librarian2003 (librarian2003) wrote in weagardening, @ 2008-06-22 09:35:00 |
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Week 9 - Soft Fruit
Our main topic for week 9 is Soft Fruit. Even if you don't have an area of garden to set aside for food production, much soft fruit can be grown ornamentally. So, don't discount it.
Here's the handout:
GARDENING FOR PLEASURE
Soft Fruit
Soft fruits such as raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries are a good investment for smaller gardens where there may not be room for fruit trees. There are varieties which are very ornamental as well as productive. They can be grown in a mixed border or in pots on the patio, and love growing against a sunny wall or fence.
All soft fruits require food and water to perform to their best ability, and must be planted in well-prepared soil with good amounts of organic material such as well-rotted farmyard manure, garden, or spent mushroom compost. They benefit from a mulch of compost applied ideally during late winter before any new growth starts, and an annual application of a general fertilizer in early to mid spring.
Strawberries
Summer would not be summer without strawberries and cream. Succulent, flavoursome strawberries epitomise the traditional British summer but many of the supermarket varieties don’t come close to the flavour, juiciness or fragrance of your own sun-ripened, freshly-picked fruit. You can choose from giant, fist-sized berries down to the tiny Alpine strawberry. Strawberries can grow in herbaceous borders or in special beds — their low ground covering habit can make them suitable in a low-maintenance garden — and the trailing varieties look stunning on patios and terraces. You can grow them in tall, hollow pillars, or raised up to table height. Alpine strawberries can be used as path edgings. The earliest cultivars start cropping in late spring, or earlier, if grown under cover. The main season then extends through the summer, with late season ‘perpetual’ types continuing the harvest into autumn.
With plenty of manure, strawberries produce pounds of berries from a single plant. The Alpine strawberries produce right through the summer and in sheltered spots you can even find the odd berry in winter. Like raspberries, the strawberry is a favourite with the birds, although at least some of the fruits are hidden under the spreading leaves.
To get the best strawberries, put in newly bought plants every three years. For the heaviest crop the following year, plant strawberries in late summer to early autumn. But don’t plant where strawberries have been in the past three years. Strawberries grow best in a warm, sunny spot, and need well-drained soil. They are not keen on chalky soil. They are naturally woodland plants, so give them plenty of organic matter in the soil.
They will crop prolifically for at least 3 years but, of course, the first year’s crop is smaller. Each plant will give around 1.5 lb of fruit in its second year. Allow 15-18in between plants. When your plants have flowered, apply straw or polythene as a mulch. This keeps the fruit off the ground. Alternatively, grow the plants through an upturned plant pot from which the bottom has been removed. Netting will keep the birds off.
For ‘perpetual’ types, which give a late harvest, remove all flowers that form until late spring. Otherwise, they will produce nearly all their fruit in summer.
Strawberries usually increase by runners. Although not normally associated with annual pruning, strawberry plants produce a number of runners bearing young plantlets. These should be cut off to conserve the plant's energy unless you want to propagate new plants.
If you decide to grow Alpine strawberries, the simplest way is to buy them as little plants. However, seeds planted in March will fruit the same year and they are clearly much cheaper.
Harvest fruits only when they are fully coloured and eat straight away. After all the crop has been picked, trim off all the foliage to leave a few inches of stalk to protect the newly-emerging leaves. Remove the cut-off leaves, with all the protective straw, to the compost heap. This will take away any lingering pests or diseases. A light dressing of compost or fertiliser will stimulate new growth.
After about three years, start a new strawberry bed, with new plants, somewhere else, and don’t return to the same patch for at least another three years.
Raspberries
The soft, juicy berries of raspberries follow on with perfect timing from the strawberry season. Raspberries are usually grown in rows, but even a small garden can find room for two or three plants grouped round a single 5ft stake.
There are two sorts of raspberries: summer fruiting, which give a huge crop in a short time in summer, and autumn fruiting, which crop more sedately from high summer until the first frosts. In addition to the traditional red fruits there are also golden yellow and white fruiting varieties. Raspberries are sold as bare-rooted plants called stools, for winter planting. It is essential to buy certified virus-free stock, as raspberries are very prone to viruses.
