[GT182]

You might need more that one Greg for pollination to get the berries.

[GT182]

Greg, it says they are self pollinating so you can have only one plant.

But from the website it also says:
In many cases, you may still want to plant pollinating partners to increase the size of your crops, but with self-pollinating varieties doing so is optional. You'll get fruit with only one plant!

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, I saw that Gary. One plant should do it...BUT...my property is so heavily wooded that I doubt it would bear fruit. Those things need a lot of full sun.
I have muscadine vines growing all through my woods in the summer but the only fruit I see is where the vines have managed to get all the way to the top of the tallest trees. Every once in a while I will find half a dozen or so on my driveway way up by the street.

[ponyakr]

It was a great day for berry pickin, in North Louisiana !

It began with record low temps, in the upper 40's. And even after the sun came up, it was not hot, and there was a nice breeze blowing. I'll call it a beautiful day !

I didn't hear Woody today. I did hear a "Chicken Hawk", a Dove, a Bob White (quail), and lots of unidentified smaller birds. My berry pickin dog buddy flushed up a bunch of what we call "Cow Birds". I think they are actually called "Cattle Egrets". They like to hang around cattle and eat the grasshoppers & other bugs they stir up. They will also sit on the cow's back & pick off the insects that light on 'em. They love to hang around where tractors are mowing or baling hay. It makes finding bugs a lot easier. TJ's horse sometimes has 1 or more, following him around as he grazes in his horse lot.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=bob+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=catt...hrome&ie=UTF-8

Speakin of my dog buddy, some days he pulls double duty. After berry pickin, he goes with TJ on long horse rides.

[Greg Reid]

I never knew those hawks were the same as a chicken hawk. Every time I hear the words 'chicken hawk' I think of this little fella-

[hurryinhoosier62]

We prepped and froze 8 gals of strawberries last weekend. Berries are in season early this year due to our mild winter, but they are GOOD!

[ponyakr]

Well, as I was bush hoggin some of TJ's horse riding trails today, I decided to try to get a few more berries from my last 2 producing patches. And I got a few, a VERY few. Less than a cup total. So, berry pickin season is over, where I live.

But, it was a good season. Had plenty of berries til past July 4. And, the weather was GREAT. It was the coolest June I can remember. Don't think we ever hit 90°. Some days it stayed in the high 70's & low 80's. The record high temps are 100° & over, for every day of June. So, the average June temp was well below average, this year.

But, this week that has all changed. It hit 96° today, so with our humidity, our heat index was well above 100°. And we had bright sunshine. By noon, it was really hot, if you were not in the shade.

I saw several critters today. There was a big rabbit, a fox, and a half grown Pileated Woodpecker. The bird lit on the flat top of a utility pole, not 50ft from where I was bush hoggin. It stayed there for at least 3 minutes, peckin occasionally. There's no way an adult would light that close, much less stay that long.

It just occurred to me that some of the younger guys, & maybe a few older, city boys. may not know what the term "bush hoggin" means. I think the real name for the piece of equipment is a "rotary cutter". It's pulled behind a tractor, and is used to cut heavy grass, weeds, & even small bushes & saplins. The one I have is a "Big Bee" brand.

But, back in the old days, the most popular brand was a "Bush Hog". So many people had these that using any brand of rotory cutter became known as "bush hoggin". My dad might say something like: Son, go "bush hog" the pasture. We did have a Bush Hog brand, at that time. It outlasted him. I inherited it. When I bought a new tractor a few years back, I also bought the Big Bee I have now, and sold the old Bush Hog. Mine is still workin OK. But, it is not nearly as well built as that old Bush Hog.

Bush Hog is still in business today. They sell a cheap model, for around $1000, to compete with the cheap offshore brands. But they also sell HD models. HD models are well over $1000.

http://www.bushhog.com/catalog/rotar...pindle-series/

https://www.tractorhouse.com/listing...7-bush-hog-bh5

https://www.tractorhouse.com/listing...-bee-agri-five

[ponyakr]

Well, it's berry pickin time again, in Louisiana.

