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gardenerwannabe6

garden planning question

gardenerwannabe6
13 years ago

We've had a small market garden for 2 yrs. and would like to add berries/fruit. We have about 4,000 sq ft of growing space. My plan was to plant 1200 sq ft of strawberries, but after researching, I realize they don't produce the 1st season. Someone said the day neutrals produce well the first season. The downside is that I will have to leave them all season to get a decent crop. My question: should I plant june bearing and just wait til the 2nd year for a good harvest (and bigger berries)? OR would it potentially be profitable enough to keep berries in the ground all spring/summer/fall?? We are planning to have a mini-upick this year instead of going to market. Realizing that berries are a big draw for folks, we could bring berries in from another farm as another option for this year if we decided to wait on the strawberries. Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.....Thanks!

Comments (6)

  • cowpie51
    13 years ago

    gardenerwannabe6 - that is a good solid plan, i like the june bearing,one good harvest. some people that i know have both
    everbearing and junebearing.
    4000sq. ft. thats what-40 by 100. thats a lot of berries. check what kind of yield to expect and talk to growers in your area to find out the best variety for your area. mark

  • rjinga
    13 years ago

    gardenerwannabe6...I dont know where you plan to get your berries, BUT, I will tell you that 2 years ago (I skipped almost all gardening and growing this past year for another venture) I purchased bare root strawberries for resale, what I had left over, I planted in my raised bed garden area.

    I planted I'd say only about 100? plants, I had BERRIES everywhere and they were both June and everbearing plants. I dont know where you heard that they dont produce the first year, THEY PRODUCE and they only WONT produce if you deliberately remove the flowers, which in that large of a space would be some serious work.

    If you read on the fruit forum of GW, you'll hear many sides of both sides of that fence. And overall, I believe that it is NOT necessary to "skip" a season. Plant them (they will grow and produce) pick them and eat them. I dont think that there is enough evidence to support that it's better to pull flowers off the first year. But go there and read what the "pros" say. It's easy enough to find the articles on this topic.

  • myfamilysfarm
    13 years ago

    I know they don't recommend allowing the berries to produce fruit the first year, but I usually plant my plants in late summer/early fall and the next year, the produce like crazy. Once they get planted, I don't do anything except some mulch for over the winter.

    Marla

  • gardenerwannabe6
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Cowpie - do you grow your strawberries as annuals or do you get successive seasons out of one planting?

    rjinga-I guess I'm mainly concerned that the square footage taken up w/ strawberries will be productive enough to validate the space...Do you leave your everbearings in all summer? Do they produce well all summer or fizzle? You said your June bearing even produce well the first season. Could you estimate the yield?? Thank you so much for responding to my original question! I appreciate the input :)

    Marla-That is what I wanted to do last fall :) However, new baby and now in the middle of winter and still no strawberries planted. But, I still want to be able to harvest this summer/fall if possible. I'm not really into delayed gratification :) That said, I have thought of tilling up a new area for fruits/berries to plant this year for a second year harvest of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries.....And adding fruit trees as well. So many ideas, so little time! Thanks for your input again.......

  • boulderbelt
    13 years ago

    I grow everbearing and have strawberries available spring til frost and they are one of my best sellers. And because I have strawberries out of season i get top dollar for them-$4.00 a pint.

    i used to do June bearing plants but in June we are still doing a lot of planting and have many many things that need to be harvested besides the strawberries but with 400' linear feet of berries one person was spending at least 5 hours a day harvesting nothing but strawberries leaving a lot of other work undone. And than when it came tome to sell them we had to drop the price to around $2.00 a quart in order to move them and we were not making enough money to make the berries worth it. Not to mention, we would sell at best 60% and bring the rest home because our markets were glutted with June strawberries.

    We plant the bare root plants in early spring, remove flowers for 6 to 8 weeks than in late June/early July let them flower and make fruit. We keep the plants for 2 seasons and the second season they really produce. the 3rd season production is off about 25% and the 4th season they are not worth bothering with.

    Last year trialed Albion and loved them. this year we will trial Seascape along with the Albion. For years we did the non patented varieties and did not really like them. as you either got tasty berries or big berries but not both. Albion combines taste and size and seascape is said to do the same thing.

  • cowpie51
    13 years ago

    bb, i agree that is my way also buy and plant in spring and remove many first flowers and get later harvest when prices are better.i only leave my plants 3 years also then rotate to a new area when i am ready to start a new patch. Mainly ft. laramie great fruiting on runners and we sell hanging baskets as well.my patches are a lot smaller than yours usually a couple of 100 foot double rows Around here the june berries are great but they overwhelm the market with strawberries.mark

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