New soft fruit

wallbash

Have a section of the garden , facing S.W, 8 ft by 3 ft and are thinking to increase my soft fruit. Already have Raspberries ( Auterm Bliss) and lots of strawberries .

Thinking Wineberry /Blueberry /Jostaberry

Any ideas ? advice
T.I.A

torbrex

I have a single blackcurrant bush in my garden and it supplies me with enough fruit to keep me in jam all year as well as extra to gift away

theoretica

Blueberries need acid soil and quite a lot of water - which may or may not be your garden.

I like growing currants and gooseberries - easy to grow and less common to buy.

Lavendyr

As said above, blueberries need acid soil. If you don't have this, you could still grow a bush in a container but obviously then need to remember to water etc! You could consider honeyberry as an alternative to blueberries - they are v hardy, don't need acid soil and have allegedly got even more anti-oxidants than blueberries...

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=728
http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Honeyberry/

We are in a clay soil area and are currently growing alpine strawberries, normal strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, blackcurrants, whitecurrants and redcurrants.

Currants are brill as you can rarely buy them in shops and they are yummy. Whitecurrants are a sweeter variation on redcurrants and I have never seen them in a supermarket, for example. There are a lot of new compact varieties of currant which yield well, so a couple of currant bushes would be my recommendation.

Rhubarb is about as easy to grow as it gets and one to two crowns should be enough for most people! Gooseberries I also hear are good, though we've not tried them yet.

wallbash

Just been told the OH does not like the idea of the Jostaberry, so now its looking like a Boysenberry.

Will look at Honey Berry

RAS

Jostaberries are huge and woulkd fill that space.

Have you thought about growing plants as cordons?

You would get a couple of gooseberries, red currants and a whitecurrant into a 8 foot length - on every half metre.

lostinrates

We have a young wine berry. Its tendrils already overtake that area. I's nice e ought, but I wouldn't think its best value for your plot.

Boysenberries have the same blackberry like growth I think.....how much maintaining do you want to do?

wallbash

Wonderful weather here today, so have created a solid path thru the patch, ready for the harvest!! Might be a bit too much forward thinking as still looking at the different possibilities.

Wineberry has already been discarded, reading The fruit expert by DG Hessayon

Present list is
Boysonberry
Tayberry ( Buckingham )
Redcurrant ( Junifer)
Blueberry ( sunshine blue )
Best price looks like Ken Muir

Have you thought about growing plants as cordons?

Thats the next job, some sort of support. I grow Autum Bliss a NON staking rasberry that always seem to flop. This morning I cut all the growth down to just above the ground, also picked the last four ripe fruits
( part of tomorows breakfast)

I rather spend time now and get it right than mess about next summer.
But at least I have time