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For the Health of It!
Grow Your Own Berries and Grapes

Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries and Grapes!
By Carolyn Pinkard 'The Briggs Garden Girls'

Nothing beats the fabulous, fresh taste of homegrown fruits and vegetables. Besides the extraordinary flavor, growing your own berries is a great way to introduce fresh fruit into your family’s diet, and an easy way to dip your toes into growing your own food.  Additionally, many small fruit crops decorate the ornamental landscape.  

A sunny patch in a backyard is the perfect place to set up a block of berry plants. Thinking outside the box and incorporating berries into mixed borders or patio pots also allows those living in condominiums or homes with small yards to enjoy the benefits of their own fruit.  

Berries are low in calories, rich in vitamins and minerals, and loaded with flavonoids and fiber. Flavonoids, the phytochemicals found in fruit with colorful skin, draw the most attention for their role in reducing the risk of certain cancers, allergens and viruses.  Each type of berry delivers a unique set of benefits but all can be enjoyed eaten fresh and preserved or frozen for later enjoyment in sauces, jams, and any number of delectable pastries and desserts.

Blueberries: (Vaccinium)
Blueberries rank in the top ten of all super foods and newer varieties allow for success in many different areas of the country. All blueberries like acidic soils and their shallow root systems prefer ample water.  If your soil is alkaline, try growing blueberries in patio pots with soil amended with cottonseed or blood meal to reduce the acidity. Half-high blueberries tend to be the most cold tolerant and, as their name suggests, they grow more compactly.  They make an excellent low hedge and work well in patio pots.  
Northern high-bush berries are the blueberry standards.  They typically grow 4-6 feet tall and require a winter chilling period to perform best.  If you do not want to set up rows of plants in your yard, you can incorporate plants into your mixed border.  Rhododendrons enjoy the same growing conditions.  Inter-planting a rhododendron border with blueberries extends the season of interest – the rhodies will bloom in the spring while the blueberries will deliver fruit color in the summer and gorgeous fall color in the foliage.  Southern high-bush types do not have the same chilling requirement and therefore extend the growing range of blueberries into the warmer regions of the United States.  
Vaccinium ‘Pink Lemonade’ is a complicated cross between northern and southern high-bush blueberries.  The fruit of this blueberry is pink!  Pink Lemonade does well throughout many regions of the country, from Minnesota to Florida.  The berries are exceptionally ornamental and delightfully sweet and tasty.

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Big Blend Radio Interview

Carolyn Pinkard explains How to Grow Berries & Grapes!

'The Briggs Garden Girls' - Active gardeners, Carolyn Pinkard & Karen Kemp-Docksteader both represent Briggs Plant Propagators, who specializes in the wholesale production of Rhododendrons, Woody Ornamentals, Small Fruits, Grasses & Perennials. Learn more at www.BriggsPlantPropagators.com

Raspberries: (Rubus)
Raspberries also grow in a wide range of hardiness zones.  Choose a summer bearing variety if your desire is to preserve most of your crop.  The home gardener often prefers everbearing types as the berries are produced over a longer period.  All raspberries prefer a more neutral soil (add lime if your soils are acidic), damp soils in summer and dry soils in winter.  Proper support and pruning will aide in a bountiful harvest.  
Fruit laden raspberry canes can be top heavy – a T-Trellis system is a simple way to provide support.  Plant raspberry plants 2’ apart between two facing 5’ foot high T-trellises and run wires from crosspiece to crosspiece.  (A second crosspiece at the 2’ level can help train the plants from a younger age).   For new plantings, prune old canes below the area of fruiting and allow new canes to grow up around them.  Thin all but the strongest canes.  The following year, you will want to eliminate the oldest canes, leaving the youngest and again, allowing a few new canes to emerge.  Heritage is an example of a high yielding, Raspberry with delicious fruit suitable for eating fresh, freezing or preserving.

Blackberries: (Rubus)
Blackberries are native from Washington to the southeast.  Varieties found at your local garden center result from breeding programs, such as one by the University of Arkansas, to introduce disease resistance and capture the best fruit qualities.  Closely related to raspberries, they also benefit from proper support and pruning.  If trellising is not your thing, allow trailing types to cover the ground.  They are great slope covers when grown this way, but can also become unmanageable tangles without pruning.  
As with raspberries, the older (floricanes) canes will produce during the first part of summer and the newer canes, called primocanes, of everbearing blackberries, will bear fruit in late summer/fall.  Primocanes become next year’s fruit bearing floricanes.  It is also important to tip back the primocanes once they reach 4feet to keep them from being to gangly.   Smoothies and cobblers here we come!  

Strawberries: (Fragaria)
Strawberries are lean in calories and rich in Vitamin C and minerals. Considered one of the easiest to grow fruits, strawberries are a great crop to turn children onto gardening.  Grow June bearing types in bed rows, as a groundcover, or edging plant.  Day-Neutral and everbrearing types send out fewer runners and are therefore more suited to small space gardens or pots.   Strawberry pots have multiple holes spaced alternately around the belly of a pot allowing many plants to grow in a small footprint.  As with other berries, full sun is necessary for best production.  

Grapes: (Vitis)
Trained over arbors, grapes offer old world elegance with both rugged canes, attractive foliage and showy clusters of fruit all adding to their overall appeal.  But, let us not forget, grape fruit and leaves are tasty too.  The first season allow grape plants to establish a sturdy root system.  The new plant will grow as two canes.  Train the stronger of the two canes and trim back the weakest.  Also, eliminate all suckers.  
Grapes produce fruit on the new growth of last season’s wood.  Each winter prune the strongest canes to stimulate the best new branching and thus opportunity for the most berries.  Grape leaves harvested in late spring/early summer are a delicious staple of Greek cuisine.  Later in the summer, enjoy the ripe clusters of grapes fresh from the vine.