Maximising boysenberry yield

This looks like a good idea. He gets 1/2 a bucket a day from this!!! worth considering somewhere. I like that it's functional and takes little space

 

 

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Maximising boysenberry yield

via Abdallah House - Redesigning a Home by noreply@blogger.com (permie) on 3/17/12

Principle 3: Obtain a yield

Boysenberries can be a great producer, or a big problem, it all depends on management. My gardening mentor Brian has been advising me on how to make the most of these prolific plants, and suggested growing them on mesh, which doubles as a fenceline whilst supporting the downpipe to rainwater tank. The mesh supports a sultana grape vine, male and female kiwi fruit vines along with about 7 metres (2.4m high) of boysenberries. The trench on the laneway side of the mesh has small check dams within it to hold water so that the water can seep into the ground rather than run off which reduces the need to irrigate them so often.
Boysenberries require frequent maintenance, but not much of it. This is best done using leather gloves, as the tiny prickles can be quite painful if they break off in your skin. The main task is to feed new growth through the mesh, and remove excess leaders before they get out of control. The images below show the growth and management over the past 18 months. My management style is evolving as I go.

Boysenberries planted end of Spring and fertilsed with horse manure. Native grasses planted on laneway side, providing mulch, habitat and buffer (from traffic, herbicide runoff and invasive grasses.

Canes are threaded through mesh in an ad-hoc fashion as they grow through summer.

Most of the leaves drop off during winter, the rest are removed by hand to reduce habitat for berry eating insects

During Spring growth resumes and the growth on the canes were prunned to 300mm above ground level to reduce habitat for insects / mould. The native grass was cut back to provide mulch and better access for prunning canes.

Thick new growth consumes the mesh and flowers mid Spring. New canes begin to grow from base and are left to grow at ground level.

Heavy cropping from late Spring till early summer. Averaging half a bucket a day for many weeks during peak.

Having such huge yields over a short period meant that we had to find creative uses for the fruit.

• We ate what we could straight from the canes
• We made berry smoothies
• Preserved about 20 large jars of them in water
• Made about 20 jars of jam of various sizes, some given away at Christmas
• Froze some in containers - best to use the containers that they were picked into as they don't transfer well. Very nice with cream or ice cream.
• Made about 15 stubbies (375ml) of berry / plum purée mix as the wild plums were coming on at the same time
• Made about 15 stubbies of berry / plum cordial
• Gave away some fresh berries to our neighbours and friends

Preserved berries stored in cellar.

Old growth pulled from mesh when finished fruiting (early summer) and cut for mulch, took a couple of hours. New cane growth led up mesh, one per vertical - not ad-hoc as per last season.

Early Autumn - When canes reach the top they are tipped out and horizontal growth led through mesh to fill in gaps.

www.permacultureprinciples.com

Olive pruning

Reminder to self:

anton, you are trying to prune these trees right down to half their size. But you didn't want to do it all at once and kill them.  Prune hard again next season.

Soon to be,wind damaged

This spot wasn't great. The wind just hammered the spoilt plants. This was probably the single worse influencing factor.

Motivation after disaster

Got really frustrated after the latest disaster with the early planting.  It's not a total disaster yet...but still after all the early planning it seems like it all went to waste.  The frustration being that we'll have to wait another year before we can test the early planting again.  (Probably also a result of the Quit smoking and Drinking regime too - to be fair)

It was starting to feel like we hadn't had many successes and that we kept just making the mistakes without making any learning (this blog being an attempt to address that).  But then today I realised it wasn't all that bad and that it was largely a symptom of the time of year (I've planted lots but nothing's happening....it's still early....things will take off...just need to stick with it).

• We've still got time enough to re-sow a whole new spring crop inside, provided we get in to it asap. 
• All the bulbs that were planned and planted last fall are coming up and should prove to be a great success
• The vines planted on the potager frame, will grow double or tripple their size this year now that they're settled and should look good (perhaps even grapes)
• The cherry tree looks to have loads of shoots after settling from last years planting
• The kiwi"s seem like they lasted and so could grow back nicely this year
• The gooseberry although showing nothing yet could still prove to come strong
• The compost is again looking good

I guess the moral of the story is that although it felt like last year we didn't have many victories...we WILL be having victories from things that were planted a year ago and that just take a year to settle in.

Patience perhaps is the key.

