Berries in the Texas garden: Need Help Starting

I'm new to doing berries. We tried them one year at a previous house and they were so small and not yet established enough to give us berries within a year, fully expected that.

But now at the new place we'd like to try again and in a grander scale. I'm talking I have a full blank slate and have probably 30' along a sunny fence that I could do some berries and would also like to interspurse them among perennial flowers along the fences in the backyard as well.

I'd like blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. BUT I don't want to buy sickly looking plants of them from a box store as we did last time. I don't mind ordering them but I want them healthy. I don't want to spend time nursing along plants that will have bitter or tart fruit. I'd like guaranteed to taste good berries!!!! So any company that lists in detail a description of it's flavor would be ideal.

In Texas we have a site that lists what FLOWERS do best for our zones http://www.texassuperstar.com/ but it doesn't include berries, that I saw.

Well, I guess in addition we'll want some peach trees to, and I'd also need to know how those fruit would be described in size and flavor.

Has anyone been through the trial process for zone 9a to tell me what varieties have worked for you? Suggestions on the best place to order berry bushes and fruiting trees? Perhaps a site link that suggests such info? I really am counting on Dave's to help me get this right. :) I hope you will help!

Here is TAMU's suggestions. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/fruitgarden/fruitvariety.html

God bless you! I knew TAMU would have something but was unable to turn up the correct link. :)

I don't know what part of Texas you are in, but if it's S.E. Texas, namely Houston, Austin, San Antonio, etc. then you can plant bare root strawberry plants in late September or early October and pick off any flowers until mid-February, then let them rip!

S.E. Texas soil can be hard, poorly draining, alkaline clay and nutrient-free. Strawberries like loose, sandy, acidic soil full of compost. Building a 8-12" tall raised bed out of pressure treated wood (it doesn't have arsenic anymore!) and full of peat moss, sandy soil, and bags of premium compost will give you an excellent yield of strawberries. Note that those 99 cent bags of topsoil, potting soil, compost, and humus at Wal-Mart are all about 90% waste materials and not worth buying. Black Kow composted manure is $5 a bag and is 100% composted cow manure. If you can find sheep manure or cotton burr compost, even better.

Chandler is the variety of strawberry often recommended for here. I grew it in fall 2005-spring 2006 and it was exceptionally productive. I was picking some every day for 4 weeks. But it is what I consider a cooking strawberry. Very assertive and tart. I am trying again this fall with a variety which is typically grown as an Everbearing variety (some jokingly call them Neverbearing!) but I will pick off all flowers from October through February. I'm talking about Quinault. It's very depressing to see these Quinault plants only available in February-April at the nurseries and people buy them and are surprised that they don't get many berries. The proper time to plant is in late September early October.

Note that root/crown placement is crucial with strawberries. Crown too high or too low and the crown will rot and die. Also the roots should not just be jammed down into the hole.And of course a thick layer of straw mulch, and add straw or blankets over the plants if there is a freeze.

Bare-root blackberries are planted in mid-January. If you are anywhere near Houston, then check out the citrus and fruit tree sale at http://www.UrbanHarvest.org/ they have bundles of 10 blackberry bushes for a very reasonable price. Note that last year they only had one type -- Kiowa, which is very productive, and very large, but very tart unless picked dead ripe. I really view it as a blackberry for making pies.

As for blueberries, the soil must be VERY acidic. You grow it like you would for optimal azalea production. Some people grow blueberries in containers just because they can't get the soil acidic enough.

If you are anywhere near Magnolia, TX, blueberries are at peak harvest right now. I picked 6 pounds of blueberries at King's Orchard in Plantersville, TX. http://www.kingsorchard.com/ Some of them are what I consider cooking blueberries (solid, rich flavor, but not very sweet), and some are what I consider eating blueberries (incredibly sweet, very fruity flavor). I picked 3 lbs of each and kept them separate. :)

You can order bare root plants over the internet for all these from Indiana Berry http://www.inberry.com/

Wow, thank-you fellow Houstonian. You've been a wealth of info!

