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, asparagus and artichokes. Un- 
der very favorable conditions later plant- 
ing is sometimes successful. 
Strawberries may also be planted in the 
fall if you have plants available. WE DIG 
NO PLANTS BEFORE JANUARY FIRST and 
we believe 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 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 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. In- 
sufficient amount of water given plants is 
the cause of more short 
crops of berries than any 
other cause. Remember 
that the roots of your 
berries are longer than 
the the 
ground and if you irri- 
canes above 
gate in a little basin 
around the plant and 
the 
ground dry, 
leave surrounding 
the 
will be restricted to the 
roots 
little area of wet dirt in 
the basin. When irrigat- 
ing, be sure the ground 
be 
soaked several feet each 
will thoroughly 
side of your plants. Then 
watch them grow! 
Constructing the Trellis 
TRELLISING—It pays to use posts made 
from the kinds of wood which are 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, 6'2”x2”" split 
redwood grape stakes, which make the best 
and most economical posts for berry trel- 
lises. 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”x1” will 
do) between each post to support the wires 
and keep them properly spread. This pre- 
venis the wires from sagging or being 
drawn together when the canes are wound 
up on them. We use No. 13 galvanized wire 
eon 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 Jan- 
uary, February and March in California, 
and as early in the spring as the lend 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 be- 
lieve 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 produces an enormous 
crop, still the berries are very large, and by 
very large we mean BIG; bigger, we are 
sure, than anything you have grown or 
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. 
seen before. But 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 between 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 satis- 
factory 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 trel- 
lised up immediately or 
be allowed to grow on 
the ground until the fol- 
lowing spring, and are 
then put up on thee trel- 
lis at the end of the dor- 
mant season as before. 
PRUNING IN GENERAL 
—All varieties of berries 
except Himalaya black- 
berries bear next year 
on the wood that grew 
this year, so the first sea- 
son there is little or no 
pruning needed. You 
the spring and the wood 
which grows that sum- 
next summer. 
simply set your plants in 
mer will bear your crop 
