raspberries whitecurrants blackcurrents redcurrents and blackberry

elantan

hi all ... finally my rasps etc have arrived ... i know there was something on the April thread about how to plant them ... but that aint here no more ...

can anyone tell me how to plant them and the currant's ... the raspberries are canes ... 6 of each variety do i plant them together etc ... hate to hurry anyone but can i know as soon as ... as i am night shift tonight and i need to get some sleep after doing a dayshift today (worked 8-4)


thanks in advance

RAS

Hi

raspberries - plant them about a foot apart in a row.

Currants will grow to over 4 foot diameter in a few years. Or you can grow white and red currants as cordons.

red and white are on a stem so plant at the same depth as the soil mark on the stems; blackcurrants need to be stooled, so plant 3 inches deeper than the old soil mark.

Black berry is a climbing cane. is it thornless?

elantan

hi .. thanks for getting back to me ... yes it is thornless (i think)

i got 6 canes of each type so i have 18 canes altogether ... do i need to plant the full 18 canes? i was going to give two canes of each away to a friend as i think 18 will more than feed hubby and i

ooo might need to space the currants out a bit more ... have put them 1 foot apart from each other in a triangle shape ... red/white and black (thought it might look good) so if i need 4 feet of a distance then i will need to deff move them ...

havnt managed to get a sleep so guess who is gonna be kicked for the night shift ... but it will be worth it when i get the fruit i'm sure

Primrose

You need to be careful with the raspberries. Are they summer or autumn fruiting because you grow them slightly differently. The summer varieties need to be planted up against cross wires and tied in as they grow quite tall. The Autumn fruiting varieties (normally one called Autumn Bliss) will just grow upright and probably wont need staking as they don't grow quite so tall or sprawling. At the end of the season, Autumn fruiting raspberries need to be cut back to almost ground level after fruiting as new canes will grow up from the ground the next Spring, Not sure how you prune summer fruiting raspberries but I'm pretty sure they're not pruned right back to the ground in the same way.

All your soft fruit bushes need nice deep holes filled with lots of well rotted manure or compost and should be really well watered in and continued to be watered regularly until they've established themselves. Ideally hey'll need to be planted a minimum of four/five feet apart really as they can grow very bushy once they get established, and if you prune them back to save space, you'll be cutting off all the stems on which the fruit actually grows.

I wouldn't plant them in a triangle shape unless you actually have no other way of doing it as once the fruit is ready for picking you'll find it very difficult to pick the fruit that is on the side of the bushes facing into the centre of the triangle.

Good luck. Hope you have a good crop. Incidentally a few very young green leaves of blackcurrant bushes make an unusual edible addition to a green salad.

elantan

ooo thanks for that ... will print out this page and add it to my plant collection thingy so i can look at it throughout the year ...now to go and find out which ones are summer fruiting and which ones autumn

Orange_King

Very useful info there Primrose - great

But I think I have planted mine too close together now - only 2 foot between them. They are Glen Cova variety.