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I need some advice - 12/27/2013 5:58:09 PM

jlf1961

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From: Somewhere Texas
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It seems that members of my family would like a berry patch added to the garden.

After doing some reading I discovered that most berries prefer sandy soil.

The ground on my property is a really nice red clay, really nice if you want to make bricks.

For the acre and a half that the garden is on, I rented a dozer, went down till I hit the caliche, brought in a lot of soil scrapped from a local feed lot, as well as a few truck loads of mulch from the city recycling center and mixed the three together and leveled the garden plot.

Now I am trying to figure out how to prep the ground for the berries.

Any suggestions?

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RE: I need some advice - 12/27/2013 6:33:37 PM

MAINEiacMISTRESS

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LOL, I do this all the time. Instructions: dig hole, insert berry plant, add water, cover roots, dig a new hole, repeat.

You weren't specific as to type of berry, but it sounds like you've done a good job amending your soil. Keep in mind, some berries grow tall and put out underground runners that grow asexually-produced offspring plants in unexpected places. Blackberries for instance (at least the strain I'm growing here on My farm) spread quickly. In other words, don't plant them next to your asparagus or heirloom flower garden!

Oh and be sure to get in there to dead-cane every year and make walking rows to make picking easier on your flesh. LOL.

You would love My blackberry patch. It started out as six young plants I transplanted from Mom & Dad's back around 2006. It has now spread to an area 30 x 60 feet. These are very fertile plants. I get a minimum of 80 berries per cane, often 150 (yes, I've counted them when "someone" accidentally hit a cane with the scythe, to assess the "value" of such a mistake)...big shiny black sweet berries measuring an inch or so long. My big freezer's door is crammed full of bags & bags of them from top to bottom, friends and family all came to pick, and still more were there. Be prepared to pick twice a day for about two+ weeks as new ones are constantly ripening.

It's a shame you don't live close enough to come get some of My young plants. This spring I need to have the boys work on taming the patch; I'll have them digging up/mowing a lot of the excess plants...such a shame to waste them.

< Message edited by MAINEiacMISTRESS -- 12/27/2013 6:37:31 PM >

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RE: I need some advice - 12/28/2013 7:33:10 AM

MercTech

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Can't help you as, where I live, if you plant one berry plant they will be trying to take over the yard like a 50s horror movie or episode of classic Dr. Who.
If you have clay soil, you might consider huckleberries instead of blackberries or raspberries. Strawberries are delicate and truly need well draining soil like sand.

BTW, in the Pacific NW, they all blueberries "huckleberries" but the huckleberry is not even the same genus and grows on a bush. Hmm, I should go get some huckleberries for the back of my property. One of the best places to find huckleberries is where they cut the right of way for gas pipelines or high tension power lines. Huckleberries are a transition plant and like to grow in clear cut areas with a lot of light.

Anyway, you didn't say what kind of berries or what climate you were working in. Good luck and don't forget to arrange for fall flooding if you are raising cranberries.

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RE: I need some advice (berry gardening) - 12/28/2013 10:19:49 AM

kalikshama

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I got some raspberry plants from Park Seed in the 90s. I brought a few babies to my Mom and they have spread like crazy, so if you go with raspberries, when you prep the soil, prepare for the spread.

I'd ask your local garden center for varieties and soil prep best suited for your area.

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RE: I need some advice - 12/28/2013 12:01:43 PM

Focus50

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My only advice has to do with your prep work.

Ok, different country, different plants and possibly different terminologies - but some FYI just in case....

In Oz, when we say "sandy soil" (regarding plants), what's mostly implied is that these types of plants do best in *well-drained* soils, as in their root systems don't like what we call "wet feet". Just as plants can die of thirst, types that thrive in sandy soils are also prone to "drowning" if the moisture isn't getting away in a timely fashion.

Which brings me to your particular site (clay) and prep work. I dunno what this "caliche" is but if you've scooped out a hollow in clay, no matter how big that hollow, and filled it with something sandy, you haven't actually created "sandy soil" environment (regarding plants), you've created a potential wet foot bog as clay retains water - which is a great thing if you're putting in a dam to water livestock....

What we do in such situations is put in irrigation drains (if the site is on a slope) or build it up if the site's flat. Our biggest trees don't put roots down more than a metre or so and I'd imagine half that would be plenty for berries.

Focus.

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RE: I need some advice - 12/28/2013 12:10:33 PM

Blonderfluff

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I have a lot of experience turning red clay into actual dirt. It takes a few seasons though.
Add lime, sand and topsoil to the clay, and rototiller it in.
Repeat Spring and Fall. Twice.
Then you will have soil suitable for berries. You can plant annuals in the future berry patch for a few seasons. This will also help to break down the clay.

Good luck!!!

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RE: I need some advice - 12/28/2013 2:22:27 PM

popeye1250

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When I lived up in N.H. I had 8 high bush (about 9-10 feet tall) blueberry bushes that yielded 70-90 pounds of huge blueberrys every August.

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