No allotment or vegetable patch should be without soft fruit. As well as epitomising all that is summer with their abundance of juicy berries, they make a very versatile crop to eaten in season or stored in various ways to be enjoyed over the winter months. Who can resist a handful of freshly picked raspberries on your morning cereal or a delicious blackcurrant jam. Here are some handy tips on growing and getting the best out of a few of the most common soft fruit varieties.
Blackberries
If you don't have the time to roam the hedgerows for wild blackberries in autumn, then have a go at growing a few canes yourself. Modern domestic varieties of blackberry tend to bear larger fruit than their wild counterparts and are more disease resistant. Blackberries are easy to grow and will clamber over a large trellis, tall fence or north facing wall. They produce on average about 4.5kg of fruit per plant per season and will last for many years. A favourite variety of mine is Blackberry 'Loch Tay' which grows on short upright canes and is therefore suitable for smaller gardens. It has the added bonus of being thornless.
Blackberries are simple to grow. Fresh young canes appear in summer. Tie them to which ever support you are using, taking care to remove any weak tips. Blackberries fruit on the previous year's growth, so you need to cut out last year's growth that has borne fruit right down to the base of the plant. Feed you blackberry canes with a fertiliser or compost in February and harvest the fruit between July and October.
You might also like to try loganberries which were introduced around 200 years ago by crossing blackberries with raspberries. Growing principles are the same as blackberries. There is also a thornless variety of loganberry you can buy.
Gooseberries
Gooseberries are one of the first of the soft fruits to be harvested - around the end of May to late July. There are many varieties of gooseberry bush available, with fruit varying in colour from greenish-yellow to red. A good green variety is 'Invicta' which crops twice as heavily as most other varieties and is resistant to mildew. A good red variety is 'Pax'. Also resistant to mildew, this desert variety has virtually spine-free canes.
To produce a good crop of fruit on a gooseberry bush, the aim is to build up flowering spurs on old wood. You are aiming for an upright bush with an open shape to reduce the risk of your arms being shredded by the sharp spines. As a general rule, prune a gooseberry bush between November and March.
Blackcurrant
Perhaps my favourite of all soft fruits, blackcurrants are great for pies, jams and even winemaking. A particularly sweet variety is 'Ebony' which is good enough to eat straight from the bush! Blackcurrant bushes fruit on last year's growth, so when pruning, cut the shooting branches back to a strong shoot. Feed with compost or fertiliser in February or March and harvest the fruit July to August.
Other currant bushes you might like to try are redcurrants and whitecurrants. The growing principles are the same as for blackcurrants.
Raspberry
Raspberries are normally supported on a post and wire fence. New canes need to be cut back to about 30cm from the ground. In subsequent years, cut down last year's fruiting canes to ground level. Feed with potash in early spring and harvest summer varieties from June to July, autumn varieties from August to October. Raspberries need plenty of water if they are to produce a good heavy crop. Try 'Valentina' for a sweet early variety or 'Autumn Treasure' for a later variety.
Strawberries
Although strawberries need no pruning, they can be a bit more demanding than other soft fruits to grow. Strawberries produce runners which can be cut off and propagated to produce new plants. Feed the plants with potash in January and harvest the fruit between May and October, depending on the variety.
Strawberries are prone to a number of pests and diseases, so it is best not to grow them on the same patch of ground for more than a few years at a time. Strawberries are also a favourite for birds and mice, so you will need to use some form of protection such as netting or cages. A well known and reliable variety to try is 'Cambridge Favourite'.
Soft fruit can be grown and enjoyed by anyone. There are compact varieties of most soft fruits for those with only small gardens and varieties that look both attractive and are also productive. They don't have to be confined to the allotment or vegetable patch, as most varieties can be grown in garden planters on a patio, or in mixed borders where they will happily co-exist with other garden plants.
Garden Planters source unusual outdoor and indoor planters, and other garden related gifts - whatever your taste, be it traditional, modern or just a bit quirky, we will have something for you. Run by two qualified and creative gardeners, Garden Planters will also plant up your chosen planter with an arrangement of your choice. We believe garden planters are an integral part of any garden - they enhance the overall design and say a little something about the person to whom the garden belongs.
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