Growing Berries at Home — Raspberries, Blueberries & More
A delectable secret is hiding in plain sight - some of the priciest fruits in the grocery are actually some of the easiest fruits to grow at home. Let's talk about berries. Home-grown berries are delicious, cheap, and quite easy to grow. They are also well-suited for tucking away along under-utilized edges, whether it be along a fence line or by the patio or deck. Full sun is preferred, but some will tolerate part-shade. Read on to learn more.
Raspberries & Blackberries
Raspberries & blackberries are often grouped together under the term "brambles", as many of the considerations pertaining to them are the same. One big difference is that raspberries don't require full sun to produce sufficiently. So if you've got an area that gets only 4 hours of sun a day you could still plant raspberries there. Blackberries, on the other hand, prefer full sun, so make sure they get at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day - they like it hot.
Brambles are cane-producing plants, and although each cane only lives for two years, the root system can persist for ten years, making your bramble patch a worthwhile investment. Keep in mind that brambles varieties can be grouped into two types - primocane and floricane. Primocane varieties will fruit the same year you plant them, while floricanes will only fruit the following year. This is because primocanes produce fruit on canes that grew this year, while floricanes produce fruit only on 2nd-year canes, i.e. canes that grew last year. This distinction also has some bearing on how you'll prune your brambles through the years. To ease pruning and management down the line, make sure to not plant primocane and floricane varieties all together in a single row.
Some other considerations:
Although many brambles have thorns, plenty of thornless varieties have been developed, and these may be especially suitable in kid-oriented plantings.
It is highly recommended to build some kind of supporting structure (i.e. trellis) for your brambles. A trellis keeps the canes off the ground and well-ventilated, boosting production, mitigating disease pressure, and making for easier harvest & maintenance. Searching the web will expose you to a variety of trellis systems - some easier to build and others harder, some more aesthetic and others more functional.
If birds get to your crop before you do, check out orchard netting - this is a UV-stabilized plastic netting that can be draped over your brambles to prevent access by the birds. When you're ready to harvest, just lift the netting, harvest, and place the netting back down.
And here's a final trick - different varieties produce at different times, so by planning out your varieties, you can stagger the harvest and have a steady stream of berries for a longer period of time. In contrast to a farm, where a single bountiful harvest may be most efficient, a home planting benefits from having a longer harvest window, so you're not overwhelmed by a large harvest, and berry production keeps pace with your berry eating.
Blueberries
The trick with blueberries is to get the soil acidity correct. They like it really acidic, on the order of 4.5-5 pH. Most gardening soils are not that acidic, so figure out the pH of your soil, then amend as necessary. There are multiple approaches to do this, but the more eco-friendly one, that does not rely on peat moss, involves mixing sulfur pellets into the soil and waiting three to four months, then retesting the pH to confirm the pH is correct. Once you get the acidity right, blueberries can live and produce for decades. That is one worthy investment. Plant at least two blueberries, as they need to pollinate each other. And here too you have the option of staggering your harvest by planting early season, mid-season, and late-season varieties together.
Honeyberries
This is a lesser known plant, but it is gaining in popularity. Honeyberries are native to much colder zones farther north in boreal forests, but some varieties have been bred to handle warmer weather such as ours. They are fetching shrubs getting to 3-6 ft. tall that can double as nice landscaping plants. The upshot of their cold-tolerant lineage is that they are the first berries to flower and produce. Another upshot is that they prefer some shade in our late and hot summer afternoons, so consider planting them in a location which gets some shade in the later part of the day. And finally, make sure you plant at least two, for cross-pollination.
And More...
Of course there are more berries to discuss - strawberries, serviceberries, currants, gooseberries, and hardy kiwi berries. Perhaps we'll cover them in future articles. For the time being, I hope this has whet your appetite.