Berry Harvesting Technology

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The hot June sun brightly colors the juicy sides of cherries and garden strawberries in yellow, red and burgundy tones. Some of the berries that have poured are already ready for harvest, while other fruits need to be taken care of so that the ovaries do not interfere with each other and the fruits are large. What else does a gardener need to keep in mind during these busy days of taking care of their pets?

To prevent feathered thieves from eating up the crop

Early varieties of cherries ripen in early June. This moment is awaited not only by summer residents-gardeners, but also by our feathered rivals. Jackdaws, sparrows, starlings love to feast on ripe berries no less than ours. Therefore, if you visit the dacha once a week, you need to take measures to protect your future harvest from these nimble winged thieves.

In the matter of protecting fruits and berries, a fine-mesh mesh draped over the crowns of trees helps well. Tin cans and bottles of drinks hung on the branches also do a good job with the deterrent function. Swinging from the wind and other swaying, they make a noise that keeps shy birds at a distance.

Sweet cherry harvesting technology

Cherries are real long-livers. Trees live for 20 and 40 years. But they come into fruiting for a long time. Sometimes the first harvest is possible only when the plant reaches 8-10 years. If your tree bears fruit for the first time this summer, and you have not yet acquired the experience of harvesting, do not rush to pick cherries at random. The fruits should be removed carefully, together with the stalks. When overripe fruits fall into the palms without stalks, it is better to put them in a separate container so as not to mix with the rest of the crop. These fruits are the first candidates for decay, if they are not processed as soon as possible, or they are immediately eaten.

The cherry picking technology is simple. The stalk is firmly gripped with your fingers, gently twisted and bent up, while you do not need to pull the entire branch down. It is best to collect cherries in a wicker basket, basket. In such a container, the fruits will be well ventilated with air and will retain their freshness longer.

How to pick tender strawberries

Following the early cherries, strawberries and wild strawberries ripen. From the second half of June, these berries are harvested regularly at intervals of 2-3 days. Compared to cherries, you need to pick strawberries even more carefully, trying not to touch the berries with your fingers. They are removed from the sockets along with the stalk and the cup, pinching them off with a fingernail. If you plan to carry the harvest harvested from a dacha from afar, the berries are picked a little unripe. The harvesting container should not be too large. A 2 kg basket is enough, otherwise the berries will be removed.

It is better to pick strawberries on a fine sunny day before noon, when it is dry outside. If you do this in rainy weather or immediately after a rainstorm, the crop is more likely to deteriorate. And as you know, strawberries and strawberries are not those berries that can be stored for a long time even under the most favorable conditions. Already on the second day of storage, the berries lose their ascorbic acid content by half.

Time to thin out the ovaries

In the meantime, one should not lose sight of the state of the fruit and berry, which are just forming their ovaries. This is a very crucial period during which the grower can influence the quality and size of future fruits.

In the spring, we rejoice in the lush flowering of trees, but in the summer, the presence of too many ovaries can play a cruel joke. In order for the fruits of apple and pear to be of the required size, each fruit requires on average about 50 leaves to develop. Therefore, the abundance of ovaries will need to be thinned out manually.

Examine the inflorescences carefully. Leave one and the largest of several adjacent ovaries. In order for the fruits to have enough nutrients, the distance between the individual ovaries on the branch should be about 20 cm. This work can be carried out at the end of June, when the June carrion itself will tell you where the extra ovaries are still left.