# Blueberries and tomatoes in northern Minnesota



## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

The winters are too harsh up here to grow the tall blueberries bushes that you southern boys can grow. I have to grow what's known as "1/2 high" blueberries. Varieties like Chippewa, Polaris, St Cloud, Friendship, North Blue, North sky, and Superior. Non of these get any taller than about 42" Any branches going up higher than that get their tips winter killed. To survive, most of the bushes need to be cover with snow.

The birds love blueberries so I have to net them. Most of the pressure is from Catbirds, Brown Thrashers, and to a lesser extent Robins and Cedar Wax Wings. The picture below is two 72 ft long rows of blueberries. You can see that they are easier to net because they are such short plants. They are just starting to ripen now. The wild plants in our area and Alaska are even shorter, and won't start ripening for another 2 weeks.










My tomato plants couldn't be put in until the last frost date which is the 1st of June. The plants in the foreground are a little over 6 ft tall already and the tomatoes are getting big fast. We are still getting about 17 hours of daylight. I think that there are some that would be contenders in the "big matter" contest but they will be too late to enter. I will try to post pictures when they ripen though.










The left side is a 52 ft row of Boyne raspberries. They are just ripening now as well. There are so many berries that I don't have to worry about what the birds might take.


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## Flat Fish (Jun 18, 2005)

That is one good looking garden setup.


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## Ibtsoom (Jun 2, 2009)

Looks awesome!


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Those berries look great! ... and bet your birds are happy campers.


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## chuck leaman (Jul 15, 2004)

I wish I could grow raspberries down here. Your garden is awesome.


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## homebrew (Jun 14, 2011)

very nice, if it was down here it would be full of nut grass...lol


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

The picking has started.

These raspberries are the Boyne variety. They are a summer berry that you pick off of florocanes (2nd year canes). The canes they were picked off of are pictured above. The Bigger ones are about the size of a nickel or maybe a little more:










These 3 raspberries are from my Autumn Britten variety. This variety is a fall producer on primocanes (canes that grew from the ground up this year). It is rare that they ever produce berries this early. Normally they start producing at the end of August. They are one row over (another 52 ft row) to the left of the Boynes in the picture above. They are a large berry but not as flavorful as the Boyne. Very sweet, but not that intense raspberry flavor that Boyne have. This size is typical. They should produce right up until the 1st frost that is usually in mid September.










These Blueberries are from several different varieties. The big measuring cup has 6 cups of Blues in it to give you a size perspective. On the tray, the small silver/blue variety that are on the left, look and taste very similar to the wild ones that you can pick in Canada and Alaska. The biggest ones are between a penny and a nickel in size.


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## bigfishtx (Jul 17, 2007)

Man must be nice to live somewhere that it rains.

I remember when South Texas used to be green almost year round, and we could actually grow things without irrigation.


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## Buckerup (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks for sharing with us. You're doing an awesome job of gardening!


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## w_r_ranch (Jan 14, 2005)

Get it done, 2 more weeks till 'Indian Summer' up there, then the cold will start settling in mid September...


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

wow


all i can say..............


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

w_r_ranch said:


> Get it done, 2 more weeks till 'Indian Summer' up there, then the cold will start settling in mid September...


Most years, your statement is right on the money. I can't remember a year where we have made it to (and past) Oct. 5th without a killing frost. In my 8/16 post, the fall raspberries (Autumn Britten) were just starting to produce. The berries pictured below were picked yesterday and more are still coming! They are producing like the EverReady bunny.

The tree leaves are all turning color, and the blueberry plants have started getting a burgundy color on the leaves, so they know it's coming.

In the picture of the ripe peppers, the bottom 3 peppers are Jalapeno. What are the sweet pepper above the Jalapeno? We bought some of these small sweet peppers at Sam's Club over a year ago. I kept some seeds out of them and planted the seeds this spring. Got a really good crop from them, and they are very sweet. Would like to know there name?

Gotta get things wrapped up pretty soon. Heading for Texas in less than 2 months!


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Dick,

Could those be fajita bell peppers? I grow those and they are a bit smaller than regular bells and have an interesting taste. 

Those raspberries look delicious.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Meadowlark said:


> Dick,
> 
> Could those be fajita bell peppers? I grow those and they are a bit smaller than regular bells and have an interesting taste.
> 
> Those raspberries look delicious.


I looked up fajita bell peppers on the net at a couple of sites. Both sites described them as being around 3.5" X 4" with just a little heat. The peppers that I grew (pictured) are more like 1.5 or 2.0" by 3.5" and have no heat at all. I haven't seen any peppers described like this from a seed company either. But hey, thanks for the idea at least!

It is fun still getting ripening raspberries this late in the season. Never had them into October before. They are very big and sweet, but they don't have as intense of a raspberry flavor that my small summer berries have. Happy to have them though.


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## rowdyone (Aug 29, 2009)

Looks like a "yummy snacking pepper" Have a couple planted myself. They are real sweet with no heat.


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## Mikeyhunts (Jun 4, 2007)

very impressive sir......


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

crr said:


> Looks like a "yummy snacking pepper" Have a couple planted myself. They are real sweet with no heat.


I think that you nailed what these peppers are! When I 1st read your post, I though you were describing them, not giving a name. I did check out "Yummy Snacking Peppers" on several web sites. Sure enough, it was a real pepper name, and the description matched these peppers exactly. Thanks! Green sent.


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