freeze Sensitivity

• Killarny Red Raspberry
• Triple Crown thornless Blackberry (very long canes, ends died back)
• Chester Thornfree Blackberry (very long canes, even more died back)
• Encore Summer Fruiting Raspberry
• Nova Summer Fruiting Raspberry
• Bristol Summer Fruiting Black Raspberry
• Encore Summer Fruiting Raspberry
• Nova Summer Fruiting Raspberry

Size and Ease of Picking

Picking berries is hard work, even with the plants tied up on trellises, picking involves plenty of hunting through thorny canes. The reward is a delicious crop, but for the farm to profit, it also needs to be quick enough to pick that it pays to hire someone to pick it.

The raspberries were generally small and it took an average of 109 raspberries to fill a 6 oz container. The blackberries were consistently larger, with the smallest blackberry matching the largest raspberry. It took an average of only 41 blackberries to fill a 6 oz container. In addition, the thornless blackberries were truly thorn free, almost soft to the touch. they were a pleasure to work in, for all stages of production – pruning, trellising and harvest. Unless the market becomes saturated, I would plant these thornless blackberries over any of the other berries. Chester stands out as the biggest producer in out trials. On the raspberry side, Kilarny was the clear winner, producing early and over a long period with large berry size. Bristol, the only black raspberry in our trial, was also a large producer, and although the berries were small on average, they were borne in exposed clusters, making them a bit easier to harvest.

Final Pictures

These pictures show the drought damage on some of the berries this year.

• Heritage was frozen back to the ground., all new growth is coming from the roots and we will need to thin these as they are very thick.
• Polana was frozen back and came back from the ground
• Kilarny showed strong early growth with no winter freeze damage.
• Triple Crown gap crown came back strongly but longer canes were partially frozen, these were very long canes and the top half are frozen.
• Chester was frozen back even further down, lower on the canes.
• Bristol showed little sign of any damage.
• Nova showed little sign of damage.
• Encore showed little damage.

The slideshow below shows each variety. The photos are in pairs, the 1st being the row end label, the next being a shot of the canes around May 21st 2012.

Well established plantings.

This spring we completed the trellis building project and set up the berries for trellising. Over the summer we have continued to tie the berries to the T shaped wire trellises – setting the stage for next year’s harvest. Some canes have reached the top wires (at 5′) and continued to grow feet beyond (we are tying these back to the trellises). Other varieties have just reached the mid-wire height (around 3′). Each berry page on this site includes a picture of the berry on that page where the growth can be seen visually. See the Berry varieties page.

We harvested berries for around six weeks in the spring, picked 2 or 3 times a week, but rarely getting over a pint of any particular variety. Because of the limited quantity we weren’t abe to get a berry size (obtained by counting berries per pint). This fall a couple of varieties have started producing again and we are calculating size on these which are producing more. The harvest was very limited this year, but the patch has continued to get more established and has filled in quite a bit. This fall we will thin the berries where they have filled in to around one cane per foot on average.

Some berries showed signs of nutrient deficiencies early in the season (especially Encore), but cleared up after some time. I am injecting fertilizer into the irrigation system and plan to add a micronutrient rich kelp based fertilizer to the mix soon (so far I’ve used a fish based product).

Harvest Report

Polana

The second year overall harvest were low. The initial year did establish a nice patch of berries, but the vines didn’t grow that far, most reaching just 2-4′. Then, our area suffered a colder than normal winter and many of the 1st year vines were frozen back to the ground.  The lack of established vines greatly reduced harvest.

This fall we have had a resurgence of two varieties – Polana, which is producing a large flush of huge fruit on this year’s canes (primocanes) and Heritage – considered a very reliable producer – which is also filling in. These berries are coming in later than usual, they should be earlier in most years.

The harvest records spreadsheet clearly shows the low quantities. The record also shows the late harvest we are experiencing now. This year everything has been 2-3 weeks later than usual  - for all our crops, vegetables and fruits alike. See the Harvest Records page.

Next Year

Looking forward to next year, I am anticipating a much larger harvest and a better understanding of the relative merits of each of the berry varieties we are trialing. The harvest should be significantly larger – the established vines are much stronger and larger than last fall.

Fall 2011 Berry Patch Photos

Click here to view the spreadsheet in a new window.

Medium size canes, a bit taller than Boyne. Killarney is a light honey-red, and is extremely sweet for a raspberry. In fact, the bees prefer these to all others, which can make picking a bit challenging at times. Tends to bear in clusters that weight down the canes, so support is recommended. Summer bearing

First Year Accomplishments

• Established planting area for berries
• Set up complete irrigation system for berries
• Plant all berries, with ground cover
• Build Elk/Deer fencing to protect planting
• Establish website  berries.roundearth.com to track all project progress
• begin building berry trellising

Check out the progress so far on the berry research project website

Work continues in the new berry planting area. The fence is now nearly complete – all the posts are in, with both heights of high tinsel wire stretched and the final lengths of barb going on today. The contractor I hired to do the work has been steadily chipping away at what seemed like a huge project when it began and the fence is just a week or two away from being done.

While Dave was out working on the fence, i wend ahead and had him dig the holes we need for the trellis ends. I went around and dug small pilot holes for him, and he made quick work of digging the 32 holes I need for the trellis ends.  We begin work on the trellis poles inside the beds this week.

The Berries!

Quite a few berries are actually growing in this initial planting, so it looks like we will have a small crop this year. I still need to do some clearing and ground work so i can get into the rown to mow down the grass and alfalfa thats come back between the row covers.

The slideshow below shows some recent shots of the developing plot.

The task of laying the ground cover out, to cover each side of the eight trellised berry rows has begun. I dug the side furrows with the tractor, this furrow takes the outer edge of the ground cover fabric, while the inner edge is pinned down with a 6″ ground staple along the berry row. This process is very labor intensive with lots of rocks to clear, digging and pinning. I’ll try to take some more detailed shots of this part of the project soon, but for now here is a far-off shot of the berries with the (black) ground fabric visible.

Installing the drip system

A single line of 1/2″ embedded drip emitter tubing runs along each row of berries. These tubes are partially buried and completely under the row cover.  The have built in, low flow emitters every 12″; designed to be run for a long period of time they will soak each bed thoroughly. I will post some more pictures of the system details soon. The lines are almost complete and the system should be ready to pressurized shortly!