Growing Rasperries, Blueberries, Currants, Grapes, Strawberries and More

By Richard Langer
Published on March 1, 1973
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Red raspberries should be planted at least five hundred feet away from other raspberry varieties to prevent the spread of berry diseases.
Red raspberries should be planted at least five hundred feet away from other raspberry varieties to prevent the spread of berry diseases.
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Setting strawberry plants properly will help them take root more quickly, aiding their chances of survival.
Setting strawberry plants properly will help them take root more quickly, aiding their chances of survival.
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There are many ways to train your grapevines for strength an good production. If you would like to use a specific system, the Four-Cane Kniffen pattern is probably best for the small farm.
There are many ways to train your grapevines for strength an good production. If you would like to use a specific system, the Four-Cane Kniffen pattern is probably best for the small farm.
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Training strawberry runners can increase berry yield and improve ease of picking.
Training strawberry runners can increase berry yield and improve ease of picking.

Special Note: All material here reprinted from Grow It! Copyright © 1972 by Richard W. Langer. The title of this excerpted chapter is “Berries.”

If ever I dies an’ yo ain’t certain I’s dead,
Just butter some biscuit an’ new made bread
An’ spread em all over with raspberry jam,
Then step mighty softly to whar I am
An’ wave dem vittles above my head,
If my mouf don’t open, I’m certainly dead.
-Monroe Sprowl  

One of the tastiest spots on your farm is the berry patch. Of course, it won’t have just berries in it. Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, their names notwithstanding, aren’t berries at all in the botanical sense. Grapes and currants, on the other hand, are. Just to balance things out, some with “berries” as part of their names really are berries — blueberries, cranberries, and gooseberries, for instance. Which somehow explains why they’re all grouped together here, and certainly in no way detracts from their flavor.

Growing Blueberries

To add further to the confusion of nomenclature, if you’ve ever had huckleberry pie, or picked wild huckleberries in the woods on a camping trip, chances are you didn’t. Blueberries have small, soft, almost invisible seeds. Huckleberries have approximately ten big, stone-hard seeds. Eating real huckleberry pie is rather like chewing on a clam full of sand.

Blueberries are fussy about their growing conditions, requiring not only loose, acid soil, but a shallow water table and, at the same time, room for their sensitive roots to stay dry. They’re very winterhardy, however, making an excellent crop for the Alaskan homesteader. Not only do they like a cold winter — even the blossoms will withstand a 10 degree Fahrenheit frost — but the cold is essential for most of the varieties to bear fruit. Thus as a rule they cannot be cultivated in regions where the temperature never goes down to freezing. However, minor species such as the Florida Evergreen, Rabbiteye, and Dryland will grow without the cold, and sometimes in the more arid regions. They’re worth an experiment if your land is down South.

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