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Picking Dewberries tips

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    Picking Dewberries tips

    I've seen photos of lots of people picking dewberries and I know this is probably a little late to share some tips, but I pick a lot of berries every year. This year I picked 40-50 cups, which is about 10 quarts or almost 3 gallons in 7 days. In 2019 I picked an astonishing 10 gallons! The heat snuck up fast and dehydrated berries faster than I could pick them, but that's what happens in May.

    I like to wear black "steel" Nitrile gloves to protect my hands from thorns. Leather gloves are ok but the thorns eventually work their way in. I also get sick and tired of my arms getting ripped by thorns so this year I made loose fitting "cuffs" from feed sacks and tape. Then when I pick, I run my belt through the 1 gallon pail handle. I learned that from a blueberry picking farm up by Mineola.

    Yes, it is goofy looking, but it was very effective and my favorite - super cheap.

    #2
    No telling how many I picked in the pasture because very few of them made it back to the house.

    I love eating those things.

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      #3
      Be sure to watch for snakes.


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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        #4
        Originally posted by Dusty Britches View Post
        I've seen photos of lots of people picking dewberries and I know this is probably a little late to share some tips, but I pick a lot of berries every year. This year I picked 40-50 cups, which is about 10 quarts or almost 3 gallons in 7 days. In 2019 I picked an astonishing 10 gallons! The heat snuck up fast and dehydrated berries faster than I could pick them, but that's what happens in May.

        I like to wear black "steel" Nitrile gloves to protect my hands from thorns. Leather gloves are ok but the thorns eventually work their way in. I also get sick and tired of my arms getting ripped by thorns so this year I made loose fitting "cuffs" from feed sacks and tape. Then when I pick, I run my belt through the 1 gallon pail handle. I learned that from a blueberry picking farm up by Mineola.

        Yes, it is goofy looking, but it was very effective and my favorite - super cheap.
        Those are awesome idea. Especially the nitrile glove recommendations.

        Thank you!

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          #5
          I tried something new this year. My daughter bought me a berry picking “claw.” Due to it’s wide “jaw”, it appears most practical when picking berries that are lined up in a vine. However, I found that it was nimble enough to pick individual berries between others that are too young or, as Tracey punted out, too desiccated to be any good.

          Additional benefits are that you’re less likely to bruise the fruit, you acquire less debris (stems, leaves, etc.), and you spend less time transferring berries to a bucket.

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            #6
            When I was a kid we’d run to the beer or liquor store in town and get the cardboard beer box flats that 12 pack or 6 packs came in.
            Can stack up many quarts of berries in those small walled boxes and the berries don’t squish the juice out as bad. Nothing worse than losing a lot of berry juice to the weight of its berry friends.

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              #7
              True, Yak, but you still have to carry it with your hands. With a bucket held on by a belt, you can use both hands to pick!

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                #8
                Originally posted by Dusty Britches View Post
                True, Yak, but you still have to carry it with your hands. With a bucket held on by a belt, you can use both hands to pick!
                What thickness you get those gloves in? 5, 5.5, or 6 mil?

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                  #9
                  Venom Steel Black Nitrile 6 mm gloves. I buy them in 100 pack from WM. I also use them for processing animals, painting, changing the oil and lube the tractor (yes, I do what I have to), etc.

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                    #10
                    Use a stick to move the brush around to get to the berries that are in the thick stuff... a stick that can club a snake when it's discovered... Not IF but WHEN... you pick berries, you gonna run across a snake or two...



                    One thing that my neighbor discovered also that is not necessarily a "How to" on picking, but propagating/increasing the number of berries is try to mow the area where the berries are after they are done producing for the year... Next year, the vines will be twice as big and thick with many more berries... I have a spot in the corner of one pasture that I started doing that and got the berry patch to thicken up and grow probably twice it's original size... That little plot produces LOTS of berries, only trouble is, there's a small wash in the middle of it and the dang bumble bees found it's a nice place for a hive too... With my garden, I need the pollinators worse than I need the berries, so for the last 2 seasons, they've gotten a pass... If I do as planned and get me a bee hive or two for the garden next year, that hive's days are numbered.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Dusty Britches View Post
                      Venom Steel Black Nitrile 6 mm gloves. I buy them in 100 pack from WM. I also use them for processing animals, painting, changing the oil and lube the tractor (yes, I do what I have to), etc.
                      6 mil. Perfect. Thank you!


                      Originally posted by SaltwaterSlick View Post
                      Use a stick to move the brush around to get to the berries that are in the thick stuff... a stick that can club a snake when it's discovered... Not IF but WHEN... you pick berries, you gonna run across a snake or two...
                      Snake boots are not optional as far as I'm concerned either.

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                        #12
                        I just make the kids pick them bare handed and get cuts all over themselves

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