I've picked dewberries several times already. But, most of my best 2 spots from last year were both mowed down. So, I had to pick from several smaller patches. Won't get many dewberries this year.

But, looks like a bumper crop of blackberries comin on. Have picked maybe a small handful of some that got ripe very early. I've seen what appears to be millions of green, pink, & red ones. So, in a couple of weeks there should be far more than I could possibly hope to pick.

Looks like the weather might be a little warmer than last year's pickin temps. It's already in the low 90's, and is predicted to increase to mid 90's later this week. That'll put the heat index over 100°. But, I can just pick during the early, cool hours of the morning. Won't pick near as many as I did last year, cause I still have lots of last year's pickins, in the freezer. Rather have too many than not enuff, tho. I eat some every day.

At one of my dewberry patches, I noticed what I thought was a dewberry, on the ground. Then noticed several more. And some were not even close to a dewberry vine. So, I looked around to see where they might have come from. All I had to do was look up. The tree right by the dewberry patch was loaded with 'em.

It was a Mulberry tree. When I was young, we had a Mulberry tree close to our house. But my mom told me that Mulberries were poison. Don't know why. Maybe her mother had told her that. Anyhow, TJ Googled it & found that ripe Mulberries are good for humans, and can be used for pies & stuff, just like blackberries & dewberries.

So, the next time I went to that patch I picked up some Mulberries off the ground & picked some off the lower limbs I could reach. But, when I got 'em home I discovered that the stem is much too hard to pull out of the berry. I'll just stick to dewberries & blackberries.

[tom s]

Was in Venice LA a couple week ago,did not see any berries in my travels.Tom

[ponyakr]

Originally Posted by tom s

Was in Venice LA a couple week ago,did not see any berries in my travels.Tom

Don't know how many berries grow in South Louisiana. But, there are lots of 'em in the North LA hill country, where we live.

In some ways, North & South Louisiana are almost like 2 different countries, especially in the Cajun areas & South of I-10. TJ & I love the food & music of the Cajun areas. I enjoy just hearing somebody talk with a real heavy Cajun accent.

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-cajuns-culture-1435533

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcBnu81_Kb0&t=3351s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlv8PUyc1HQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFVOELUIrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCDBqMweDMs

Ann Savoy wrote a good book about Cajun music & culture. Marc Savoy builds Cajun accordions. They have Cajun music jam sessions in their business almost every Sat morning. TJ & I attended one of these, back in the '90's.

http://www.savoymusiccenter.com/cajun_books.html

http://www.savoymusiccenter.com/jam_session.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=023KalFuG-w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jpxSYxzFN0

DL Menard was a popular Cajun musician, who was known as the Cajun Hank Williams. His biggest hit was "The Back Door". We also heard him live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf0he709d1k

[Greg Reid]

I've eaten a handful or two of dewberries myself this year. They grow everywhere in the rail yard where I work and they are already ripe and plump this year.

[ponyakr]

Well, most of my blackberry patches have dried up. But, I still have 1 patch that's mostly in the shade, most of the day. Got about 3 quarts there today.

There are still quite a few red berries there. So, I could pick a few, probably on into July. But, our chest freezer is about full, & I have more than enuff to last til next berry season. So, I'm calling it quits, for this year.

Didn't see any rattlesnakes this year. Only encountered one rat snake, which we always called a chicken snake. Also saw what was either a hawk or an owl, flying over a berry patch, carrying a black snake, which appeared to be at least 4 feet long.

Got my usual amount of blackberry briar "battle scars". But, that's just the price you must pay, if you pick berries. Time now for those scars to heal, and to spend some time in my new shop. Unfortunately, I've always managed to get some battle scars when workin on Pontiacs. But, none were lethal. So, I expect to survive this next project also.