For the northern gardener April is the busiest month of spring; one of the busiest of the year. The planting schedule alone includes all kinds of trees, shrubs, evergreens, perennials and other hardy plants; the sooner they are set out the better. Orders for plants, seeds, fertilizers and other supplies top the list of chores for urgency. Demand is heavy and shortages are inevitable. Be sure of your sources of supply. Mid-season disappointments too often follow the purchase of questionable plants and seeds.
As a way to supplement the food budget, many home owners are attracted by the idea of raising fresh fruit. Getting such a project under way is an important factor in this as in any other phase of gardening. Each season it is put off is another year lost.
The kinds known as small fruits, which range from strawberries to grapes, are often the sensible choice for limited space, With so many varieties available it is strange that so few have found their way into American gardens.
What is more, most of these small fruits fit into the garden without special plan or site. Blueberries form a fine hedge, or may be grouped in a shrub border. Grapes provide shade if trained on an overhead arbor, or make a tall screen on a trellis. They might even be planted along a path or drive and strawberries set in the same bed. Raspberries, too, can be used as a screen. As for currants and gooseberries, occasional plants set here and there among shrubs will yield a mess of appetizing fruit without any bother, if they get sonic sunlight.
Don’t be discouraged if your soil does not meet text-hook requirements. Compost or manure will make any soil produce fruit. Lacking these, peatnioss or humus are possible substitutes if 6 pounds of dried cow manure and 2 pounds of superphosphate are added to a bushel of either one.
It is a waste of time to set out anything hut top grade plants. After they are in the ground, with about 3 inches of soil over the roots, the tops of bush fruits should he cut hack. This operation is too often omitted, with the mistaken idea that a crop of fruit can be harvested the first season. Of course, a first year crop is possible, but at the expense of vigorous growth and later yields. Hoots are lost when the plants are dug; others are lost in shipping. A curtailed root system cannot he expected to perform like a full one. All bramble fruits, like raspberries, are cut to within 6 inches of the ground; gooseberries and currants are thinned out and the tips cut, Blueberries are merely tipped back.
Blueberries
More exacting than other small fruits, blueberries require an acid soil. If the soil reaction is doubtful, a quantity of acid peatmoss or sawdust should be mixed in, In any ease, 2 pounds of pure dried cow manure and a tablespoonful of sulfate of ammonia are added for each plant. Then the ground around the roots is mulched with sawdust, peatmoss or leaves. Two-year-old blueberry plants are the best, and they should be set 6 feet apart each way. Twice during the growing season, each plant should be fed a tablespoonful of 5-10-5 fertilizer.
For a crop of fruit, at least two different varieties of blueberries should be set out. Blueberries are hardy as far north as peaches grow, but they do not succeed in extremely cold regions.
Bramble Fruits
A well cared for planting of brambles will last eight to ten years and might include raspberries, blackberries and dewberries—one or several varieties. Since these hushes send up quantities of suckers each season, some are selected for fruiting and the rest removed. Otherwise the place will become a thicket. For the narrow hedge system plants are set 2 1/2 feet apart, and rows need to be at least 6 feet apart. Stakes and wires are used for support and to keep the bushes in their allotted space.
Raspberries
There are three kinds of raspberries—red, black (blackcaps) and purple. Red varieties are the most frequently grown and the easiest to manage. The others are more vigorous and produce more fruit. And since they ripen after the red ones they also prolong the season.
Among the red raspberries are summer-bearing varieties and the overbearing kinds that give two crops a season. Both types need to have the fruiting canes removed as soon as they have finished bearing to make way for the new canes that will bear the next year’s fruit. The overbearing raspberries, however, produce the autumn crop on the new canes, and these same canes bear. again the following summer. Then they are removed. Pinching the tips of the new canes in July encourages a larger autumn harvest. Everbearing varieties are successful only in regions where frosts are late.
Black and purple raspberries are also tip-pinched in summer. In addition. they are cut back a foot or more the following spring before growth starts. Otherwise their culture is the same as for red varieties. The red varieties should be planted with either black or purple because of mosaic.
Blackberries and Dewberries
In places like Minnesota, blackberries are not hardy. Elsewhere they are safe. They are rampant growers which ought to be rigidly controlled, hut aside from that they are handled like black and purple raspberries. Extreme care is needed when selecting varieties, and they should be obtained from a reliable source.
Dewberries, or trailing blackberries, are less hardy than other brambles. Some are grown with protection in parts of the Hudson Valley. Culture is much the same as it is for other brambles except that new canes, which are thin and willowy and very long, are left to trail along the ground. In spring they are tied up to wire supports. Left on the ground all winter they are easily covered with hay or soil. Canes are cut after fruiting.
Currants and Gooseberries
The red and black currants differ in fruiting habits. Black varieties produce their crop on canes a year old, and therefore canes are cut out annually much like the brambles. Red currants, however, bear fruit on canes two and three years old, so all canes over four years old are removed. The pruning is done in spring. Surplus canes and all weak growth are removed then, too. Black currants are not grown much in the United States. but the realization that the fruit has a bight vitamin C content may result in a demand for the plants.
Two-year-old currant hushes are set out 3 feet apart in rows spaced 4 feet apart. Two applications of 5.10-5 are given during the growing season—one when growth starts and the other in July. Constant cultivation is needed to keep down weeds unless the ground is mulched with hay or leaves.
Grapes
Spring is the best time to set out grapes. In the home garden, they are easier to manage if trained over an arbor or against a trellis, with plants set 6 feet apart. Closer planting results in overcrowding when the plants get large. Well developed, one-year-old grape plants with a good root system are considered a good buy, but two-year-old plants are better, if they can be secured.
As with all the above mention plants check with your local nurseryman and garden center for the best varieties for your local area.
