Asparagus, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries???

[sandy]

How many Asparagus, blueberries, raspberry and strawberry plants should I plant per person????

I put in a garden last year with tall fencing to keep the deer out and now I really want to add these plants and will need to enlarge my garden area. Need to figure out how large an area I'll need.

Thanks.

Sandy

[Puckdropper]

sandy wrote in news:dc4dfaed-87ec-40d6-9655- [e-mail]:

*snip*

We planted probably 50 strawberry plants last summer. I'm afraid we'll have to do it again because it looks like they became deer food... Strawberries freeze quite well, so plant lots of plants and freeze what you don't eat.

On average, I'm guessing you get around 6-8 berries per plant... I don't stop to count when I'm picking them.

Puckdropper

[Charlie]

Hey Sandy

There are many variables to be considered in order to not answer your questions.

How well do you like each of these?

How often will you eat the produce?

Will you only eat fresh or preserve and in what way?

How will they yield annually, given weather conditions, etc?

What gardening methods are you using? All row? Pots? Raised beds? Tiers for strawbabies?

You can google each to find the yield per plant, and the space requirements, depending upon your style of gardening and extrapolate that info for your situation. Also to be considered is which variety of each you will plant....different cultivars yield different amounts and may have different spacing requirements.

My advice? Plant as much as you can, according to space availability and budget. You can't have too many of any of these, IMO. You can always add more as needed. Some of them are going to multiply quite well. They are all high value crops and extra of any is highly desirable for trade or gifts or preserving.

[bop_pa]

I hope I'm not too late for my two cents' worth. Aside from how long it will take to have reasonably good production from the various choices, our garden (exposed to all sorts of wildlife) is basically for my wife and myself.

We have about a dozen asparagus plants that are beginning their fourth year, and they gradually produce more each year. We enjoy them in season for ourselves and to share some with friends, but expect production to increase even more.

I planted about a dozen red raspberries three years ago, and they have multiplied prodigiously. We have enough each year for fresh, frozen, jam, and making wine, etc. Being "labor intensive," I find that the Heritage variety is perhaps best since I can mow them down at the end of each year to control cane borers and a lot of pruning. Of course, having two crops a year is a plus because the Japanese Beetles voraciously consume the early crop. I pick practically all we ever need from late August-early September until the first killer frost hits sometime in late October up here on the south shore of Lake Erie.

We have about a hundred strawberry plants near the foundation on the south side of our white sided house; they love the mini-climate there and produce enough for both fresh and frozen. The downside is controlling slugs, but can be done if one practices clean cultivation. . . which is easier said than done, I've learned. Birds for some reason aren't a problem like they were when we planted strawberries in the open field out in the countryside (we live in the city now).

Ahhhh, Blueberries! Birds love 'em!! And, since the bushes take about five years before mature enough to produce berries abundantly. . . well, plant enough to share with the birds unless you can effectively protect your crop. We planted three high bush and three low-to-the-ground in the past three years. We have had none from the low plants (they need more time to mature?), and probably a total of two quarts from the three high bush blueberries -- so far. Each year has meant a little better crop in sort of an exponential manner. I've built cages of 2"x4" welded fencing, in diameters of about 30 inches and stack one inside the other (they're 4 feet high) at a slightly rakish angle to increase their height as the bushes grow. And I crown the top cage with a nylon netting to discourage birds. So far (two years) it's worked, and I can expand the cage circumference as needed. When pruning is no longer practicable -- there's enough for us AND the birds -- I'll use my cages for composting bins.

Meantime I intend to keep planting a variety of berry bushes such as gooseberry and currants, etc., because I've learned over the years that having more is better than having little-to-none-at-all.

[topperq]

thanks for the nice info :

-- topperq