Small Fruits for the Home Gardener

Abstract

Small fruits have an especial appeal to the home gardner. They are easily grown, are useful and popular for dessert and culinary purposes, and require very little space to produce enough fruit for a family. The spray program is relatively simple. With a suitable selection of varieties of the different small fruits one may have continuous production from the earliest strawberry in June to the last fruits of an autumn-fruiting raspberry in late October if the first frost is delayed. If present trends continue, raspberries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries will be available only to those who grow their own. The acreage of strawberries, too, has declined greatly except on the West Coast. Years ago the low income family could have these fruits in quantity, but not now.