Raspberries need a sheltered spot, with sun for at least half the day, and rich, heavy, but well-drained soil that is neutral to acid. Plant the dormant canes in autumn or early winter and cut down to 15cm (6in), so that in the first year all the energy goes into establishing a good root system and canes for the following year. They thrive on well rotted manure so put a good layer in the bottom of the trench in early autumn. Raspberries like being mulched as their roots are fibrous and shallow — they rarely reach down more than six inches. You can erect a trellis-type arrangement on to which the growing canes can be tied. Or you can put wires stretched horizontally either side of the canes: with this arrangement you do not have to tie the canes in as they lean on the wires. In spring apply a thick mulch of well-rotted manure and tie the canes to the wires as they grow.
Plant about 15” apart, with 6’ between rows. Alternatively plant in double rows, with three feet between the rows. Supports should be about 6ft high. A 4 in straw mulch helps to keep the weeds down and conserve moisture. This is important not only for the setting fruit but also for the gardener, as it reduces the need for watering. Canes will remain productive for 8-12 years and will crop for up to six weeks. Typically, for summer fruiting varieties, 12 canes will give up to 50lb of fruit when established. Before planting the canes, soak their roots in a bucket of water for 24 hours and keep well watered until they re-establish.
Summer-fruiting raspberries behave like blackberries, fruiting on one-year-old canes that are cut out after harvest and then replaced by the young canes. Tie in the new canes 4in apart. Autumn-fruiting varieties should be cut to the ground in winter to make way for new canes that will grow from the base and fruit in the same year.
Whenever the fruits are ready the birds will be waiting. Sometimes they strip the whole berry and at other times they simply steal one side, leaving odd-shaped half berries all over the canes. You can either put up a cage that you can walk into to pick or you can drape the canes with net that you lift up when you are gathering. Funnily enough this kind of net is much easier to deal with than the specialist nets made for the job. The very fine net does not allow pieces of leaf and cane to poke through and catch the net. However, if you stick to the net curtains you may well be limiting the size of your rows — horticultural net is much cheaper to buy.
Hoe off weeds regularly, and thin out new canes of summer fruiting varieties to around ten per yard. Canes of autumn fruiting types do not need thinning. As soon as possible after fruiting, cut the old canes of summer fruiting types down to ground level, and tie in the new canes. Spread garden compost along the row, and this will help to decompose the old cane stubs. Cut back the canes of autumn fruiting raspberries in late winter, and mulch. Give the plants a boost in spring with seaweed meal and chicken manure.
Bush soft fruit
Black, Red and Whitecurrants and Gooseberries are all grown as bush soft fruit, come in a range of varieties and are normally sold as bush-shaped plants either one or two years old. Standards and pre-trained cordon trees may also be available.
Currants
All currants are perfect for pies, jams, jellies and winemaking and serving fresh too. Blackcurrants are the highest yielders of vitamin C among home grown fruits.
There are black, red, and white currants, and all are self-fertile. They all fruit in mid-summer, need protection against wind and will tolerate some shade, but protect blackcurrants from spring frosts, which can be very damaging. Currants don’t do well on very acid soil, unless you add lime. Plant new bushes during the winter, as early as possible, into rich, moisture retentive soil, at about 4ft to 5ft apart. After planting prune all the branches to the lowest bud to encourage strong growth. In spring apply a fertiliser high in nitrogen and potassium, and mulch with well-rotted organic matter.
A mulch applied around them in May will protect the roots which are very near to the surface. They dislike being weeded. They all need regular pruning to keep fruit yields high. The aim is to maintain an open habit that will allow sunlight to reach all the fruit and ripen it quickly.
Blackcurrant bushes need constant renewal to ensure heavy crops. Older branches will bear fruit, but quantity and quality decline with age. For this reason new bushes are planted deeply so that the plant produces vigorous young branches annually from below ground. These are then used to replace older ones cut out after harvest. For bushes that produce a limited number of new growths, prune out about a third of the stems each year. Cut out the oldest wood, which will be so dark that it’s almost black, so that it encourages new vigour resulting in strong new growth that carries fruit the following year. You can combine pruning with picking the fruit.
