Wolcott Garden Treasures
You may also like to check out a list of fruiting plants we carry, as well as information regarding the maintenance of fruiting trees.
BLUEBERRY BUSHES Highbush varieties are a little less hardy and bear fruit on a bush that can climb as high as eight feet. Soil: Blueberries like moist, acidic soil (pH of 4.0 to 5.0). If your soils is basic (too much alkaline, too little acid), try adding aluminum sulfate to create more favorable conditions. After you’ve adjusted your pH as needed, adding peat moss to the hole before you plant will help your soil retain its acidity. Water regularly, especially during the first season after planting, and mulch around the bush to help it retain water. There are kits available for testing your soil’s pH, but they’re fairly expensive, which is why we don’t carry them. However, the UConn Department of Plant Science will test your soil for a variety of items for a nominal fee. Click here for a downloadable form and for more information on testing your soil. Pests: Disease may not be an issue for blueberry bushes, but birds certainly are. While some people may enjoy the increase in avian activity, it’s not so great for your fruit yield. Often times people will use mosquito-type netting as a deterrent; however, simply draping a net over the bush will not keep the birds away, as they can just squeeze underneath it. The best protection is more of a cage or screen house that birds cannot duck under or push through. This type of construction can be a bit of an eye sore, but you can certainly get creative with it if you’re so inclined. Try using an arbor or building something similar around the bush and adding netting that pulls tightly from side to side and reaches right to the ground. You really only need the protection during the fruiting season, so you can take down the mesh after you’ve harvested. Pruning: Prune blueberry bushes in winter. Lowbushes fruit best on young stems closer to the ground. The best way to maintain them is to prune back to the ground every few years; but keep in mind that the bush will not bear fruit the season following such a severe pruning. If you’ve got a number of lowbushes, try cutting them back in alternating years so you’ve always got at least one that’s fruiting. If you don’t want to prune them so drastically, just keep the old growth at a minimum. Highbushes don’t require severe pruning. Keep them spiffed up by removing the thickest stems, which are less productive, and prune back weak, broken or crowded stems as needed.
Blueberry bushes are very easy to care for. The have few or no disease problems, and a well-established bush will live fairly care-free for years and years. This being said, you still need to pay attention to some details.
Lowbush varieties are the most cold-hardy of all blueberry bushes. Snow will cover these bushes during the winter and insulate them against the cold. These plants will only reach about 12” high, and will spread by a system of underground runners.
RASPBERRY BUSHES
Fruiting: Our raspberry bushes are considered "everbearing." Unlike everbearing strawberries, raspberries do not continue to fruit all season; varieties like Heritage and Jaclyn will fruit once in the summer on last year's stems (old wood) and once in the early fall on this year's stems (new wood).
Soil: Raspberries do best in rich, well-drained soil and will benefit from the addition of compost or cow manure.
Diseases: do not plant raspberries in gardens or beds where eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes or strawberries have been grown; raspberries are susceptible to verticillium wilt, which is a fungal disease that attacks the aforementioned plants, as well. This fungus can live in the soil for several years after the plants have died or been removed, so it is not wise to reuse these gardening spaces for any susceptible plant. Verticillium causes the leaves to turn yellow and wilt, usually beginning at the bottom of the plant and working its way up, eventually killing the plant. Prevention is the best cure for this nasty fungus: keep your area free from weeds, as many weeds can host this fungus. Keep your plants as healthy and vigorous as possible by using quality fertilizer and providing good irrigation (taking care not to let the soil get too moist, which can also breed disease).
Planting: plant about two inches deeper into the soil than the plant was set into its pot, and space multiple bushes 2-3 feet apart (check the individual tag for exact measurements). The best time to plant raspberries is in the late fall or early spring.
Pruning: never cut off a stem before it has produced fruit. This will stunt or prevent fruiting. For everbearing raspberries, you may prune back stems that have already stopped producing fruit, but do not cut back stems that have yet to produce. Old stems produce the summer crop and new stems produce the fall crop, so take care not to cut back areas that are getting ready to produce fruit. This year's new stems that produce the fall crop will become next year's old stems that produce the summer crop, so keep that life cycle in mind when you go to trim.
GRAPE VINES
Training: Grape varieties that are native to this area can be trained to grow tall – about six feet. If you’ve got a particular structure that you’d like the vine to cover, like a deck or an arbor, train it around the structure accordingly. Grapes will grow as tall as they’re trained, but will also grow outward, then down; this type of drooping is normal for our native varieties. Always remember when you're tying up your vine, never use twine, wire or extremely thin rope; these can cut the vine. Instead, use velcro strapping (which we carry in the store) or thicker, softer, cotton-based rope that will not wear away at the plant material.
Pruning: Pruning grapevines can be a bit difficult and confusing. You need to have a good understanding of the vine in order to keep it healthy, neat, and producing well. Prune your grapevine in the early spring while it is still dormant. Grapes bear fruit on one-year-old wood, which means that last season’s new growth that did not fruit will produce this season’s yield. Wood that is two years old or older is not fruitful and should be pruned back. What you should be left with is the one year old wood that is or will be producing fruit for the current season, as well as the new growth, which will fruit next season.
Determining which stems are from which year can be a daunting task. Really well-thought out training can help you figure out how old the stems are because you’re better able to see the growth of the entire vine. We’ve found one University of Nebraska at Lincoln article on the subject to be particularly informative. It may still read like Greek if you're not used to the lingo, but it does give step-by-step, precise directions on how to prune and train properly.
Sign our GuestbookSpecial thanks to Stefan Hermans for the butterfly photo used in our header.
Copyright 2008-2010 Wolcott Garden Treasures and A Public Flower & Garden Center. All rights reserved.
