Strawberry Update, More Planting and Photos

Planting strawberries using the mechanical transplanter

Strawberries

Wayne County got hit by frost Sunday night/Monday morning.  Most everything at the Orchard came through fine, but the strawberries being right on the ground, got the coldest air.  We got a little damage, but nothing catastrophic.  So I figured I’d take the “opportunity” to show what a damaged strawberry blossom looks like.

Damaged strawberry blossoms
The brown centers are blossoms that won’t mature into berries. The light yellow/green centers are fine.

DON’T WORRY, it’s a very small percentage of our crop.  We’ll still have plenty of strawberries in a few weeks!!  But it demonstrates where the cold air settled into the low parts of the field.  Even frost protection isn’t perfect.

Planting

We’ve spent the last couple weeks replanting some of the strawberry fields.  We rotate the strawberries on approximately a three year cycle, so any year you come to pick berries, you’ll almost always see part of the field with young plants in it.  This keeps the plants young and producing the biggest berries, and it also keeps the weeds and plant diseases under control.  Of course, it’s a lot more work than keeping the plants longer!

Two people ride on the transplanter and alternately feed bare root dormant strawberry plants onto the wheel.  The transplanter makes a furrow, and the wheel turns and drops the plant in, as the two small tires in the back push dirt back in around the plant.  The tank on the back waters the plants as we go.

Dale driving, Sarah and I planting
Dale driving, Sarah and I planting
Young strawberry plant coming out of dormancy
The newly planted strawberry comes out of dormancy quickly, and its leaves start to unfold and grow. This one was planted a week ago.

Crop Photos

Everything else is looking great out in the field!

Baby Zestar! apples on the tree
The baby Zestar! look like real apples now. Time to start thinning!
Baby sweet cherries
The sweet cherries have set a nice crop!
Grape shoots about to bloom
Those strange-looking things on the grape shoot are actually the flower clusters.  They will be flowering soon.
Blueberries in late bloom
If you look closely, you can see some of the blueberries that have formed.

6 thoughts on “Strawberry Update, More Planting and Photos

    • Chris says:

      You’re welcome! We’re excited for berry season to start, too! Asparagus is great and everything, but I really feel like our season has started when we finally have strawberries.

  1. Helen Gahera says:

    Website looks fantastic. We appreciate all the “how to” do things segments. And the beautiful pictures. please keep all that coming ( in your “spare”time. ) Thanks.

  2. Bernie & Jeannette says:

    We are really enjoying the photos and information. On a rainy Ohio day (this past Saturday) you brighten the day!! Keep up the fantastic posts!

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