I've heard of that Urban Harvest place, I'll have to sell MY berries there once I have some, I hear they charge $5 a HALF PINT!!!! LOL!

Yes, the produce at UrbanHarvest Bayou City Farmer's Market can be very expensive, especially organic. My favorite thing lately is Bryan Farms chickens. They are so far beyond what you find at the grocery store it's like the difference between a pigeon and pheasant.

Blueberries are at their peak right now. I'd try to go sometime this week if you are so inclined. ;)

Thank you so much!

I like that TAMU site but it's not as informative as I'd hoped, no listings for any varieties to get. Unless I overlooked it?

Here's an article on blueberry varieties. Unfortunately the names of the cultivars are not bolded, italicized, or otherwise stand out in any way. You have to hunt for them.

http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/blueberries/blueberries.html

The varieties I recall from King's Orchard as having good flavor were Climax and Premier.

Here's another article:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/fruit/blueberry/blueberries.html

Delite was very nice.

THANK YOU!

Per my husband I've contacted my local county ag office for more information on plant varieties. If/when I find the "solutions" for Houston I'll order the plants online and then see how it goes from there.

Found interesting in your blueberry article, said to plant in wine barrels and NOT in the ground, at least for my area! And they get much taller than I'd imagined! So I appreciate the education on that.

Would you suggest raised pot raising of most any berry? Seems like it might be safer?

Our soil is typically heavy, alkaline clay.

Blueberries and strawberries like loose, well-draining, acidic sandy soil. So yes, you will need to build raised beds for most fruit in my opinion.

Blueberry categories that do well here are Southern Highbush and Rabbiteye. They are 5-8 feet tall and 3-5 feet wide.

The half barrel containers is simply a manageable way to do a raised bed garden. It's not the only way.

Wow. Great information. I have sandy soil not clay, but I love the varieties you propose.

Okay, thinking now here is the grand list of what I'd like to add:

Trees: red plum, banana, clementine, fig. Of these, which can be self-pollinators?

Berries: blue, strawberry, black.

Vines: 1 red, 1 green grape.

But I'm still looking for a detailed list which describes their flavors.

Opps, meant to add PEACH to the list of trees to :)

I like the Flame grape. It seems to be healthier even than most other grapes. Its good for raisins as well as fresh. And it tastes very sweet.

The best place to order Berry plants is Nourse. They have the best root system I have ever seen. My favorite seedless grape is the seedless Concord with Reliance a close second. Blackberries should do very well in your area.
RED

You have to be picky on peach varieties for varieties which are resistant to fire blight and do well here in S.E. Texas.

Seedless concord? I'm blue with envy! No way we could grow that here.

Feldon, I assume you meant bacterial spot and not fireblight on peaches. Bacterial spot is a major problem in hot, humid climates. Fireblight hits pome fruits only.

Scott

Ah, was not aware.

Why won't seedless concords grow in Texas. They are very vigorous here and I have heavy clay soil and we have hot dry summers.
RED

Here is a picture of some of our blackberries. they are triple crown variety. thornless and sweet when fully ripe. we don't do anything but keep the weeds out by tilling on the sides. We don't have trouble with insects or disease so far. Triple Crown doesn't have as many berries as the other thornless kinds but they are not so sour to eat fresh and the seeds are not as big.

another thornless blackberry pic. I've already made 17 jars of jelly and jam and put more than 7 gallon bags of berries in the freezer for when I have the time to make more; and the season has just started. I use to sell them but got tired of getting ripped off by my local fruit market that was getting triple the price that he paid me for them. These berries are sour and make great jellies. The only draw back is the seeds are large and not so good for cobblers or pies although it doesn't stop my husband for a moment.

One more. Taken before they ripen in 2008. One thing about blackberries. You don't plant them deep. Make sure all the roots are covered but not deep like a tree.

