Blueberry farmer to give free pruning lessons

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John Morrow knows blueberries. Loves blueberries, in fact. Now he wants to teach others how to raise the tasty fruit.

Morrow plans to begin offering seminars on pruning blueberry bushes each Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. through mid or late February. Morrow goes beyond just pruning the bushes – he sculpts them into various shapes for the best growing. The seminars will cost $10 per person.

“You have to fall in love with blueberries,” he said last week while working on his plants.

Morrow and his wife, Lura, have 1,400 plants and he spends about five hours each day tending to them. His products include five varieties and although they’re not certified organic, the retired film producer said he tries to follow organic guidelines as much as possible.

One tip he’ll give during his seminars is to clear weeds and shoots from the base of the bushes. Pruning creates space for breeze to blow through the plants, which Morrow said is beneficial. It’s also important to remove any stalks at knee height or less.

He learned another technique from his grandmother, who used to put some tea in her houseplant soil to get the acid.

“Last summer I put tea in the water and it changed the taste dramatically,” Morrow said. “The berry is just bursting with flavor.”

An underground irrigation system runs throughout the entire plot.

When the couple bought the house and land at 24202 NE 142nd Ave. they were told that taking care of that many plants would require about 200 hours of labor each year.

“That was a lie,” Morrow said with a chuckle.

Why prune the bushes?



Morrow said the size of the berry can be shaped by pruning or not pruning, with bigger berries resulting if pruning is done. Big fat berries are what customers at the Morrows’ annual U-Pick each July are looking for.

But many customers don’t like to bend over and pick near the bottom of the bush.

“U-Pickers pick between belly button and eyeballs,” Morrow said.

For the pruning lessons, he will provide clippers for everyone. The equipment is sharpened and sterilized each morning before pruning work starts.

The white-bearded agronomist acknowledges that raising blueberries is quite different from the way he made his living before retirement.

“This is all new,” he said. “My brother says, ‘man you’re weird.’”

The couple “got fired up” for planting blueberry bushes after attending a class on small farms through the Washington State University Clark County Extension, Morrow said. The course will be offered again on Wednesdays between Jan. 14 and March 18 at Clark County’s Heritage Farm on 78th Street in Hazel Dell. Information is at (360) 397-6060.

Morrow’s plunge into blueberry production isn’t the only transition he’s had. He was born in Africa to missionary parents, who gave him to a young African girl to take care of.

“I call myself the orphan son of missionary parents,” Morrow said. “My folks just gave me to her.”

At age 6, he attended a boarding school in Kenya. He returned to the U.S. when his parents, back in this country, needed his assistance to perform their daily living routine.