Soft fruit advice

[Mothy]

I've just ordered 2 gooseberry bushes and 10 autumn bliss raspberry canes from Jane Lane Nurseries. Anyone got any good advice?

I was wondering what sort of yield I can expect from 10 raspberry canes?  :P

TimJ

[Mothy]

[sandersj89]

I've just ordered 2 gooseberry bushes and 10 autumn bliss raspberry canes from Jane Lane Nurseries. Anyone got any good advice?

I was wondering what sort of yield I can expect from 10 raspberry canes?  :P

TimJ

Both will give reduced yield in the first year, especially the gooseberry, how old are they by the way?

The raspberries will give you a reasonable pick over a couple of months though, from late august to the first frost. Next year though you yield will more than double as those 10 canes will come back as 20, 30 or 40.

Give it another year or two and you will be splitting the canes to give you even more crop. Excellent crop to grow in fact and they taste yum!

Jerry

[thistle]

I planted 10 canes of Autumn Bliss a few years back and though I've never weighed the crop, I get more than enough berries !  At least a basinful every few days.  You'll probably end up freezing them, making jam or donating to friends and neighbours in the end.  8)

[Gardenantics]

I can pass on a tip I found by accident with my Autumn Bliss.
If instead of cutting them back to ground level each year, you only cut half of the canes to the ground, and the rest you reduce to say 3 feet, (This will be next year for you), these one year old 3 foot canes will give you a crop as early as late may, and the new canes coming up will fruit in autumn as usual, right up to the first frosts. I still had edible raspberries in November here in W. Yorkshire. As far as yield goes, you'll never have enough!

Brian

[suhayb]

ooooo! how many years have you done that for?? i hope it wasn't a one off with last years freeeeeky weather.

[Mothy]

Thanks for the tips, I can almost taste them already  ;D

Jerry, I believe that the gooseberries are 2 years old.

TimJ

[Gardenantics]

Hi Suhayb,

No not a one off, must be about 6 years since I found out that Autumn Bliss will fruit again on laterals growing from last years canes, I know the weather is strange, but I don't think it's the reason. Have a go yourself!

Brian

[Moggle]

The Ken Muir website reccomends a couple of autumn fruiting  raspbs for cropping twice a year:

'Terri-Louise and Galante produce particularly vigorous canes when well managed and can therefore be grown successfully to produce two crops each year â€" the first crop in the summer on overwintered canes and the second during the autumn on the new cane growth.'

As it mentions something about vigour, I wonder if the autumn bliss might get 'exhausted' (if such a thing exists in raspberries) after a couple of years of double cropping.

I love my raspbs so much I'd do anything to get more of them  :) Sadly I have not managed to dig enough space for any this year, and remain raspberry-less :(. Will be making weekly trips to the PYO though  :)

[Mrs Ava]

Just to pick up on the goosegogs, I have 2 old bushes, short, sad looking and in the shade of two apple trees on my plot and they were absolutely weighed down with gooseberries last year, so much so some branches snapped and others were being supported by my old pea sticks!  I would have love them, but somebody else beat me to it!  >:( :-X >:( :-X >:(