BRIEF CULTURAL DIRECTION (Taken from Experience) 
MOISTURi: REQUIREMENTS 
Irrigration —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 
{^et 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! 
This matter of irrigation is important. 
Some varieties of berries will live and 
even grow a little with very little mois¬ 
ture, but to get big crops of fine fruit 
they must have rainfall or ample irriga¬ 
tion. Last spring we planted one field of 
berries on very poor, sandy soil. Our 
irrigators were irrigating this piece just 
as often as the other fields. By the 
middle of the summer we were very 
much disappointed with the growth we 
were getting in this poor field and de¬ 
cided that it was not getting enough 
water. We instructed our irrigators to 
water that field every week, and in two 
months you would not have believed it 
was the same field. It had every prom¬ 
ise of making an excellent crop in the 
spring. The trouble was, that land 
simply would not hold enough water; so 
it had to be applied oftener. 
It is on account of moisture that ber¬ 
ries are usually spaced wider apart in 
non-irrigated districts than where irri¬ 
gation is practiced. The soil acts as a 
reservoir and will store just so much 
water during the rainy season, and if 
there are fewer plants set to the acre 
each plant can reach out further and get 
more water during dry spells. 
PRUNING SUGGESTIONS 
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 trelllsed) should be 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. 
Iioganberrles 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 
pruning is usually necessary until the 
crop is picked, when all the old wood 
that has borne berries is cut from the 
trellis and off at the top of the ground. 
The new wood which has grown during 
the spring is trained parallel with the 
rows under the trellis and is put up on 
the wires when the old wood is cut off. 
In some sections the new canes of the 
Logan and the Mammoth are left on the 
ground until February and put on the 
trellis then to prevent sunburning or 
winter injury. 
Youngberries — Youngberries can be 
pruned as described above for Logan¬ 
berries or they can be pruned as dew¬ 
berries. In Southern California, and 
elsewhere where the growing season is 
long, the best and most economical way 
of handling the Youngberry is as fol¬ 
lows: The first summer leave all the 
vines on the ground and keep the long 
runners pushed back in line with the 
row. Leave these vines on the ground 
until in the spring just when the leaf 
buds are beginning to start opening, and 
then put them up on the trellis, which 
should have been i)repared any time 
during the past winter. If they have 
been well cared for the previous sum¬ 
mer the growth will be very heavy at 
this time and the long canes should be 
headed back several feet and the surplus 
smaller canes can be cut out altogether. 
All that should be kept is enough wood 
to cover the trellis nicely. 
Then, when the berries start ripening, 
if the new gi owth is in the way, go 
through and clip out any that is in the 
way. Immediately after the crop is 
picked take a brush scythe or sharp hoe 
and chop the whole vine off just above 
the ground. Cultivate and water well 
and if the soil needs it, fertilize, and 
you will grow a fine vine for the follow¬ 
ing year, which is handled exactly as 
during the first season. The important 
items to remember in handling Young¬ 
berries by this plan are to cut the vines 
down Immediately after finishing pick¬ 
ing and to use plenty of water through¬ 
out the balance of the summer. 
Raspberries. For the early care of Red 
Raspberries, see page 8. 
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