Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Roise Food Farm posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Since my wife and I homesteaded on a hillside in the middle of my family ranch in 2011, starting a raspberry patch has been a goal of mine. For what reason this came to be we hope to find out one day! How big of patch was always a question. Was it going to be for fun or would it become more?
Six plants were ordered out of the Gurney’s catalog and arrived in the spring of 2015. Without much research I picked a spot in the yard, got the tiller out we put them in the ground to see what we could accomplish. The first week they looked good! The next week when my job of an equipment sales man started to ramp up for the spring planting season, our raspberry garden was put on the back burner and year one of raspberries was short lived.
2016 would be much of the same results, except this time plants were transplanted from a neighbors patch. They were happy and healthy when I transplanted, for sure this would be easy getting a crop started. Twenty plants were put in a straight line. Water was rigeroulsly applied all spring, leaves were green, we were motivated to succeed! After the first month 90% of my crop was not looking good. What did I do wrong?
After five years mediocre effort, a decision was made to forget the idea or dive in 100% and see where it would take us. Google research was a top priority, if I could learn to build my own house from youtube videos, for sure we could figure out the ins and outs of raspberries!
In the fall of 2016 we picked a location and started prepping the soil for a potential spring planting. I spent the first week of December at the Great Lakes Fruit & Vegetable expo in Grand Rapids, Michigan learning about the industry and descovering what I had been doing wrong. My goal of the week was to see how involved in growing fruit I wanted to become. It quickly became evident that many challenges would be in our way to be successful at this endever in the environment and location we call home. I knew some of this already from my prior attempts, but was reminded quit often by everyone I spoke with at the convention.
So now what do I do? Do I listen to everyone who says i'm nuts for trying and just hang up the idea? Or is that just motivation! One week after returning home and going through all the notes from my studies, we were going into the raspberry business! With a few clicks on the computer we had ordered 7 of the hardiest raspberry varieties that would grow in our zone 3 climate.
We had a lot of work to do that spring before plants would go in the ground. Soil test were done, water samples were analyzed. Varieties were compared. Irrigation and water tanks were purchased. Soil was worked and rocks were picked. And we still have rocks to pick! May 20th, the plants had arrived from Massachusetts, and the crew of my parents and I were ready to spend the day on our hands and knees planting.
Planting was done in 1 day, irrigation was ran that night, and now it was time for anther prayer. After a week we had green tops on 1/4 the plants and we were headed for a family reunion in Minnesota. Returning home I didn’t know what I would find but all 7 varieties showed great signs of life!
The summer went by very dry and hauling irrigation water was the lifesaver! The drought also was a hidden blessing as w**d picking was still plenty of work, but we were able to stay ahead of it. July hit and my raspberries might have been the only thing green in the township, we were starting to see a few blossoms! The first year canes of raspberries are not high production, but by the time frost hit 6 of the 7 varities had their week or two of great production. Year one was a success.
Since freeze up I have finished all trellises and tied up the healthy strong canes. We will prune this spring before thing start warming up and be ready for a productive summer if the winter temperatures have not been too tough on the plants.
We are now preparing to find fruit pickers and homes for the raspberries. We hope to be narrowing down what varieties are the ones worth keeping when we are ready to expand further. Thanks for your interest in our adventure. For more information or to see what our 2018 production brings, please stay in touch.
