Soft fruit

GreenQueen

Want to get some soft fruit bushes/canes - gooseberry, raspberry, black/white/red currant. With the available space should be able to have one of each. I already have well established thornless blackberries.

Am I best to get plants in pots or bare rooted? Can anyone recommend a good on-line supplier, or am I better with a local garden centre? Any other advice that anyone can offer.

Many thanks in advance.

Farway

Bare root plants will soon be appearing in supermarkets, Wilko, Lild etc

If you want a particular variety then perhaps garden centre would be better option

andrewf75

I've used Pomona fruits before. Not cheap but you can be sure of getting the variety you choose, which may not be the case with supermarket stuff.

rosy10

I've had good results with the following: for gooseberry, Hinnonmaki Red and Invicta - both have good disease resistance particularly to mildew; for raspberries I just grow autumn ones now (Polka and Joan J) - both these varieties are heavy croppers and the fruit is delicious!

I did grow a whitecurrant but took it out as I found I didn't use the fruit very often.

Enjoy selecting your fruit!

GreenQueen

Thank you all - advice much appreciated - will see how the prices compare when they hit Wilkos! Don't know enough bout it to be fussy on variety.

Mojisola

GreenQueen wrote: »

Want to get some soft fruit bushes/canes - gooseberry, raspberry, black/white/red currant. With the available space should be able to have one of each.

There's not much point in having one raspberry cane.

theoretica

Ken Muir has a very informative website to read about varieties. I have several currants and they all fruit at the same time - I now regret that and wish I had selected more varied fruiting times to share the glut.

MrsSnail

I'd go for bareroot, they're cheaper and available pretty much everywhere during winter - they'll start showing up on supermarket plant racks in a week or so.

My raspberries (Polka and Autumn Bliss) came from Aldi a few years back. My gooseberries came from Unwins (online), my blueberry bushes from B&Q and Morrisons. I acquired a small redcurrant bush from a neighbour a couple of years ago, it's taking its time re-establishing itself though (16 currants last year, lol).

Scottish_Mike

I went to my local B&Q and picked up a redcurrent bush for £5. They had little ones, that were about a foot tall for £3, but the £5 looks like a standard and is about 3 foot tall and considerably more advanced.

I got my raspberries and loganberries from Wilko. They took a few years to settle in but now I get great crops from them, whereas a few canes I got from T&M never seem to have been as happy or as bountiful.

francohoops

I planted 3 raspberry plants that I bought from a garden centre about 4 years ago. The plants were a bunch of canes. They get bushy each year but produce only two or three berries. I prune back the canes each Oct .

They’re in a sunny spot and not that close together

I’m thinking of taking out and replacing but don’t want to have the same issue with new plants.

Any advice? Is it common to have such poor crops for the first few years?

Farway

francohoops wrote: »

I planted 3 raspberry plants that I bought from a garden centre about 4 years ago. The plants were a bunch of canes. They get bushy each year but produce only two or three berries. I prune back the canes each Oct .

They’re in a sunny spot and not that close together

I’m thinking of taking out and replacing but don’t want to have the same issue with new plants.

Any advice? Is it common to have such poor crops for the first few years?

No. not common. One thing that strikes me is your pruning

Do you know if your raspberries are Autumn or Summer fruiting variety? They have very different pruning requirements and you may be cutting the fruiting canes off in error

Check your variety & let us know on here and no doubt we can let you know more if needed

If you do not know your variety I suggest the garden centre you bought them from is carp, I would expect unknown variety from £land, not a garden centre