For redcurrants and white currants, the aim in pruning is not the same as when working on blackcurrants because these currants fruit on old wood. In late winter and early spring, prune by reducing all the new side shoots produced in the previous year to short stubs. Any leading shoots should be reduced to 5-6in beyond the previous year’s growth. During early summer any shoots arising from these cuts are again shortened back to within 5-6in from their origins, so producing fruiting shoots or spurs. In addition, throughout their lives, a short basal stem up to 12in long should be retained with any growth growing from it removed. You can grow them as bushes or even train them against a wall or fence as a cordon or a fan, or even as standards. They are best planted in November. Cover the surrounding soil with straw up to one foot deep, directly after planting. The shape to aim for when pruning as a bush is an open goblet.
Currants will start producing good crops from the second year and will go on for at least 10 years or more. There are two major enemies of blackcurrants: big bud mite and reversion. If your plants do not fall prey to these, they may well fruit on happily for some thirty years.
If you are intending to make jam from any of the currant family, you will be faced with the time-consuming chore of removing the currants from their strigs. Freeze them, put them into a tin and shake furiously. The stalks and currants will separate, making the job much easier. There is no difference in the jam you make. If you freeze the currants on open trays they take hardly any time at all. If you are intending to make jelly then you can leave the currants on their strigs — it will not make any difference to the final result. Blackcurrant jam must be well made or the currants are tough. It has been used traditionally to soothe sore throats and as a cold remedy.
Birds are cunning with their consumption of currants, so a fruit cage or other protection may be necessary. They also consume the flower buds if allowed to. When the fruit is ready, pick the whole sprig.
Gooseberries
Gooseberry jam and gooseberry curd are among the forgotten pleasures of life.
But, gooseberries are soft fruits that actually fight back when you pick them. The other fruits may well leave stained fingers as proof of consumption but the humble gooseberry actually inflicts wounds. It is worth bearing in mind from the outset that if the plant is encouraged to grow openly you will have a much easier task at harvest.
They begin fruiting in the second year producing 5-6lbs per bush and will go on to crop for at least 10 years. Allow for planting 6ft apart.
Gooseberries can be grown as bushes, cordons, fans and standards, and can be grown with little direct sunlight. However, choice dessert cultivars are better grown where they will receive sun for at least half the day. Particularly where gooseberries are grown as standards, beware of cultivating the ground beneath them. Too vigorous a job might damage the roots, which are close to the surface, and this will result in suckers growing from the damaged area. A good mulch will protect the roots.
Gooseberry bushes can become tangled and overgrown. In winter, prune out dead or diseased stems, and any crossing in the centre of the bush. Good management means keeping the centre open to air and sunlight, leaving a few, regularly spaced, main branches. Cut back new growth by half, to a strong young shoot. Thin overcrowded areas and prune drooping stems to an upright side shoot. Gooseberries, like redcurrants, are spur pruned, so shorten sideshoots to create fruiting spurs. As many Gooseberry varieties have a weeping habit, any cuts wherever possible should be made to an upward and outward facing bud.
As mildew is a problem in low-growing bushes, select bushes that are growing on a short piece of trunk. Plant so that the stem is above the ground. Gooseberries should be planted in November. Cover the surrounding soil with straw to a depth of one foot in May. The first berries will appear around Whitsun. If you pick the biggest of the berries then the other ones will have more room to grow and receive more nourishment.
With really large dessert varieties, the berries must be allowed plenty of room. The most delicious of all the gooseberries are the giant deep red ones, just at the point of bursting with sweet juice.
The worcesterberry (Ribes divaricatum) is a close relative of the gooseberry, but is more vigorous, thornier, and resistant to leaf spot and gooseberry mildew. Its small, almost black fruits are deliciously sweet and freeze well.
The jostaberry is a cross between the gooseberry and the blackcurrant. It is a vigorous, thornless bush, resistant to gooseberry mildew, carrying round fruit similar to, but larger than a blackcurrant. They are best eaten when perfectly ripe, soon after picking.
