Ripening Strawberries

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 8

Ripening Strawberries

Early Fruit Ready for Market

ABOUT 3,000,000 strawberry plants must be grown to inert the season’s requirements in the Auckland district. The first high-priced berries are now making thenappearance, but a few weeks will elapse before supplies will become anything like plentiful. Heavy winter ram lias slightly retarded growth in this district.

Plentiful quantities of strawberries —with cream —comprise one of the essential summer delights of the people of Auckland. Here is the home of strawberry production for the greater portion of -the North Island, and in the glut season prices fall to well within reach of everyone. This is perhaps the most elastic industry on the market. Crops depend to a great extent upon the w-eather, and prices depend upon the crop. But if crops are prolific, every grower shares in the plenteous supply, and the price to them is correspondinglylowered over the aggregate. Somewhere about 200 growers are engaged in producing strawberries in and around Auckland. The main crops are cultivated In Birkdale, Northcote, Glenfield, Takapuna and Mount Roskill, though other areas of less magnitude are under cropping at Greenhithe, Paremoremo, Hobsonville and Avondale. PLANTED BY MAORIS Until quite recently Auckland beds supplied strawberries for practically the whole of the North Island, but lately there has been increased activity close to all the populated centres, and this has affected consignments from this end. The scope of the northern output is still very wide, however, and a great portion of the fruit is directed into retail shops at Wellington. The growers do not control the strawberry crops throughout the whole life of the plant. Almost all of the plants are grown by Maoris in the Helensville and Far North districts, mainly under the supervision of Europeans. They are planted out about August, and the fruit spurs are then removed. In the following April they are lifted, bundled and transported to Auckland. Planting of the crop starts toward ■the end of April and continues to the middle of June. It is then that the real hard work of the strawberry grower begins. For nine months of the year he toils with his crop and with the preparation of the land. Exceptional care in fertilising is required •to get the best return possible, and

persistent weeding and attention is, necessary to keep the young crop in order. Cultivation has been slightly handicapped this year on account, of the heavy rains experienced throughout June, July and August, although since the first touch of spring the strawberries have begun to come away nicely in some of the sun-favoured spots, and the first are just finding their way on to the market at the present time. The tedious process of mulching has been undertaken, and there are generally excellent indications of good crops for the season. As a rule picking begins about October 20 and, if the crops are prolific, continues until the middle or the end of January. In the middle of December, however, the glut season is on, and then is the time for householders to take advantage of the cheapness of the fruit and make their preserves. PRICE AND SUPPLY There are so many factors operating upon the strawberry growing in dustry that the utmost difficulty is experienced in forecasting with any accuracy the result of the cropping. For example, last year the yield was good, but all the fruit ripened simultaneously, and in a few weeks the season was over. The size of the berries, which is regulated by the weather and the fertilisation, in turn fixes the price, and although it is almost impossible to say in figures what the turnover would be for a complete season, it is assured that the strawberry industry is a substantial factor in the rural occupations of the Auckland districts. In isolated instances people try strawberry production in their back gardens, but these efforts are not highly successful, because the average householder does not possess the inclination and cannot spare the time for the highly specialised attention required. The first chips of berries sell at anything over 3s. Later they are reduced to sensible prices, at which it becomes possible for everyone to enjoy the fruit. L.J.C.