How to grow berries in your garden

Have a garden of berries ripe for the picking.

Enjoy blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, at their most nutritious and sweetest. This is possible by growing your own.

Best soil and sun for berries

Remember that all berries like full sun and well-drained soil. It is ideal to plant them in a gentle south-or east-facing slope, not in a hollow in which cold air collects.

Cover berries, especially strawberries and blueberries, with a net a few days before they ripen to protect them from birds.

How to plant berries

Better start with stocks that are resistant varieties and disease-free. It is not wise to plant them where eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes have been grown.

In starting strawberry bed, dig rotted compost or well-aged manure into the soil. Set plants about 8 inches apart in rows around 30 inches apart. Keep new leaf buds at soil level.

For new plants to become established before hot weather, set them out as early in the spring as possible. Before and during planting, keep their roots moist. Before planting, soak the roots of bareroot plants in a mixture of soil and water. For air circulation, keep ample space between plants.

During dry weather, water them. Preserve moisture by mulching with straw. Keep the ripening berries off the ground. Leave only one or two runner plants from every plant. Pick off blossoms the first year. Cover plants loosely with straw in the fall.

Keep them weed free. Yearly, prune old growth. To avoid damaging shallow roots, weed by hand, not by hoes and forks. Replace strawberry plants every few years, when they produce fewer and smaller fruits.

When to pick berries

Pick blackberries and blueberries at any hour, but before you begin, taste them for ripeness.

It is best to pick strawberries in the morning as soon as the dew has dried. Raspberries’ flavor is at its height in the late afternoon.

Some tips in growing berries

Blueberries like well-drained, very acid soil (pH 4.8). On the other hand, better use an acid (pH 5.5), moisture-retaining soil for boysenberries, raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, and loganberries. Grow them on a sunny spot.

As they are prone to viruses and diseases, plant raspberries and black raspberries 500 feet from one another and from any wild brambles. As soon as they finish fruiting, prune old canes and burn all prunings. (Read: A Poem about one’s beloved child and cheesecake with blue berries)

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