Cultural Directions for Knott's Berry Plants 
Time to Plant 
In California the best time to plant all 
varieties of berries is after January 1 and 
before the end of March. This also applies 
to rhubarb, 
Under very 
planting is sometimes successful. 
asparagus and artichokes. 
favorable conditions later 
Strawberries may also be planted in the 
fall if you have plants available. We dig 
no plants before January first and we be- 
lieve this is the practice of most small fruit 
nurseries. In colder sections plant as early 
as the land can be worked. 
Moisture Requirements 
IRRIGATION—(For sections where irriga- 
tion is necessary.) No set rules can be laid 
down which will hold good in all cases be- 
cause of the difference in climate and soil. 
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. Give them 
a thorough irrigation when you do irrigate. 
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 io 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 picking 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. Re- 
member that the roots of 
your berries are longer 
than the canes above the 
ground and if you irri- 
gate in a little basin 
around the plant and 
leave the surrounding 
ground dry, the roots will 
be restricted 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! 
Constructing the Trellis 
TRELLISING—It pays to use posts made 
from the kinds of wood which is known to 
last well in the ground. In California, Red 
wood is the best material for posts. Do not 
use pine, for many of the posts will rot off 
in one year and will cause you no end of 
trouble later. Most lumber dealers either 
have in stock, or can order 6 ft. 2x2” split 
Redwood grape stakes, which make the 
best and most economical posits for berry 
trellises. Split stakes or posts are better 
than sawed posts because they do not 
have knots. They are already sharpened 
and can be driven in soft ground. 
Use heavy end posts and stretch the 
wires the length of the rows. The end posts 
should be anchored or well braced, for all 
of the pull comes on them and the wires 
should be tight. It is better to tie your 
wire around the end posts than to staple 
it. The lower wire should be on one side 
of the post and the upper wire on the other. 
This makes a cheap durable trellis, which 
is easy to take down. 
We space the redwood posts about 30 
feet apart with a lighter stake (1”xl” will 
do) between each post to support the wires 
and keep them properly spread. This pre- 
vents the wires from sagging or being 
drawn together when the canes are wound 
up on them. We use No. 13 galavanized 
wire on top, and No. 14 below. 
Boysenberries 
(These directions are the same for 
Loganberries, Y oungberries, etc.) 
The best time to set out the plants is 
January, February and March in California, 
and as early in the spring as the land can 
be worked in the colder sections. 
With irrigation the rows may be spaced 
six feet apart and the plants set six 
feet apart in the rows. Without irrigation 
we believe that eight-foot spacing each 
way will be better. Do not crowd them, 
for they make big vines. This is a very 
exceptional berry, for even though it pro- 
duces an enormous crop still the berries 
are very large, and by very large we 
mean BIG; bigger, we are sure, than any- 
thing you have grown or seen before. But 
A GOOD TRELLIS 
This bush happened to have only five canes, all of which were long ones. If your bushes 
have more strong canes it is advantageous to leave more canes per hill. 

in order to get both very large berries 
and a big crop there must be something 
put in the ground to produce them, so keep 
them well fertilized and be surprised and 
happy with the results. 
After your plants have started to grow 
well, if manure is available, it will be a 
great help if you will scatter 10 or 15 
pounds of chicken manure or 20 or 25 
pounds of barnyard manure per plant be- 
tween the rows and work it into the 
ground. If manure is not easily available 
about one pound per plant of fishmeal, 
bloodmeal, tankage, or mixed fertilizer 
scattered or drilled in, about a foot from 
the plants after they have started to grow, 
will make them grow big, strong vines the 
first year. You should strive to get a heavy 
vine the first summer in order to support 
a maximum crop the next season. 
Then in early spring another application 
of fertilizer about as suggested above 
should be given. This is for the fruit. 
If to be grown in an irrigated country 
they should be well watered during spring 
and summer while the crop is developing 
and being harvested. 
The first season the vines can be left 
on the ground, and as the canes grow, 
they can be pushed back in line with the 
rows so that cultivation can continue. In 
the colder section of the midwest and east 
some growers report they have found it 
beneficial to mulch the canes through the 
winter. It is important to put a little of the 
mulching material under the vines, to keep 
them from getting imbedded in the mud 
when freezing and thawing starts in the 
spring, as well as covering them. Corn 
stalks, straw or leaves seem to make sat- 
isfactory mulch material. 
Some growers have reported their plants 
uninjured after temperatures as low as 20 
degrees below zero, even though they 
were not mulched. 
In the spring as soon as the leaf buds 
begin to open, the vines should be put ona 
trellis. We use two wires, one about two 
feet from the ground, the other four feet. 
The vines are wrapped around these wires 
in loose spirals (see picture below). 
When the crop is all picked, the old 
canes that have borne fruit should be cut 
off the trellis and back to the ground and 
burned. By that time the new canes, which 
are your fruit wood for 
the next season, will be 
several feet long, and 
these new canes can 
either be trellised up im- 
mediately or be allowed 
to grow on the ground 
until the following spring 
and are then put up on 
the trellis at the end of 
the dormant season as 
before. 
PRUNING IN GEN- 
ERAL—All varieties of 
berries except Himalaya 
blackberries bear next 
yearo n the wood that 
grew this year, so the 
first season there is little 
or no pruning needed. 
You simply set your 
plants in the spring and 
the wood which grows 
that summer will bear 
your crop next summer. 
