Berry season is a fun and flavourful time of year! If you are growing berries this summer, but have noticed they are lacking a bit in the growth department, you may wonder how to improve their yield to larger, juicier berries. There are several ways you can help your berries along the way, including increasing their pollination with a leafcutter bee house for your garden!
Below, we will discuss a few tried-and-true methods for growing your berries, from properly treating the soil to the superpollinating effect of leafcutter bees. You can use these tips for your current patches or save them for next summer to help your berries thrive!
Plant Berries That Thrive in Your Climate
The most important thing about growing fruit is knowing what works for your climate and what does not. Happily, many berries can do well in Canadian and American climates!
Reviewing your state or province’s position in the Plant Hardiness Zones can help you determine which berries work best for your garden.
Common berries that most North American climates can handle (and that leafcutter bees love) include:
- Raspberries
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
Give Your Soil Plenty of Nutrients
Berries need to eat to grow! Depending on the berries you are planting, they will require different nutrients to grow big, tall, and juicy.
Raspberries need a good dose of nitrogen! To keep their leaves growing, add high-nitrogen fertilizer to your raspberry beds prior to fruiting.
Once fruiting time approaches, switch to regular fertilizer and let their natural growth process take over!
Blueberries require a more acidic soil to produce bountiful growth. If you don’t have acidic soil, you can grow your berries in raised beds to control the pH level more closely (just keep them low enough for your kind bees to reach!)
If you want to grow blueberries in the ground next summer, you can prepare your soil now by adding peat moss, pine needles, or coffee grounds, then continuing to mulch it with pine needles to maintain the acidity level.
Know When to Water
Plants like raspberries and blueberries do not usually require more water than what the rain provides. If you are overwatering your berries, this can stunt their growth and lead to other problems like pests, disease, and root rot.
Unless you live in a drought-ridden or desert-like climate, watering every two to three days (including rainwater) should do the trick!
That said, if you notice your plant is getting quite dry, you can give it a good soak by setting your garden hose in the bed to slowly trickle through the soil.
Increase Pollination with Leafcutter Bees
One of the best ways to improve growth in any crop is to attract more pollinators, which you can accomplish with a leafcutter bee house for your garden.
Leafcutter bees can pollinate at twenty times the rate of honey bees, earning them the nickname “super pollinators!” These kind bees are drawn to fruits and vegetables growing lower to the ground, including your berry bushes.
Regular visits from these flying friends will result in large, juicy, high-quality berries you and your family won’t be able to resist snacking on all summer!
How to Add a Bee House to Your Garden:
You can add leafcutters to your garden with the Bee Starter Kit from Kind Bee Farms! This kit includes a box of buzzing bees, bee tubes, and a sturdy acacia wood bee house.
Leafcutter bees work best in the height of summer heat, so make sure to order them once temperatures in your area have reached a consistent rate of 75°F (20°C). When your bees arrive, most will be hatched and ready to work!
To successfully draw your leafcutter bees to your berry bushes, make sure to do the following:
- Mount your bee house within 300ft of your berry bushes. Don’t make the bees work overtime trying to find them!
- Mount your bee house 4ft off the ground to keep mice, ants, and other sneaky pests away from your kind bees.
- Avoid using organic sprays on your berry bushes that harm insects. We recommend removing pests by hand or researching safe horticultural oils.
Watch Your Berry Patches Thrive with Kind Bee Farms
Buy a leafcutter bee house for your garden and watch your berry patches explode with growth and flavour! Visit our Shop to find the Bee Starter Kit, and visit our Blog for more information about gardening with leafcutter bees.