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Soft fruit recommendations - doublyjonah - 12-09-2020
Hello all!
I'm looking for some soft fruit recommendations. Anniversary gift for my partner, so trying to channel his preferences in my description.
We're on heavyish soil with some clay and some stones (though has been improved over the years) at the top of a very gently sloping site - not too exposed and windy but will probably get frost over the winter.
He was really impressed with a fruit that our plot neighbors grow - elongated, shiny, black fruit, must be a blackberry hybrid. Not sure what they were called though and never see our plot neighbors to ask! We have a boysenberry, some raspberries, and (unintentionally, of course) lots of wild blackberries. Any recommendations for one of the other blackberry hybrids?
Also, he rescued a white grape variety from a discount table at the garden centre. But it's actually a wine variety and that will be a totally new adventure for us (why not?! hate to see a plant go to waste). Any recommendations for an eating variety (any color) that will grow in Birmingham?
We also have black, white, and red currants, and strawberries (plus rhubarb and some fruit trees). He says he doesn't care for gooseberries. I'll probably buy some blueberry plants for my little one separately, which I'll need to care for in pots as our soil isn't acidic enough for them. Prefer something that can be planted in the ground. I think he'd also be interested in late-season strawberries. We're planning to get a fruit cage sorted for next year, so can be something that needs protection.
So, the short version: any suggestions for blackberry hybrids? eating grapes? late-season strawberries? any other must-grow soft fruits?
Thanks!
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - Veggie - 12-09-2020
I've bought Tayberries, Youngberries and thornless Loganberries - but I really don't know which ones are still growing - but one has long and sprawling canes with long raspberry coloured fruit. Never get to taste many as the birds get there first.
Japanese Wineberries are a waste of space - pathetic little fruit thats all bristles.
Jostaberries are good - a cross between a blackcurrant and a gooseberry in appearance and taste. Thornless.
Their ugly sister the Worcesterberry is the same sort of cross but has all the thorns and the fruit look like small gooseberries. Best use is keeping invaders out of the plot.
Never had any success with grapes- guess I'm too lazy to prune and train them.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - toomanytommytoes - 12-09-2020
Malwina is the best tasting strawberry I've grown. It's quite late and goes a much deeper red than normal strawberries. Florence is also pretty good.
Blueberries can go in the ground if your soil isn't acidic, it just means you have to excavate a hole and backfill it with peat/ericaceous compost (which is 99% peat) and amend the soil with sulphur yearly. This was my preference as if I grew blueberries in pots I'd have to buy peat every few years when they need repotting.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - Mark_Riga - 12-09-2020
If you don't want to use peat, Dalefoots do an ericaceous compost if you can get it.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - Mikey - 13-09-2020
I have a Tayberry which is Thornless grows in habit like a blackberry by send out runner. canes from the main plant, it really wants a support structure as it does better if you grow it up or through something else. It will grow new plants where the tips hit the ground like a blackberry does.
It’s prolific and produces long fruit which don’t quite go black in colour. It tastes sweeter and has more depth of flavour than either the raspberry or blackberry parent plants. Will grow in semi shade and quite likes heavy ground. I’ve never seen it struggle with any kind of pest or disease though birds and squirrels will pinch the fruit.
When picking the colour changes from raspberry red to a really dark maroon almost black colour, it should slide off the stem like a raspberry when ripe but will snap off like a blackberry if a little under. You can hack back older canes it will come again every year if you want to keep it neat and tidy, or push a tip into the ground if you want to produce another plant.
If what you’ve seen is darker and blacker than this it might be a mulberry.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - Mikey - 13-09-2020
So tell me are we in an age of messing. You have boysenberry, ollaliberry, Marionberry. Are they simply the names of people who have been messing with blackberry hybridisation, or is it a James Wong I’m gonna rename something that already exists to sell more?
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - doublyjonah - 13-09-2020
(13-09-2020, 08:01 AM)Mikey Wrote: So tell me are we in an age of messing. You have boysenberry, ollaliberry, Marionberry. Are they simply the names of people who have been messing with blackberry hybridisation, or is it a James Wong I’m gonna rename something that already exists to sell more?The boysenberry seems to be a genuine hybrid. I know it from Knott's Berry Farm, bit it seems to have been bred elsewhere and then cultivated there.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - doublyjonah - 13-09-2020
(13-09-2020, 07:25 AM)Mikey Wrote: I have a Tayberry which is Thornless grows in habit like a blackberry by send out runner. canes from the main plant, it really wants a support structure as it does better if you grow it up or through something else. It will grow new plants where the tips hit the ground like a blackberry does.I used to spend a fair amount of time in a mulberry tree as a kid, so I don't think it's that unless they actually differ here from what I grew up with. A definite possibility given some of my experiences.
It’s prolific and produces long fruit which don’t quite go black in colour. It tastes sweeter and has more depth of flavour than either the raspberry or blackberry parent plants. Will grow in semi shade and quite likes heavy ground. I’ve never seen it struggle with any kind of pest or disease though birds and squirrels will pinch the fruit.
When picking the colour changes from raspberry red to a really dark maroon almost black colour, it should slide off the stem like a raspberry when ripe but will snap off like a blackberry if a little under. You can hack back older canes it will come again every year if you want to keep it neat and tidy, or push a tip into the ground if you want to produce another plant.
If what you’ve seen is darker and blacker than this it might be a mulberry.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - Veggie - 13-09-2020
(13-09-2020, 08:01 AM)Mikey Wrote: So tell me are we in an age of messing. You have boysenberry, ollaliberry, Marionberry. Are they simply the names of people who have been messing with blackberry hybridisation, or is it a James Wong I’m gonna rename something that already exists to sell more?I like the Liberry.
RE: Soft fruit recommendations - JJB - 13-09-2020
(13-09-2020, 07:25 AM)Mikey Wrote: I have a Tayberry which is Thornless grows in habit like a blackberry by send out runner. canes from the main plant, it really wants a support structure as it does better if you grow it up or through something else. It will grow new plants where the tips hit the ground like a blackberry does.
It’s prolific and produces long fruit which don’t quite go black in colour. It tastes sweeter and has more depth of flavour than either the raspberry or blackberry parent plants. Will grow in semi shade and quite likes heavy ground. I’ve never seen it struggle with any kind of pest or disease though birds and squirrels will pinch the fruit.
When picking the colour changes from raspberry red to a really dark maroon almost black colour, it should slide off the stem like a raspberry when ripe but will snap off like a blackberry if a little under. You can hack back older canes it will come again every year if you want to keep it neat and tidy, or push a tip into the ground if you want to produce another plant.
If what you’ve seen is darker and blacker than this it might be a mulberry.
They sound good Mikey, I may have to get one and replace my thug of a blackberry which eats people.