Small Fruits

Small fruits are fruits grown on smaller perennial plants. They produce fruit every year and need less space than a fruit tree.

Most raspberries prefer cooler weather. For California’s climate, select heat-tolerant varieties, such as the Dormanred raspberry.
When planting raspberries, install trellises on top of them. They are small fences that allow the plant to grow upwards instead of sprawling, letting you grow more fruit and protecting them from some pests and diseases spread by soil.
When growing raspberries, do not put them near nightshade plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.). Nightshade diseases, like verticillium wilt, may transfer to woody plants such as raspberries.

Blueberries take a long time to grow, but there is a high reward! You can start harvesting when they are 2-3 years old.

Blueberries like acidic soil (pH 4.0-5.5) with lots of organic fertilizer. Purchase a pH soil tester online to check what pH your soil is at. If your soil is not acidic enough for blueberries, you could use a garden ‘acid mix’ to add to the garden bed to decrease the pH.
In the first 2 years of growing blueberries, prune off fruit so that the plant can instead focus on growing stronger. This means that in the first 2 springs, you should cut off the flowers and dead parts of the plant so that it can direct its energy to stem and leaf growth.

Put the fruits into a bowl and fill it with water.
Run your hands through the fruit to remove the dirt on it.
Then dump out the water and put some fresh water into the bowl.
Put some salt into the bowl and let it sit for 10+ minutes, then drain.
This draws out and kills the bugs in the fruit. You can enjoy it as is, or blend it up into a smoothie.

References: Unsplash, NC State, University of Minnesota, Illinois University, MiracleGro

Every once in a while, try to remove the “runners” from your strawberries. Runners are baby strawberry plants connected to the original plant by a vine. If you leave too many, they will take over your garden.
When planting strawberries, make sure the “crown” is above soil. That is where the leaves and fruits grow out of. If it is buried, then the plant can rot and die.