Does anyone here succesfully grow berries?

[buttercup]

We can't get enugh of them (any kind, mainly strawberries) and this year we have the space for a serious garden.
We went strawberry picking last year however and I was discouraged from how many plants one needs to be able to get a decent "harvest"! I do have the space for a strawberry field (!!) but not enough the $$ for the deer fencing it would require. (I do have deer fencing for the garden, the berries would go in there)
So, if you do this succesfully with enough of a harvest for you and your kids to get your fill of berries and perhaps make a bit of jam, could you share with me what you do? Zone 5 here if that matters. Many Thanks!!

[brittone2]

We do sq foot gardening, and have added plants each year. One of our boxes is now dedicated to strawberries. They do put out runners, so each year they took up more of the bed, and then we just bought 2-3 more plants to fully fill our box (about 4 ft x 4 ft). We put up wire fence as a frame and then use some netting.

We have two small blueberry bushes as well but their harvest is very small ;)

With the strawberries, we get a steady flow and the kids enjoy searching for them. However, if you want to make jam or freeze them it would work best to buy in flats or do PYO.

[icunurse]

I am looking into building a strawberry tower to try and get a bigger yield of strawberries. Most that I have seen can hold about 150 plants, which I am not sure that I want to invest in that, seeing as how strawberries only live a few years. If you do grow strawberries, try to get the ever bearing ones vs the yearly, might give you better outcome.

We do have a raspberry bush. Just bought it from Menards or something like that, so nothing special. During good years, we can get two times to pick and get enough to eat, as well as make jam and freeze. During bad years, we can pick at it for some fresh raspberries.

We are also zone 5 and we are redoing our garden are into a square foot garden. I don't think that I am going to put strawberries into mine and, again, not sure about the size of the tower. But we will be doing a separate area for blueberries and raspberries. Hoping for the best :)

[MSWR0319]

I used to have two rows that were maybe 15 feet long at my grandparents house. I made enough jam to last us an entire year (probably longer) and my parents and grandparents also picked berries off those plants, not to mention all of the ones we ate fresh. The deer ate my berry plants last year, which were in their second year and we were just getting enough to make jam and I had only started with about 6 plants. I wouldn't plan on getting enough to make jam this year regardless of how many you plant though. Once they start shooting out runners, that's when you really start getting a good amount of plants. If you're doing rows, make sure you put the runners into the rows or you end up with a big mess!!

[jjordan]

With strawberries, you should pick off the blossoms the first year (so you won't get any fruit). Then the plants will produce well for 2-3 years. Make sure to plant them far enough apart; they do spread. Growing up we usually had a strawberry patch and I'm thinking that maybe 25-30 plants would be enough to pick all you want for eating and for jam. Though websites where you actually buy the plants would be able to give you an approximate yield per number of bushes, so you could go from that.

Unlike doing PYO strawberries, if you have your own bushes, you won't be able to pick all the strawberries at once. Early on in the season you can plan to pick a few quarts a day, and then more at peak season, and then sort of taper off as the season wanes. Which is great as far as eating them, but for jam, you might end up doing smaller batches at once.

Strawberries are relatively easy to grow IMO, but the down side is that you do have to re-plant every few years, AND that first year you don't get berries. So if you want continual berries, you need to plant a second patch during the last year of your first patch so you don't miss a year of berries.

[citymama]

Yes! We have great luck with raspberries. Strawberries less so because the squirrels get them as soon as they ripen.

[buttercup]

Thanks. Any particular variety of raspberries you recommend?

[citymama]

Thanks. Any particular variety of raspberries you recommend?

I'm in norCal, so I don't know if raspberries will work for you, but we grew them in the Northeast as well. I no longer have info about the varieties we bought.

[LizLemon]

My parents grow blueberries and raspberries. These plants are established - they have been growing since we were kids! The raspberries are a bit easier to grow, I think. WIth the thorns on the bushes, they seem a bit more protected from the animals, so we can actually harvest some. That being said, since the bushes are covered with thorns, picking the berries is sort of pain (that often used to be a kid job). The blueberry bushes grew really well. However, even with daily picking and various fences, etc., my parents are increasingly losing their blueberry yield to the birds and are lucky to get any. The ones they get are great, though. We have never used them for jam - eating raw, muffins, pancakes. All great!

[Smillow]

We have black raspberries that are great - but they fruit on the second year canes, so if DH "accidently" (on purpose) chops them - no chance of berries til next year.