Project Updates

The Final Year of Research 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…

Continue Reading Berry Updates-Year Three Summary

The berries came back very strong this spring.  We thinned out the canes while they were still dormant and several varieties showed strong growth, although several also froze back to their bases. This winter was relatively mild, with low temperatures never below 0 so the die back was surprising and I am considering a protective cover over these more  sensitive varieties (see below).  Several varieties were frozen back to their bases and some varieties came back only partially up the cane. Here is a summary: 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…

Continue Reading Berry Update Spring 2012

Summary of Progress 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…

Continue Reading Berry Updates – Year Two Summary

This is the harvest record document used to track the harvest record for all berries.

Killarney Red Raspberries 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  

This post is a summary of what happened in the first year of the project. 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  

Here is a slideshow of some recent photos showing how well established the new berry planting is. For the best view, click the full screen button in the slideshow footer. [slidepress gallery=’july2010berries’]

Fences & Trellises 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.

Installing the woven ground cover 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.

The berries have started to bud out. Encore in particular is already in full leaf, Nova is showing leaves, and the rest of the varieties are just barely exposing buds. [slidepress gallery=’berries-may’]