Proven Berry Plants 
i KNOTT’S BERRY PLACE ✓ r Trees and Vines 
Brief Cultural Directions 
(Taken from Experience) 
Irrigation —No set rules can be laid 
down which will hold good in all cases 
because of the difference in climate and 
soil in the various sections. We irrigate 
about once each week during the picking 
season and about once in three or four 
weeks during the balance of the year, 
except in the rainy season. Some soils 
will require water more often than this, 
especially for strawberries, while others 
may need it less often. Give them a 
thorough irrigation when you do irri¬ 
gate. The one main consideration is to 
keep your plants growing thrifty 
through the entire summer. We have to 
get a large vine growth in order to be able 
to get a heavy crop, so if it takes more 
water to get a vigorous vine growth, use 
it. Water well at the end of the pick¬ 
ing season and again immediately after 
pruning, which should be done just as 
soon as the crop is picked. This gives 
the vines a good thrifty start at a time 
in the summer when they will grow very 
fast. Insufficient amount of water given 
plants is the cause of more short crops 
of berries than any other cause. Remem¬ 
ber that the roots of your berries are 
longer than the canes above the ground 
and if you irrigate in a little basin 
around the plant and leave the surround¬ 
ing ground dry, the roots will be re¬ 
stricted to the little area of wet dirt in 
the basin. When irrigating be sure the 
ground will be thoroughly soaked several 
feet each side of your plants. Then watch 
them grow! 
PRUNING—Macatawa, Crandall, Ad¬ 
vance and other bush type blackberries 
require no pruning the first summer. 
They grow pretty much on the ground 
the first season, but stand in bushes 
after the first year. The following spring 
after the plants are set, new, stiff, up¬ 
right canes come up through the plants, 
and these should be headed back to the 
height it is desired to have the bushes, 
just before commencing to pick. This 
gets them out of the picker’s way and 
makes the framework for next year’s 
bush. Then when the crop is all picked 
all the old wood that has borne berries 
should be cut out at once. 
Dewberries (and Advance blackberries 
if trellised) should bo left on the ground 
the first season until July or August, 
when they are put up on low trellis. No 
pruning is required until the berries 
start ripening, when all the new wood 
is cut off to facilitate picking. As soon 
as the crop is off, the whole vine is cut 
off level with the ground with a hoe; no 
other pruning being needed. 
Iioganberries and Mammoth Black¬ 
berries require a high trellis (about 4 
feet). They are grown on the ground 
the first season until they are long 
enough to go up on the trellis. No 
The Advance Blackberry—the first to ripen in the spring. 
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