Highlights of the NASGA Summer Tour August 2008

Approx 75 growers from across North America attended the NASGA summer tour in Ohio. Tour participants enjoyed networking and learning from each other, and visiting the 9 diverse businesses on the tour.

Champaign Berry Farm

The bramble plantings at Champaign Berry Farm, near Mutual Urbana, Ohio, include 25 acres of raspberries (Jewel, Mac Black, Titan) an acre of blueberries and an acre of blackberries. Eighty percent of the berries are sold as pick-your-own. With all those brambles, Mike Pullins has focussed on labour saving production practices. Raspberries are planted in beds 2' wide, 8" high, and 10' apart. The plants are set 30" apart in the row. Drip irrigation is used to apply most nutrients, and is electronically controlled. Winter pruning is accomplished mechanically and is 80-90% effective. One-third of one side of each row is mowed, removing 80% of old canes each year, and alternating sides from year to year. Rows bear fruit primarily on one side. Some hand pruning is done in summer. For the black raspberries, Mike adopted equipment used in the grape industry in California: a hydraulically operated sickle bar mower that trims both vertically and horizontally, trimming the sides and tops of the primocanes. He chose a slow growing "hard fescue" for the row middles to reduce mowing. Tillage, using specialized equipment along the edge of the raspberry row, helps to reduce weeds.

Figure 1: Brambles at Champaign Berry Farm

Figure 2: Host Mike Pullins discusses one of his many labour saving devices: an over the row herbicide sprayer for brambles.

Photo credits: Anthony Mintenko, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives

Learn more:

• NASGA website

| Top of Page |