Easiest fruits?

shegirl

Hi,can anyone advise onthe easiest fruits to grow that don't take years or take up a huge amount of space?

Ds has really taken to gardening and the side garden,which we're using for fruit,veg and strawberries,is now his!

Currently,we have courgettes,strawberries,aubergines,sweet peppers,potatoes,tomatoes,salad and 11 different herbs growing there in a nice long strip.He now wants to grow more fruit.

lostinrates

Raspberries. Easy, easy, easy.

Currants and gooseberries too.

Raspberries and gooseberries have a prickle factor which might be an issue for your ds, but most kids cope.

shegirl

Thanks,will see what I can find.It's lovely to see him enjoying it so much and the way he cares for his plants is so unbelievably cute!:D

Farway

How about a bit of exotic?

Perhaps a fig, in a large pot?

Very easy, look after themselves, but will of course need watering in summer but generally care free, maybe bit of pruning early in year, but will fruit any way

I got mine from Wilkinson's & Lidl, no doubt other good buys will be around

wallbash

Another vote for the Raspberry but if I was starting from 'scratch 'would grow one without the prickles.

Bunnygirl

I just got the berry collection from blackmoor come with lots of fruit on them.10% off if you look on the facebook page. They also have a currant collection on offer.

http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/category/388/products/690

http://www.blackmoor.co.uk/category/388/products/1323

[Deleted User]

plants that don`t need support or much pruning and give very good crops

autumn raspberries such as polka and joan
blackcurrants like loch ness which is very prolific and not too big
rhubarb ok not a fruit but so easy and satisfying to grow

the blackberry, loganberry, tayberry etc all need too much care and attention ie supports, pruning, tying into looped shapes on wires etc. I would recommend gooseberries but they need pruning to get a leg and goblet shape and they get sawfly etc, so maybe later when He is ready for something a bit more tricky

Leif

Another vote for rhubarb, easy peasy. Strawberries are easy but they need netting as they ripen. Redcurrants don't need full sun, and I think they are really tasty. There are the moorland plants, Bilberry, Cloudberry etc, but they need acid soil. You could always create an acid habitat.

The garden centres push Gojiberry, but the internet is full of people asking if anyone has ever got fruit from a UK grown specimen.

A Japanese quince is beautiful to look at, and produces fruits that can be used to make a jelly, or as a flavouring. (Don't confuse with the Quince tree.) The blossom in spring is quite something. As an aside, how about some unusual chillis, such as Rocoto, or Capsicum baccatum?

You can get most fruit trees on dwarfing stock. There are some really tiny ones, 1.5m at maturity, and others that grow to 2.5m. Blackmoors and Keepers have a good stock of dwarf trees, as do other good nurseries. (They do take a year or two to produce, so maybe not what you want.)

theoretica

Another vote for currants (red and black) and goosberries - easy to grow and hard to buy.

Blueberries if you have acid soil and raspberries are good but easier to buy.

Tree fruit takes longer to give decent crops (so get started now?) and you very often need to plant more than one tree for pollination. In my experience plums come into fruit younger than many others.

All of these would be better planted in the autumn, so you have time to plan.

Cally_Smart

We've got blackcurrants,gooseberry - only had 2 fruit think- I pruned it too late or something. Strawberries and wild strawberries, medlar-bit like crab apple -something of an acquired taste as you eat them in Autumn when almost rotten !(bletted , they call it) Ive got blackberries cultivated one ,they're thornless! Rhubarb and black grape vine My son(age 6) helps in the garden and picked his first strawberry yesterday after school. He had his eye on it since last week but I made him wait otherwise he would have taken a bite and said it sour and wasted it !He said it was so sweet it didn't need sugar on it ! Simple pleasures ..hopefully reinforce his interest in gardening for the future.

SailorSam

I've got a hedge from all sorts of different berries and i bought them all in the £shop.