Online Course: Berry Production

Getting Started with Berry Production

If you’re exploring the idea of adding berries and bramble fruits to your farm, this course will help you consider all the aspects of this decision, from varieties and site selection all the way through profit potential and marketing.

Target Audience

Beginners – This course will be especially useful if you are exploring the possibilities of growing berries for income. The material presented will assume little past knowledge of farming, but a background in gardening or farming will be very helpful.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will know:

• Primary considerations when choosing a site for successful berry farming
• Basic cultural demands of the 3 major berry crops (strawberry, blueberry and brambles)
• Cultural requirements of an array of lesser known berry crops
• Pest complexes of the major berry crops
• Post-harvest requirements of berries
• Considerations for successful marketing of berry crops
• How to analyze costs and income and be able to incorporate them into a business plan

Webinars

The bulk of the course happens on your own time with discussions, readings and review quizzes (not graded!) posted in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, live webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from outside presenters and ask questions to address your farm issues in real time. If you miss a webinar, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.

Webinar Schedule

Live instruction for the 2021-2022 season will begin on Tues. Nov 2, 2021 from 7-8:30pm Eastern time, and continue for 6 weeks, with the final webinar on Tues. Dec 7. While we encourage live attendance so you have the opportunity to engage with the presenters and ask questions, all webinars we will be posted in our online classroom for students to watch anytime. Once you have enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live webinars as many times as you wish.