Two to Five Acres of Berries Can Sweeten Your Income

By Gene Galletta, Arlen Draper, and Richard Funt.

Some 15 to 30 acres of intensively cultivated land is usually thought of as the necessary farm size to make labor-saving equipment pay for itself. However, several of the berry crops (namely strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries) offer a unique opportunity for a small or average sized family (of four) to make a good supplemental income on two to five bearing acres.

Other berry crops such as cranberries, gooseberries, currants, or elderberries, demand very specialized culture (cranberries), or have limited usage (elderberries) or limited popularity (gooseberries and currants) to make their culture profitable on a small scale.

Berry crops need a lot of labor, but a family can usually manage all but the harvesting on a small acreage. Berry culture requires considerable knowledge of the crops and their care, and a large initial investment per acre. However, berries offer a high return per dollar invested because of a generally low supply and high demand in many regions of the United States.

The advent of direct farm to consumer marketing (U-Pick or Pick-Your-Own) reduces harvest labor cost and provides the consumer with high quality fruit. Future demand for berry crops promises to be high because of their appeal as sources of dietary enrichment and their varied uses.

Strawberries

The garden strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the Rose family. The strawberry plant has a short thickened stem (called a crown) which has a growing point at the upper end of the crown and forms roots at the crown's base. The leaves are borne along the crown on long petioles (leafstalks) arranged in spiral fashion around the crown.

At the juncture of each petiole and the crown, a bud is borne which may grow into one of three structures according to the environmental stimuli the plant receives:

A runner or specialized elongated stem, which normally forms daughter plantlets at every other node, if the temperatures are warm and the daylength long;

A branch crown or new stem under the same temperature and daylength conditions under which runners are formed (some strawberries are runnerless forms and produce many or multiple branch crowns);

Flower stalks (stapes) bearing 1 to 15 flowers, usually under short days and low temperatures ("June Bearers"). However, some strawberries flower under long days ("everbearers").

The strawberry fruit is the ripened receptacle bearing many small "seeds" (achenes). The seeds form following pollination of female parts of the flower, which are collectively arranged on the fleshy receptable (modified stem).

Strawberry plant roots are usually confined to the upper 6 to 12 inches of soil. As such they are subject to soil moisture fluctuations and severe weed competition.

Strawberry roots are vulnerable to nematode attack and several root-rotting fungi, notably red stele (Phytophthora), Verticillium, and Rhizoctonia. Frequently soil is chemically fumigated to kill these pests and many weed seeds before planting. Several newer strawberry cultivars are resistant to some of these soil fungi.

Strawberry plants grow on a wide variety of soils and tolerate wide ranges in soil acidity and composition. Generally the lighter soils (sandy) are chosen for early maturity. Strawberry soils should be reasonably high in organic matter and well-drained. Strawberry roots will not tolerate poorly drained soils.

Control of weeds by mechanical and/or chemical means is essential to successful strawberry culture.

One acre inch of water per week during the growing season is considered optimum, as is a slightly acid soil reaction (pH 5.5 to 6.0).

Strawberries grow in almost any climate, but it is critical to select cultivars adapted to your region and tolerant to its pests. Varieties developed at a certain latitude are generally adapted to within 3 to 5 degrees of the same latitude at the same elevation. A 1,000-foot increase in elevation reduces the mean temperature 3 F. A variety is adapted to a region if it grows and produces well in response to the region's prevailing environment and pests.

Climatic factors which influence strawberry adaptation are low winter temperatures (remember that strawberries are frequently covered by snow or straw in areas with cold winters), high summer temperatures, amount of winter chilling, length of growing season and days.

Important strawberry pests are viruses, nematodes, mites, and fungi and insects that attack the root, leaf, crown or fruit. Most insect pests and many of the fungal pests can be controlled with chemical sprays.

Water must be added to supplement natural rainfall and to protect flowers and green fruit against spring frosts in many locations.

Blueberries

Cultivated blueberries (Vaccinium species) are woody perennial bushes of the Heath family. The commonly grown types are tall multiple-caned (stemmed) plants with shallow and fibrous matted root systems.

