Aunt Sue's Barn
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Berries and more!
We have several varieties of berries listed in the order they riupen and become available....
Womack - Thorned - These are the first to ripen in the spring. We were picking these mid to late May of this year, right into June. They produced heavily and were easily picked, even for a first crop. The canes for next year's berries came up vigrously and we are trying to maintain  them about 42" to keep them strong and minimize trellissing - we'll see how that goes!
Rosborough- Thorned - a smaller berry, but very, very sweet. These surprised us!
Brison - Thorned - one of the more vigorous erect berries...
Kiowa - Thorned - large berries. These berries started mid june and lasted into July. They were fabulously sweet and produced into July, In fact, we found a half dozen huge ripe berries on the canes the last week of July when we were pruning!
Ouachita - Thornless. We planted 500 of these on February 9th, 2008. We planted root cuttings instead of live plants.  This saved us from some damage when we had 5" of snow on March 9th.  These berries have come up and are growing well. First production will be next spring.They should ripen Late June into July.

When we planted these we watered them in with mychorrizal fungi. This fungus develops a mutually beneficial relationship with the roots of the plant. Networks of mychorrizal filaments significantly enhance the plant's ability to gather water and nutrients, and additionally protectsthe plant form disease. We've seen studies that show a significant improvement in plant growth, so we're trying it! This is another organic method to build the soil to promote healthy plants growth.

Raspberries

Dormared - These are the most adapted to Texas climates. They ripen late May through July in clusters of 5 or 6 berries. These were our first raspberries and they did exceptionally well. Both volume and flavor exceeded ur expectations! The vines on these plants grow 20' long and take a significant amount of time to manage. We are adding 100-200 more of these this in January 2009. Although we expect to get some fruit, the first full production of those new plants will be June 2010.
Anna - Yellow  - Life is a learnnig experience and so are berries! I followed everything I had read about these berries, and pruned them bnack to the ground at the end of the year. However, if you leave  them up, they produce a second crop of the vine the next year - as I read in the most recent article. Well, there's always next year! We'll see how it goes with 2 crops out of the vines that come up in 2010. We have 200 of these butg they are expanding as we speak! Having to control these plants by mowing, they are already 2' high and flowering. They;re growing out in the walkway so mowing is out answer. The few fruit we pulled last year was fantastic - sugary sweet and wonderful and I expect this year to have a fabulous crop.
Black Raspberries - We planted  100 of these in January 2009, for 2010 and thep;lants are flourishing. The primocanes for 2011 are alreasy 4' tall and the growth from last year is covered with flowering and forming berries.
Wyeberries - We lpanted 100 of these also in January 2009. they are a cross between blackberry & raspberry. Plants are doing fabulous so we are expecting some good pipcking in 2010. May 14th 2010 I saw the first fruit turning pick - no 10 days later they are ripending well. They look and pick like  a blackberry, about 2-3 times the size of a raspberry but taste like a raspberry. Expect to start picking a few of these May 22nd. I have contacted the grower to be able to purchase more for next yearm but I understand they are subject to anthracnose and are no longer being sold due to the chemicals needed to contain the fungus. We;ll have to watch them closely here and see how they do This is their second year with no issue.

Blueberries - did not invest enough time nd effort. These will be tried again later on.

Asparagus -We planted 400 Asparagus in February 2009. They are doing GREAT!! Check out the pictures tab. This is one of the asparagus March 1st, 2010 - it's hiding.....but watch out, it comes up fast! Not very exciting in March.
Tomatoes -  they will be trellised in between the asparagus (companion planting).  Tomatoes went in and I lost many to frost so they'll need coverage for next year. I have about 30 between the asparagus rows and another 50 or more near the peas. Already (May 16th 2010) have lots of tomatoes set.
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