Topic: Tayberries

[davholla]

I have small south facing front garden, it is quite shady.  There is a very productive white currant bush there, a less productive gooseberry and a couple of old tayberries which do ok.  I was thinking of putting a tayberry in a shady part.
A good idea or waste of time?

[Beersmith]

Before you get too deep into issues about cultivation in a shaded area, ask yourself how much you actually like Tayberries.  After all, you already have two bushes.  Would you not prefer something else for variety?

Personally I am not a big fan. At their best, yes they are very good, but I have always found they go from being under ripe to being over ripe very rapidly. So getting them in perfect condition is tricky.  But they are liked by many and some on this site are really enthusiastic fans.

Blackberries have a reputation for being the best fruit for partial shade. Worth a thought.

[Vinlander]

Tayberries can go from under ripe to over ripe quickly - but it is very temperature-dependent - they ripened late in 2019 and had to endure higher temperatures and strong sun so I had to pick mine daily.

However I kept picking because they are my favourite cane fruit and make fantastic lollies - just mash and freeze - a mix with excess strawberries is even nicer.

Normally they ripen as much as a month earlier and can be picked much less frequently - every other day is about average but if they are in shade you could leave them longer.

Shade solves this problem but reduces the yield - hence the attraction of more plants (in an otherwise useless area).

Loganberries are much worse and can go from inedibly hard to to inedibly soft in a couple of hours (even in cold weather). In 2019 I couldn't be bothered with them at all (the flavour isn't as good as tays and I don't like stewed fruit so they were more trouble than they are worth).

Incidentally the thorny Tayberry has an even better flavour - more vinous top-notes - but only worth the difference if you have room to plant them away from main paths.

Cheers.

[davholla]

Before you get too deep into issues about cultivation in a shaded area, ask yourself how much you actually like Tayberries.  After all, you already have two bushes.  Would you not prefer something else for variety?

Personally I am not a big fan. At their best, yes they are very good, but I have always found they go from being under ripe to being over ripe very rapidly. So getting them in perfect condition is tricky.  But they are liked by many and some on this site are really enthusiastic fans.

Blackberries have a reputation for being the best fruit for partial shade. Worth a thought.

  Thanks for that - I prefer Tayberries to Blackberries you are right about them going from under ripe to over ripe though.
I would say that the longest lasting soft fruits are white currants - you can leave them for about 3 weeks on the bush.