Small Fruits Hort Home

Growing Berries in Washington State

General

Northwest Berry and Grape Information Network is the premier source of production and market information for berries in the Pacific Northwest.

Cornell Fruit Resources includes a wealth of information on berry crops.

WSU Extension Publications is your on-line resource for WSU extension bulletins and other useful information

Fruit Gateway is the Scottish Crop Research Institute's portal to the wealth of information on berry crop production and health in the UK.

NRCS soil survey is an on-line soil survey; this can give you soil type(s) in your field, as well as useful hydrologic information on the soils in your area. It's a great resource if you are considering putting in berries, or to determine the water holding capacity of your soil.

WSU list of Analytical Labs by Catherine Daniels. A great list of the analytical labs and consultants in the area.

Northwest Integrated Pest Management is a comprehensive IPM resource tailored to Northwest Berry Growerrs. Includes weather forecast, degree day, pest and pesticide information, as well as a handy calender of upcoming events.

Especially for Home Gardeners

Growing Small Fruits for the Home Garden (EB1640) a general outline of the cultural methods and varieties for the common berry kinds, including kiwi. Covers site selection, soil preparation, fertilization, and general culture.

Insect and Disease Control for Home Gardens: Small Fruits and Berries (EB 1015) contains a useful timetable for the home gardener detailing common pests and diseases, and application times and materials.

Plant Diseases: Raspberry and Strawberry root rots in Home Gardens (EB 1082) symptoms and causes of common root rots

Variety Descriptions

Blueberry varieties Evaluated from a paper by Dr. Jim Hancock, Michigan State University, Fruit Growers' News, May 2001.

Irrigation

Soil Moisture Monitoring and Measurement This Pacific Northwest Cooperative Extension publication is an excellent resource for irrigation scheduling, including the look and feel method.

Drip Irrigation: An Introduction, Oregon State Extension Publication EM8782-E, is a brief, readable introduction to drip with plenty of useful links and references to more comprehensive resources.

Agri-Met is a service of the Pacific Northwest division of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). You can find useful reference and crop ET data for many parts of Eastern Washington and for the Willamette Valley (but sadly, not for Western Washington)).

PAWS is WSU's Public Access Weather System. This free service is a useful source of ET and other weather data throughout Washington State. One weakness is that it doesn't include blueberry ET values. However, you can get reference ET from PAWS, and then use the Agri-Met crop coefficients to calculate berry crop ET. An update to AgWeatherNet, with additional sites and features is coming...

The Irrigation Training and Research Center (IRTC) at CalPoly is an excellent resource for irrigation/fertigation/chemigation related classes, publications and software.

Irrigation Consumer's Bill of Rights, by CalPoly's Irrigation Training and Research Center. This is an indespensible list of questions to ask before you have an irrigation system designed or installed. There is a special page for drip/micro systems.

Oregon State's blueberry irrigation guide

Oregon State's caneberry irrigation guide

Oregon State's strawberry irrigation guide

Maintaining Drip systems

Maintaining drip irrigation systems, Kansas State University Extension publication MF-2178. A concise, very helpful guide to basic drip irrigation maintenance.

Shock Chlorination treatment for irrigation wells , Kansas State University Extension publication MF-2589. If you have modest amounts of iron/iron bacteria in your well, this may be an inexpensive way to deal with the problem.

Subsurface Drip Irrigation Systems (SDI) Water Quality Assessment Guidelines, Kansas State University Extension publication MF-2575. The best guide we've found to evaluating water quality before designing or installing a drip system

Treating Irrigation Systems with Chlorine, a University of Florida IFAS Extension guide, will tell you about the types of Chlorine available, the effects of Chlorine, and help you calculate correct application amounts.