Gorgeous, thanks for the pics! Doesn't look like the first pic is lacking in abundance, though you say thornless produce less!!!! Thornless would be a nice feature here with little tots around. How many years growth is on that first plant?

Triple Crown and Doyle are known as being flavor and productivity champs. I just don't know how well they grow further south.

Tir_Na_Nog
The Triple Crown Blackberries have less berries than another variety that we grow,but they are sweeter to eat fresh. I can't remember what the other variety is called. We have had them several years. We have only had Triple Crown for a couple of years, so maybe they will produce more as they get older.Thornless blackberries have the reputation for having very large berries and huge seeds not desirable for pies, cobblers or jam. They are however great for jelly. Triple Crown will still give you probably all the berries you can deal with with smaller seeds and a sweeter taste. Those pictures are of two year old plants. I don't know about your area, but blackberries love east Tennessee. When I say less I don't mean a few. We pick about 4 gallon about every other day on about a dozen plants. That's a lot of berries to do something with in a hurry. I'm usually dealing with many other veggies at the time the berries ripen so I just put them in gallon freezer bags and freeze them until I have time to juice them and make my jelly and jams.

Got this link from my local ag office.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/home/update/HUOCT95.pdf

Disappointed, they emailed back that they don't have descriptions of the tastes since that would be preference. I beg to differ though, I'm not seeking a biasis just a clear description. A fruit is either sour or not, very juicy or not, very large or not, very seedy or not. Etc. Oh well. I'll look through this list, then look up each individual one to get a better description.

Forgive for jumping in here, but here in the blistering, dry desert of Phoenix, we have had to adapt a few cultural practices to get good berry plants. Establishment is the biggest problem, as bare root plants have very little water gathering capacity, yet will rot if even slightly over watered. So, what Ive done is the following:
Buy bare root plants in early spring. Soak roots in mild sea kelp solution overnight to 'wake them up' and get them going. Plant into gallon sized pots with soil that drains VERY well. Keep under shade cloth and water when leaves are no longer turgid. Water sparingly at first, its very easy for me to over water and cause rotting (note that my water is alkaline and has a lot of TDS. This is probably affecting my ability to get them started properly. I frequently use RO or DI water on them for the first year in pots).
Plant out into the garden area where they will live in Fall. With their larger root mass, they take the transplant process better and dont suffer from lack of water like Spring planted bare root plants do. Also, we have a long planting season in the Fall, and I can take advantage of this and get some good root growth before it turns too cold, and they go dormant.
I hope this helps.
DD

that helps quite a bit. thank you for the insight! so i shall wait until spring, baby them along and prep their beds for fall planting.

here in houston i'm sure your advice is still quite relavent!

I planted 24 Chandler plants in September '06. I didn't lose a single one and I didn't exactly "baby" them. They were extremely productive (~1 pint per plant), but I didn't like the flavor. I will be trying again this fall with Quinault. Tir_Na_Nog, why do you want to wait until 2010 to get strawberries?

This message was edited Jul 31, 2008 10:46 AM

If I put plants in in the spring and that's a better time to plant but it takes a full year for them to fruit then that's nature for you. I can't help that timing.

We still planted grapes and nectarine trees when in San Antonio though we moved before we could enjoy those fruits.

Obviously sooner is nicer but I'll have to research the varieites the ag office suggested.

Tir, a good book to keep near the bed is Howard Garrett's "Plants for Houston and Southeast Texas" -- I just got it recently on amazon.com and really like it. You might consider also getting Madeline Hill's "Southern Herb Growing." She owned and ran the Hilltop Herb Farm just north of Houston for years until it was destroyed by storm; it was a restaurant and huge herb garden. I only ate there once, but it was absolutely incredible. The book includes recipes.

GREAT references, thank-you. Have you added them to the garden books on Dave's?

Thanks for reminding me! If they're already there I'll leave a comment.