It takes 3 to 4 years for the plant to grow to mature size (they are usually pruned to 5 to 10 feet in height and 3 to 8 feet in width and depth). The single leaves are arranged in spiral fashion along new shoots which grow from each stout cane. There may be several flushes of new growth each season.

The buds between each leaf and the stem become one of two types: leaf buds which will expand into a leafy shoot in the following season; or flower buds which will bear a cluster of 2 to 12 flowers the following spring. Each flower, if pollinated, will develop into a fleshy, many-seeded berry. A mature bush bears literally thousands of blueberry fruits.

Blueberries generally grow well on moist, but reasonably well-drained, acid soils with a high organic matter content. Mineral soils can often be modified for blueberry culture by adding organic matter and/or soil acidifiers. Certain types of blueberries may be grown on acid mineral soils without soil amendments.

Blueberry roots are very fine, usually grow in the upper foot of soil, and are easily damaged by excessive fertilizer salts and standing water. Hence blueberry plants are frequently planted in low-lying, quite acid, sandy areas (optimum pH 4.5) on raised beds. Special attention must be given to weed and water control in blueberry fields.

Cultivated blueberries cannot usually be grown successfully where winter temperatures are lower than 20 F, where the growing season is less than 160 days, and where there is less than 1,000 hours of temperatures under 45 during winter. Rabbiteye and southern species hybrid blueberries require lower amounts of winter chilling, and succeed in the Gulf Coast and Southern U.S. areas.

Specific cultivars are adapted to different regions. (See article by Galletta and Draper in the 1977 Yearbook of Agriculture, p. 279-283, for suitable varieties and cultural practices).

Principal blueberry pests are the stunt and red ring spot viruses, two fungal stem cankers, a fungal root rot, a number of leaf and stem fungi, a bud mite, several fruit-rotting fungi and worms, and a number of chewing, sucking, and tying insects. These are controlled by resistant varieties and chemical pesticides.

Bramble Plants

Blackberries and raspberries (bramble plants) are woody, multiple-stemmed, usually thorny plants in the genus Rubus of the Rose family. Roots live for many years in brambles, but the stems usually live for only two seasons (biennial), vegetating in the first year and bearing fruit in the spring of the second season. Exceptions to this growth habit are certain raspberry varieties (everbearers) which fruit in the fall on first-year canes, and in the next spring on the same canes.

The canes may be either erect, semi-trailing or trailing (the latter two need to be trellised), depending on the particular species of Rubus involved. The stout canes grow and branch, forming laterals during the first growing season. During the next season buds on the laterals grow and produce short shoots which bear both leaves and flowers.

Like the strawberry, the female pistils are aggregated around a raised receptacle (or stem axis called the torus in blackberries) in each flower. However, each pistil ovary develops into a fleshy drupelet bearing a single, hard, internal seed upon pollination. The drupelets adhere together, separating from the receptacle in raspberries, and including the central stem axis, when harvested, in blackberries.

Raspberries and blackberries will tolerate almost any soil type as long as it is well-drained to a depth of 3 to 4 feet. Both crops grow well on soils having good organic matter content and water-holding capacity and a slightly acid soil reaction (pH 5.5 to 6.8). Soil grubs and certain weeds should be controlled before planting.

Some bramble plants spread so the row width must be controlled in subsequent years.

Raspberries are particularly hardy in areas with cold winters, withstanding temperatures of 35 F for red and 25 for black (and purple) fruited types. However, raspberries are frequently injured in milder areas having fluctuating winter temperatures.

Blackberries may be injured at 15 F, while thornless blackberries, boysenberries and young berries may be injured by 0 temperatures.

Generally, raspberries are not too successful south of USDA minimum temperature zone 6 (-10 to 0 F) nor are blackberries north of that zone. (See USDA Farmers Bulletin 2160, p. 8, 1975 revision, for map of plant hardiness zones. A map also is carried inside the front cover of the 1972 Yearbook of Agriculture).

Raspberries are especially sensitive to soil nematodes, viruses, and a number of insect and fungus troubles. Blackberries are troubled' by the bacterial diseases crown and cane gall, the fungus diseases anthracnose, leaf and cane spot, orange rust, double blossom and a considerable array of insects. Resistant varieties and pesticides are the usual means of control.