Boysenberry Clean Up

This year five bare root thorn less boysenberries were planted in a keen bed that Farmer MacGregor constructed.  To make the bed symmetrical, a sixth plant that was in a pot was placed with the others.  Every plant produced berries...some more than others but berries there were.  Netting had to be draped over the canes to keep the birds away.  The netting worked beautifully and was reused for the apricots then the peaches.  Once during the summer, the canes that produced berries were cut down to the ground and removed. Four or five new canes were tied to the support.  These canes will produce next year.  The plants were left for the summer to grow stronger to support the bumper 2013 crop.  Regular irrigation and infrequent fertilization was the only maintenance...apparently.

Fall clean up has begun.  Farmer MacGregor is deep into painting chores.  Seeds for the winter garden have been sown and thinned.  Wisteria has been cleaned up.  The final fruit tree pruning for the year is done with minimal pruning to follow.  The boysenberry jungle has been left until the weather became bearable and that day was today.  Here are some before and after shots of the three plants on the west side of the berry bed:



Before

After

A good number of the canes on the ground had started to form roots.  Waiting much longer to clean this up would have made the job more difficult.  If you plan on planting bare root berry canes this winter, make sure you have enough room and plan to keep them in control - unless you would like a berry jungle.  Consider a raised bed for control of shoots and less bending.