Note to self: 

I like this idea.  I like the developments that take a longer time to get results but that when they do come they are recurring and need not to be re-planted all the time.  Need to look more in to permaculture (permanent culture) for solutions so that you only sow once - not every year.   What's the point working every year to plant for a short period when it could be permanently sowed??? There must be some reasons

Early planting, possibly to early.

Over the last few weeks we have been busy planting all the plants that we had sprouted inside under our early planting scheme.  We really took the opportunity to try and time it with the full moon, among other things, but in the end we feel it was all to early.  

The reasons we think that it has proven too early is because many of the plants have been really struggling - particularly for some of the types of tomatoes. Not all of them though - will have to confirm which ones once they start growing.


We tried to ensure the transition from inside to outside was gentle by staging the move.  We first spent a week with the plants outside during the day and then back in at night, then outside over night on warm nights, and then tried to time the plan with the full moon.
We encountered a couple of problems.

• Firstly, altough the idea to introduce the plants outside gently was probably correct, we put them on the deck in front of the house where they were expossed to wind which frankly smashed them.  The wind was hardly noticeable but because the plants had been so protected inside they had no hardiness whatsoever.  I think we lost all our cucumbers and took a lot of damage to the tomatoes
  
• Secondly, although we planted some with the full moon, the wind was too strong and again damaged the plants
• Although nights are generally about 4 or 5 + one of two nights of close to 0 we think have really had a big impact on the tomatoes.  Many of the plants that were planted ages ago with the full moon have made no progress, and are not showing any improvement after almost 2 weeks.

It's not been all nightmares.  The peas and taken well, although they don't seem to have really grown at all over the last 2 weeks.  But they do seem happy to just sit there - hopefully they'll therefore be well settled by the time it warms up.

What we've learnt:

• That we probably needed to hold on for planting for another month to the next full moon.  Aim for about end of March / April time
• Plants liked it when planted just after rain as the soil was soaked through.
• The pyrimid of needs for planting pre-seeded plants in order of priority is: No wind, just after rain days, full moon, sunny days.  Wind is really a killer for early
• Tomatoes in particular needed another month (although there is an early variety)

Pumpkin Planting Tips

We're also looking to plant a few pumpkins this year, so here's an aggregated list of tips for pumpkins:

• Pumpkins love sunny spots - the more the better
• Plant in mounds:  Pumpkins seeds typically are planted in the middle of small hills or mounds that are about three feet in diameter. Surround each hill with a moat (about 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep) to help contain water around the roots. Plant 4 to 5 seeds in a circle in the middle of the hill, and space the seeds about 6 to 8 inches apart.
• Pumpkin plants are vigorous vines and love to sprawl
• The vine can be pruned, trained, and redirected to live harmoniously with other plants
•  The huge leaves of the pumpkin plant serve as a floating mulch that holds down weeds and keeps the soil moist.
• Pumpkins are considered "heavy feeders" and do well with a little extra nourishment. One nutrient source that works well and is reasonably priced has the dismaying name "fish emulsion"
• If pumpkins could speak, their first words would probably be: "Gimme a drink." Between 80 to 90% of every pumpkin is water; and water is an essential medium for bringing nourishment to the entire plant.
• Pumpkin vines withstand pruning quite well. Properly done, it strengthens the plant and helps it thrive. In most cases, the plants require some cutting if only to keep them from growing into your kitchen. Every pumpkin plant has a main and a secondary vine that usually grow in opposite directions. Each of these two vines produce shoots (or tertiary vines) which can be selectively pruned as the plant develops. It is best to clip when these new side shoots begin to develop. The plant will leak or bleed a little when it is clipped, but it seals over quickly. The amount of pruning usually depends on how much garden space is available. Trimming the plant is definitely necessary to train the vine to run in a long narrow line along the edge of a garden and to keep the plants from crawling over each other and their neighbors. 

Source:
http://www.informeddemocracy.com/pumpkin/growing.html

Spring Planting Plan - rough

Did a session together today to outline a plan for our spring planting this year.

The rough outline below is what we came up with.  i'd like to better draw this out as well as maybe do something that includes a Summer Planting, a Fall Planting, and a Winter Planting (x4)

But that'll come when I can get to it.

Incidnetally, the below plan resulted in us outlining the below plants to seed.  Which was a good idea cos we need to seed those asap in order to have them ready for a spring planting which could be in a few weeks.