I have had some soft fruit bushes on my allotment that must be at least 14 years old and now, like me, they are getting a bit haggard and worn. Their cropping has reduced and quite frankly the size of the fruit is disappointing. My wife is nagging me to get some of the newer varieties which produce bigger and presumably tastier fruits.Currently I have blackcurrants, redcurrants, whitecurrants, gooseberries, blackberries and raspberries. The only really decent stuff left is a patch of Autumn raspberries that I will keep and some blueberries that I have nurtured at home and hope to put in a raised bed with acidic compost next year. The rest can go to compost!
Has anyone any ideas for me of some good modern varieties they can recommend? Or any other interesting fruits!
Hiya, George, we replaced our blackcurrants with 'ebony' this year, supposed to be the sweetest one, plus 'tulameen', sp? raspberries
If you happy with you fruit flavour wise..why to change perfectly good thing?
You could renew your bushes and start again. After all many nurseries still and will keep all old favourites in their stock and those trusted varieties are sold again and again for years to come.
You could dig some of your bushes up and maybe divide them up and re-planting only the new bits..adding loads and loads of good stuff from compost bin into planting holes. The size of the fruit is often reduced because the soil around old bushes become 'tired'. So even with new bought plants you will need at least enrich the soil or start again in 'fresh' ground.
With out working the soil better condition newly bought plants are not going to perform any better than your own saved ones.
I think biggest improvements with fruit are done with gooseberries..if your old bushes are prone to mildew..maybe getting some resistant varieties will give you better and cleaner fruit.
As you have room I would recommend Jostaberries... a currant/gooseberry cross. Giving large blackcurrant fruit. Not susceptible to any of the parents ills. It 'is vigerous though... :)
My favorate gooseberry is the relatively new pax, its sweet enough to eat from the bush , carless and mildrew proof. last year lots of fruit.
x sunloving
I bought a Ben Conan blackcurrant bush, and I've been pleased with it so far. The fruit are fairly large (for currants!) and the yield was very good this year.
I think the raspberries I got were Glen Ample - also been very productive. Very early too.
I wasn't sure whether these were old or modern varieties, and I found this, which might be an interesting guide to some modern varieties for you, george the pigman.
http://www.mrsltd.com/softfruit_blackcur.asp?menuID=5 (http://www.mrsltd.com/softfruit_blackcur.asp?menuID=5)
I have Pax and Lancashire Lad too Sunloving.. but Winham's Industry had a much better flavour but succumbed to mildew in the end.. :'(
I have recently purchased 10 canes of POLKA Raspberry. They are supposed to produce fruit through a long harvest from July - November and are spinefree canes producing very heavy crops of large rasps.
I also got 10 early summer fruiting canes, Glen Ample. Producing fruit from early June through to end of July. Again on spinefree canes producing extremely heavy crops of large rasps. After shopping around, Blackmoor nurseries were the cheapest.
I would also suggest moving the best of your existing bushes during the dormant season and add a few new ones for future years.