Fruits, Nuts and Berries

It Pays to Do Your Homework Before Planting

The thornless blackberries have outdone themselves this year, with a bountiful yield that we’ve been able to share. Oh! The birds got their berries too. If you have bramble-fruits, be thinking about a pruning plan for the first of the year. Old canes need to be removed to allow room for new fruiting canes to grow.  But it doesn’t stop there. Bramble-fruits love to travel and you might find them coming up in places you don’t want them. They can also become so unruly that they stop bearing so they must be controlled. You can dig up any new starts you see now, and pot them for next year. I encourage you to look up bramble-fruit pruning and become familiar with how to do it correctly.

Figs are starting to ripen, pears of all kinds, and some apples too. Blueberries are a great addition to your perennial fruits, just be aware that they are slow growing and it’ll be awhile before you get berries. They also prefer more acidic soil than is in most gardens, so they need to have their own space. A lot of folks grow them in their landscaped areas as part of the shrubbery. This works well if it’s a sunny location, because landscaped areas like more soil acidity as well.

If you’re new to the area or just now thinking about adding fruit or nut trees to your choices, do your homework first. There are fruits that do not do well in this area of Tennessee, without a spraying regimen, starting before bud-break. If you don’t want to spray, don’t plant these fruits. Nut trees are wonderful but it takes up to 20 years before they begin to bear.

Compatible healthy fruit plants/trees will yield for years. The right plants in the right environment. You’ll be glad you did your research!