This is why plasticulture
I have used captan early in the year on strawberries if in acidic water it works well at preventing rot later in the season.
Whenever I get late frosts that wipeout my stone fruit, I usually have a great berry year. This year is no exception. My blackberries are setting a lot of fruit along with my four varieties of raspberries. Cannot wait to pick them.
Those must be Kotata because the berries do not look like boysenberries…right? I want to hear about their flavor… 
Finally…harvesting gooseberries. I think this variety is ‘Jeanne’. It’s my first harvest from this variety. Flavor is ‘OK’…Some of them seemed mushy…not sure why.
Oh…i forgot. One variety of black currant is ready to pick too.
Newberry is ripe but that’s the only blackberry…although I did find one wyeberry that was almost ripe…so I snagged it… 
3 Likes
It was working very well for me until the bed went underwater
I think the later-ripening berries may be OK - I’m using more Captan
1 Like
Just finishing up on my small patch of strawberries, probably 12’ x 12’. I can honestly say I have never seen that many berries come out of area that size. It was crazy. Might be because the crop last year got froze out.
2 Likes
@jtburton those are kotata in there third year looking better than last year too. Will let you know how they taste. Wyberry I read was even bigger than boysenberries and taste the same what is your take?
Is it common for pink lemonade to set a small crop?
1 Like
Thanks for the pic, that is an impressive harvest. How big and how old is your Jeanne plant? I’m curious as I have the same variety, planted last year. It’s a bit over a foot tall, but has many new canes on it. It even has produced a few berries.
Our Oregon Champion is the same age, but is over 2ft tall, and has many berries on it this year, although not ripe yet.
@subdood_ky_z6b Here a picture of the gooseberry from this morning. It is probably 30 inches tall by 36 wide. I purchased it as a bareroot about 2 years ago and replanted it twice. It probably gets too much sun in this location but it seems to be growing well. It is sitting between 2 Razz blueberry bushes.
1 Like
So I’m going have my rant this morning…Despite my blueberries being covered, I still had a couple of birds get into the patch over the last couple of days and they cleaned out all of the ripe ones. They get under the the netting but they can’t get out…I gave them one pass on Friday and let them out but when they returned again Saturday, after I secured the nets, they got the pellet gun. To reward me for my brutality, the deer decided that chewing through netting was fair game, so they are now chewing holes in the net as they chew the blueberries and black currants that are next to the netting. Finally, it appears they called their friend the ‘raccoon’ over to the party last night, and he ate most of my ripe newberries, that were also under netting. I guess that’s the way it rolls sometimes. 
1 Like
The wyeberries I have tried so far are just tart…although I have been a little impatient and keep eating them before they are probably ripe.
I will have to give a ‘shout out’ to Chad Finn for his Newberry blackberries. I think that is one of the few blackberries that you can eat unripe and it still tastes good…now I’m not talking about a green berry but one that is turning from red to purple…they still taste really good. Ripe ones taste even better…very fruity…high recommended.
2 Likes
I hope you guys don’t mind if I ask a question in this thread? Please move it if need. All of my Ouchita have been harvested and I have huge new canes from this year. Is it ok now to cut the harvested canes off? I’m guessing it would be considered summer pruning? Any help would be appreciated. Than plants are outta control!
My Ouachita is right above your post. Love this berry! Patch is 10’ Long.
you can. in your zone they’re very vigorous. up here i cut my florocanes off in early spring so most of their energy goes back into the crown for the production of the spring primocanes. either way would be ok.
2 Likes
Yes, like Moose said. After the floricanes finish producing, they need to be cut off at ground level, and burned.
Y’all accounts of Ouachita have me excited about our blackberry plants. They have been growing very well their first couple of months.
How many quarts would you say you harvested off your plants? Did the size and flavor of the berries differ as the season progressed?
This summer I will harvest at least six quarts this summer , all I need and plenty for jam.
2 Likes
I’m gonna say I got 8-10 quarts. I did find since I’m only here weekends I had to pick some to early for maximum sweetness. IMO they were all good but I will say leaving them as long as possible they get considerably better sweetness wise. Mine was off of 6 plants. 4 of which were very heavy with fruit two that were just normal. Very,very good berries to me.
3 Likes