Blackberries and Hybrid Berries
Blackberries are another fruit that can fight back. With some varieties the thorns are bred out, but somehow some of the flavour seems to be lost, too. In the last century many crosses, principally between blackberries and raspberries, produced an interesting variety of hybrid berries. These include loganberries, tayberries, tummelberries, boysenberries, sunberries and many others. These hybrids are mostly earlier cropping than blackberries, and sweet, but with a similar growing habit.
Extremely easy to grow, blackberries will clamber over a large trellis, tall fence or north facing wall. Plant 8-12ft apart. Typically blackberries will produce 10lbs of fruit per plant per season and will crop for many years. Even one plant will produce excellent fruit as blackberries are self-fertile. They are best planted in November but can take being moved as late as March. They produce their fruit on the two year old shoots on long canes which require the support of posts and wires or fences and walls, often up to 2m (6ft) high. Cut the plant down to nine inches above the ground and arrange whatever form of support you prefer. You can train pairs of fruit to grow over trellis over a garden path. The thornless varieties are certainly worth considering for this type of location. You can, of course, use the thorns to your advantage by planting them to cut off a route for marauding cats or similar nuisances.
Blackberries and hybrids such as loganberries and tayberries are all pruned in the same way. New canes grow one season and fruit the next, after which they are exhausted and can be removed. The problem is that generations overlap, so a plant will have one-year-old canes bearing fruit, mixed with the next season's stems making their early growth.
To prune the plants, cut out the fruited canes at ground level immediately after harvest and replace them on the wires with the new ones. If there are not enough of these new canes to cover the whole area, retain the best of the old canes, shortening any sideshoots to one leaf. Allow up to thirty new canes per plant, although many cultivars produce far fewer. After a few years, plants will throw up suckers away from the main stool. These should be removed as they appear.
Blackberries and their relatives need little feeding but if vigour declines, mulch with compost and apply chicken manure. As with other soft fruit, keep well watered, and mulch the extensive root spread in early summer.
This obliging plant will happily produce more of itself if you poke the end of a growing shoot into the ground. Do this in late summer and by November you can sever the new plant from its parent and move it.
The biggest berries can be used as dessert fruit. The rest of the crop can be processed into jams, pies, chutneys and wines. You can even dry the young leaves of the blackberry to make a sort of tea.
Blueberries
The rich blue cooked berries of this plant make wonderful sweet pies. It also has good autumn colouring. The plants are related to our native bilberry and, like their wild ancestor, need a peaty soil with a pH between 4 and 5.5. Lacking this, they can be grown in containers. Given the right conditions, and as they are very ornamental, they can be grown in a herbaceous border or as part of a decorative plan in the soft fruit area.
Dig plenty of peat into the ground before planting and, for once, do not apply manure. Blueberries fruit on two and three-year old branches, on the tip of the last season's growth so the aim in pruning is to remove old stems, those that are four or more years old, and encourage a supply of newer fruiting ones. They are quite hardy and disease-free. Apply a general fertiliser in March and when harvest-time comes, be prepared to go repeatedly over the bush removing fruit as it ripens.
Fruiting will start in the second summer after planting, reaching full cropping after five or six years. A single plant will crop reasonably, but better cropping will result from two or more plants to cross-pollinate.
Jo Hanslip
June 2008
Next week is our last formal week of term (although we have our extra week scheduled), so if you haven't already filled out the end-of-term paperwork, it will have to be done and handed back to me at the next session.
Next week, week 10, we will all be in our usual places, but for the extra week, week 11, we're doing different things.
The Tuesday group will be in the Learning Centre as usual, and anyone is welcome to come to that meeting.
The Friday morning group won't meet until 11 July, when we will gather at Hugh and Judy's house for a session on surfing the web and for a walk around their lovely garden.
The Friday afternoon group won't meet again until 4 July, when we'll gather at Shirley's house for a session on surfing the web, and a walk around her lovely garden. Don't forget that Shirley's Open Garden is on 20 July, so she might well appreciate the odd extra plant to sell.
Jo