A Thorough Insight Into The Farming Of Small Fruits

When we are talking about small fruits they include a lot of berry crops namely blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries amongst others. Unlike conventional crops, these crops require a little bit different management skills, especially if you have never done small fruit farming earlier, as these have a short shelf life extending from harvest to sales. 

Remove the Bushes First

As a farmer, you will notice a lot of small fruits growing on their own in wild rural areas. But because of this happening, you cannot take things for granted, in other words, these small crops require serious cultivation especially if you desire a quality harvest that is easily marketable (not requiring hard efforts when on sale). 

To be precise, if these berries are growing wild close to the area where you desire to grow the same crop, then your very first job should be to get rid of these old bushes prior to planting your bushes. As these wild berries carry with them diseases that have the potential to affect your production and they will need you to treat your bushes with the ultimate aim to get a disease-free crop. Furthermore, you can get your hands on all the necessary farming accessories for this process from the agricultural markets that deal in other farming hardware namely Powertrac Euro 50.

Blackberries

Blackberry bushes can have thorns or no thorns, both things are possible. So, to make things easy during the harvesting season, blackberry bushes without thorns are becoming the priority cultivars. Also, newer thornless cultivars are under development with the sole aim of offering the market with better flavour grapes. Furthermore, with the help of proper training blackberry bushes (like most berry bushes) have the potential to become more productive in the time to come. 

Blueberries

Blueberries flourish in high hills and mountains because they require acidic soil. Also, applying sulphur a year prior to planting may be required to reduce the soil pH level to 4.5 to 5.0. And in case your native soil pH level is 6.2 or above, then planting blueberries is not recommended for your area. Furthermore, if you plant blueberries, mulching with old sawdust is encouraged to retain the low soil pH level. Additionally, you must cultivate at least two cultivars to facilitate pollination. You can procure the fertilisers necessary for managing the pH level from retail outlets that deal in other farming hardware like New Holland Excel 4710.

Grapes

There are three varieties of grape in prime: juice, wine, and table with some cultivars serving multiple purposes. Grape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Sharad Seedless, Thompson Seedless and Pinot Noir fall in juice grape cultivars. Yes, you can do use other grape varieties to make juice. These grape varieties are also used to make wines and have the potential to offer the most yield per acre. 

Talking more about winery owners, they prefer grape varieties whose sole purpose is wine production. And when it comes to wine grape production they mostly come from both hybrid and viniferous cultivars and wineries have an additional option at their disposal to make wine using a single grape variety or a combination of them. Furthermore, a lot of wine grape cultivators do not venture into wine production but most of them sell their produce to wineries that carry out the wine production. 

Raspberries

When we talk about raspberries, they are available in a variety of colours: Black, red, and yellow. And you can harvest them either in the early or late summer season, completely dependent on the training procedure. Besides, when you are carrying out your market research you should be clear regarding the fact that when the major share of the local producers are putting their crops on sale and when you will get the best marketing opportunity. 

Pests

Wildlife (especially birds) has always been a matter of concern when it comes to small fruits. That is why a lot of small fruit producers resort to the use of netting to protect their blackberry, blueberry and raspberry plantation. Additionally, insects are also a matter of concern for the owners of these plantations. Like the Spotted Winged Drosophila is an insect that mostly arrives in the late summer season. 

And due to this late arrival, a growing number of grape producers are opting for maturing cultivars when planting small fruits. Besides, the increase in insecticide costs to treat this insect problem also puts a weight (in a negative way) on crop profitability. So, you should take note of this fact when deciding on cultivars and production methods.

Conclusion

To sum it up, the above guide offers our esteemed readers a thorough understanding of particular treatment recommendations and production practices for several insects and diseases. And any small fruit grower can benefit from this detailed guide.