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raw_nature

Yield - Help!

Raw_Nature
11 years ago

Hello,

I am planning out my new garden layout and was curious what yield I could expect from these:

-5x30 ft strawberry patch

-10 highbush blueberries, 4' spacing

-2 gooseberry

-red currant

-black current

-jostaberry

-2 honeyberries

-semi dwarf/dwarf fruit tree

I am just looking for your experience on yields and a good estimate, I understand there's variables that come into play... Just from your experience, what can I expect out of those listed above?

Appreciate your help,
Joe

Comments (6)

  • cousinfloyd
    11 years ago

    Under backyard garden conditions (without drip irrigation/fertigation under plastic mulch), with June-bearing strawberries (which I think are the most productive overall) I would expect something like 3 quarts of strawberries three times per week for however long the season lasts, approximately 3-5 weeks. It will be a lot of work to maintain a patch that size, though, without letting it get weedy and simply too thick with strawberry plants, which will result in smaller, less sweet berries -- you might get more berries, but you'll lose in size what you gain in number, resulting in fewer total quarts.

  • Raw_Nature
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    What yield should i expect from drip irrigation and mulch? I plan on using drip irrigation..

    Floyd you mentioned it will be a chore getting strawberry bed under control - how do you advise me to do that? Cut of some plants so they don't grow so densely and have poor air circulation or what?

    Thanks,
    Joe

  • Bradybb WA-Zone8
    11 years ago

    Cut off the Strawberry plant's runners.
    It will take a few years,but the Blueberry and Honeyberry plants should put out about ten pounds or maybe more per bush. Brady

  • cousinfloyd
    11 years ago

    I don't think what I do would work in Ohio, but after my strawberries are done fruiting for the year, I disc about 75% of my strawberries in, and then in the early fall I transplant runners (that I dig from just a fraction of the remaining 25%) to set out an equal size section for the following year. That seems to be the easiest way for me to deal with weeds and crowding, and there seem to be a few advantages to rotating them with other crops. I would guess that drip irrigation by itself (without soil fumigation, liquid fertilizers in the irrigation system, pesticides, and everything else conventional growers do) wouldn't really make any difference in yield. Your climate and soil might make a significant difference between your yield and mine for better or worse.

  • Raw_Nature
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Floyd: so you till in 75% of strawberry plants,then root runners for another bed? But don't that leave a year is so without fruit? Don't it take a year to establish the plant before fruiting? From my understanding after three years you should replace strawberries due to decline in productivity.. How would I replace the strawberry plants without having to wait a year for the new planting to get established? I would like consistent crop year after year without having to wait every few year for the new runners to establish before fruiting?

    Thanks,
    Joe

  • spartan-apple
    11 years ago

    Raw:

    I grew a lot of strawberries in my youth and will agree with
    cousin floyd on replanting runners. When I was a teen, my family had 3 strawberry patches. You are right that after 3 years the yield decreases due to weeds and large
    less productive strawberry crowns. Our solution was to
    rip out one bed each year, remove the weeds, add LOTS of composted manure and replant the bed with current season runners that had rooted in. We would dig out the runners from this old bed or the other two beds.

    Anyone who grows strawberries knows how prolific most
    varieties are at producing runners. We would get so many that we gave some away to friends each year (August).

    This gave us two beds in production each year and one
    bed out of production (newly planted).

    I seen nobody answered your question about the yield
    on semi-dwarf/dwarf apples. That is is difficult question
    based on rootstock, current size of tree, vigor of variety ect. My rough estimate on the low end would be 1-2 bushel for super dwarf trees (bud 9, m-26 ect) and 3-4
    bushels for apples on M7 rootstock.

    I recall a very old giant McIntosh apple at an orchard I once worked at. This tree was on a standard rootstock and the family that owned the orchard was in its 3rd generation of ownership. Most of the old standard apple
    trees had been cut down and replaced with semi-dwarfs.
    They left this giant tree. That fall we picked 26 bushels
    off that one tree!

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