Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current, August 17, 2018, Page 8, Image 32

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    8
CapitalPress.com
August 17, 2018
Nursery serves dual purpose for this Oregon farm
By DESIREE BERGSTROM
Capital Press
CANBY, Ore. — Morning Shade
Farm began nearly 25 years ago,
when Jim Geiselman and his wife,
Kasi, decided they wanted to move to
the country to raise their kids.
The farm lives up to its name, as
cars make a turn off of Barnards Road
in Canby, Ore., and onto a long gravel
driveway that meanders through large
trees, keeping the road almost fully in
the shade.
As cars approach a large red barn,
they are guided by small signs to dirt
parking near the rows of blueberries.
The farm operates commercial
and U-pick blueberry operations each
year as well as a nursery operation
that produces between 30,000 and
50,000 berry plants each year, Geisel-
man said.
The nursery is a small operation,
Geiselman said.
Desiree Bergstrom/Capital Press
Jim Geiselman, owner of Morning Shade Farm, said that the nursery grows
about 20 varieties of blueberries as well as other types or berries.
“We are mostly targeting … that
niche of people that big people don’t
want to really deal with. The backyard
growers (and) the small farmers,” he
said.
The nursery portion of the farm
sells wholesale and retail, Geiselman
said. They don’t ship anywhere, so all
sales are directly from the nursery.
It’s not only about blueberries,
though.
“We have several other types of
berries besides the blueberry. Blueber-
ry is our main sale. We have several
varieties of raspberries and currants
and gooseberries,” he said. While the
nursery grows mainly berries it also
has a few other items such as kiwi and
grapes.
The nursery serves a dual purpose
for the farm, Geiselman said. Partially
the nursery is a diversified piece of the
business to make money, but it also
supports what they do on the farm.
As an example, Geiselman said
that at the nursery they are grafting or-
chard trees to plant on the farm so they
can have a cider orchard.
“That is kind of how we got start-
ed in blueberries. … We were prop-
agating our own” and then ended up
selling some of the plants, he said.
When they first started, they were
growing perennial ground covers, but
after doing some research they decid-
ed that blueberries would be a good fit
for them, Geiselman said, mentioning
also how they generally liked blueber-
ries.
Now, “We mainly grow (the blue-
berry plants) from liner stock that we
buy from other nurseries. We do also
propagate hardwood cuttings off of
some of our varieties,” he said.
Liner stock is a term for young
plants that are going to be grown for
one or more seasons at the nursery be-
fore they are sold.
With blueberries, Geiselman said,
his nursery is different than, for exam-
ple, a traditional ornamental nursery
selling flowers, because the blueberry
plants take a lot longer to grow.
They sell the plants at about two
years old, but the nursery also has
plants that are older. Geiselman men-
tioned that allowing plants to bear fruit
before they are ready isn’t great and
they pick the flowers off to prevent the
fruit from growing. “You usually don’t
want to let them bear fruit until they
are 3 or 4 years old,” he said.
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