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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

First Fruit Harvest of the season!

Sent DD out to pick strawberries since the catbirds and robins have been raucously eye'ing the first group of red ripening berries for the past couple of days and I was only able to cover one section of the berry patch. Plus the rainy day has brought out the slugs and snails, and they're sure to be making off with the best ones, given half the chance.

I said, "You're going to need a bowl."
She said, "I'll just hold them in my hand."
I called out the window, "How're you doing?"
She said, "I need a bowl!" :roll:

...Anyway, she happily came back with a soup bowl full of strawberries. :()

I also went out to check on the front yard wild strawberry patch, and the vetch had tripled in size over the last couple of days and were starting to blossom. I ripped out the vetch vines and piled them up around the patch. the roots will break down and release the N from their nodules, and the vines will be used to mulch around the plants once they are wilted/dried.

In the process, I rescued the knee-high dwarf patio nectarine tree from the vetch trying to engulf it, and discovered it was loaded with little green baby nectarines! :D

Apple trees and one peach tree are also loaded as is the mulberry tree. 8)
...and I,ll need to construct the bird excluding cage for the blueberry bushes. :wink:

JONA878
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Sounds like you will be enjoying the fruits of your labour for some time now applestar. !!

:P

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

Wonderful! I have raspberries not ripe yet, mulberry tree is loaded, a few strawberries... strawberry patch didn't make it through last year's drought very well, I've been meaning to buy some new plants, but haven't made that happen yet.

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hendi_alex
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Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

Our strawberries made a bumper crop this year. We have been eating them for about a month and the harvest season is probably about 2/3 done now. Blue berries and raspberries just started getting ripe. We have a young ever bearing mulberry tree which had maybe a dozen or two berries last year. This year the fruit is slow to set, but hope that we get a few more berries this year. Probably be next year before we get any kind of meaningful crop however. Last year we made a bumper crop of cherries and pears. This year only got a handful of cherries, most which were worm eaten. The pear trees barely even bloomed this year. First time in over ten years that we may have no pears. Blueberries will give us the largest crop ever this year though, so that will be a continuous treat for three or four months as different varieties ripen through the season.

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stella1751
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Location: Wyoming

You are all making me newly excited about my new strawberry plants. I'm a long ways, perhaps two months away, from eating fresh berries, but every time I walk past the little guys out there, I know I will not be giving them a year before allowing them to produce. There is no greater food in this world than a fresh ripe strawberry that is warm from the sun!

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hendi_alex
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Location: Central Sand Hills South Carolina

I've never culled the fruit from plants during their first season. They always make a few, very tasty berries, and they have always made plenty of runners and set excellent fruit for the second season. I never quite figured out the practice of culling the fruit the first year, unless perhaps the berries were planted very late in the spring and didn't have a chance to get established before fruiting time.

One thing that I find interesting and try to exploit to my advantage is the existence of micro climates in the yard. That combined with selecting varieties with different ripening dates can extend the season a couple of weeks both at the front of the season and at the end of the season.

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!potatoes!
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Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

been having strawberries for a few days now, lots yet to come. mulberries are just starting to hit, sweet cherries are rolling, serviceberries will be following them up shortly. blueberries may be another few weeks (got a bit of lavender blush so far)...the first we had this year, though, were honeyberries, which were blooming in march and just stopped producing about a week ago.

fruiting BODIES, on the other hand...the shiitakes have been outdoing themselves in the wet last week, and that's the second flush of the year.



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