Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries

WestonDave

Just to slightly disprove the above - we have one blueberry plant which fruits quite nicely and has done since we planted it (planted in early spring and fruited later the same summer). Now either we are very lucky and someone nearby has another plant (possible but certainly the most obvious neighbour for nearby pollination hasn't got any!) or our variety (Gold Traube) is self pollinating. Other advice about ericacious compost and rainwater is all valid stuff. The big problem we have with it is that the berries don't last long enough to make it from bush to kitchen, due to the small male human pests that keep eating them all (aka my sons!)

Raspberries are coming on slowly - first year very little growth and thought I'd lost them - anyway as a last resort dumped a trowel full of pellet chicken manure round each one and left them to it. Next thing I knew they were 6ft tall - only a few fruit on previous years growth, but hopefully this year - mmmm raspberries (now how to keep the pesky kids off!).

As for blackberries, we have a field full of them just over the road so the ones which appear in my garden are just a pain that I have to try to eliminate! Trouble is once they get in amongst a mesh fence they are the devils own job to get rid of. When you can pick a pound of blackberries on a 20 minute stroll from the house it really isn't worth us growing them!

midnightraven3

conradmum wrote: »

Actually, it isn't a very good idea to keep these plants indoors. They're outdoor plants. Blueberries at least need a period of winter cold in order to fruit the next year. At the moment your plants are sprouting because the warmth inside your house has tricked them into thinking it's spring.

I would put them outside as soon as you can but you'll need to reacclimatise them to winter first, so put them out for increasing amounts of the daytime for a few days, then maybe one night before planting them in their final positions or heeling them in (placing the roots in a shallow trench in the soil so they don't dry out.) Blueberries will only tolerate an acid soil so you may need to put this one in a pot of ericaceous compost.

thank you, my thought was they had been in a hot shop, and the window is pretty cool at the back so i will put them outside tomorrow for a while, and so on

:beer:

WestonDave

My son has just brought home a Suttons fundraising catalogue from school (20% of what you pay goes to school funds and I can't see that prices are significantly if at all higher than anywhere else) which has a set of blueberry bushes - 3 different varieties for £16.95. I think I paid nearly that for my one plant in a local garden centre (yes I know but part of the exercise was letting my then fruit hating son choose his own plant!)

midnightraven3

think we parents have all done things like that to encourage children though

my wee bluberry bushes were £1 each
and they are now outside!

Primrose

Autumn Bliss are a good late summer/early autumn Raspberry and easy to grow as they're the only raspberry which doesn't need staking with canes and wires. Every autumn you just cut down the canes after fruiting to within 6 inches of the ground, and new canes will grow up from the roots in Spring.

Oregan Thornless and Himalayan Giant are two good thornless blackberries to grow. Both crop well.

Blueberries need an acidic soil. They are slow to produce fruit and you will need to dig out a hole for the roots and fill it with ericacaous compost (the type which is suitable for growing heathers in).

Blackcurrants will produce a much bigger and faster crop and a single plant will crop on its own. I think many blueberries may need more than one bush to cross fertilise.

Ilovecubbage

We have had a blueberry plant for the last 5 years just the one in a pot. It produces quite a lot of lovely fruit. This year I was given another one and my hubby planted them in the garden, it was in some booklet that they will produce more in the soil rather than pot so we will see how much they will give us this year.

I agree with the autumn rasberries they are much bigger and tastier, although the summer ones are handy too.

Look out for little bushes in Lidl, got some white , red and black currant last year only £1 each. The red one died on me, the white one ( not so acidic) has about 3 little twigs of fruit the first year, so pleased.

betterbargains4u

Dave101t wrote: »

i put in my 1st rasberry plants last year, fruited 1st year too, looking forward to the new shoots and to see what year 2 brings! yes there are loads of threads on here, do a search, i remember buying from fothergills, thompson & morgan, and alan roman, all good special offers.
still not found any snozberries tho....

BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING THIS SITE !!!!

I ordered from them before Christmas and they have taken another unauthorised payment from my account. :mad:
I have emailed them 4 times now, to try to sort this out and they have not bothered to even acknowledge my contact.
I am now having to do a chargeback through my bank !!
Just a warning, that if you do buy from them....watch your bank account to make sure they don't take any unauthorised payments from you.

Lotus-eater

Blimey, did you have to post this on every blimin thread!

I've used them plenty of times and not had a problem, they also have a telephone line you could have called to get it sorted, they're very friendly normally.

betterbargains4u

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Blimey, did you have to post this on every blimin thread!

I've used them plenty of times and not had a problem, they also have a telephone line you could have called to get it sorted, they're very friendly normally.

So sorry if I have upset you. but the answer is yes, as it is just a warning to others!!
You might not have had a problem....but it doesn't mean others haven't.
Not very friendly (in my opinion) to take out unauthorised payments and then when I have complained to not even acknowledge my contact with them!!
Wonder how you will feel......when they do it to you
You must have also done a search........to find out how many times I have posted this warning !!!!
Just doing my bit...to help others become better informed.

Lotus-eater

betterbargains4u wrote: »

You must have also done a search........to find out how many times I have posted this warning !!!!

What, you mean looked at the top 6 threads on the greenfingered board? then yes I searched very hard to find the exact same post in each thread :wall: