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My dad has just phoned me for advice and I thought I would pass his queries along for the experienced soft fruit growers to comment...

He is looking after my sister's house and garden for a week and tells me:

a) the blackcurrants are black but not ripe - he remembers as a boy going on fruit picking holidays and the first job he had was to remove leaves from the plants to let the sun at them - is this a good idea? (I haven't had my blackcurrants long and the few that have formed this year are still green)

b) the raspberries are looking brown and dead with small but ripe fruits on them. We don't have a clue what type they are but they are putting up new growth. Is it worth giving them a feed or are they 'spent' for the summer? (I reckon they are an early variety that has done its stuff but he won't listen)

I look forward to passing your wisdom along

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

Can you help a friend raise money for British Heart Foundation please. He is climbing Machu Pichu later in the year and needs to make all the dosh he can for a good cause. www.justgiving.com/simonquinn2010

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I always thought black WAS ripe? I've never removed the leaves of my blackcurrants but I'm not saying you shouldn't. You could try it with half of them. The chickens remove the blackcurrants for me though. THEY think they're ripe!

Never grown rasps though so I can't even offer a daft suggestion for that.

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Whoever plants a garden believes in the future.

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I couldn't get him to say exactly why he thought the blackcurrants were unripe. I also thought that black meant ripe. Perhaps they are just sour?

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

Can you help a friend raise money for British Heart Foundation please. He is climbing Machu Pichu later in the year and needs to make all the dosh he can for a good cause. www.justgiving.com/simonquinn2010

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

This is very early for raspberries to be starting never mind finished shirley. Never heard of one that fruits in early June. Can you post a piccie? I'm suspecting either a disease or fruits from last year that were not pruned when they should have been. I do grow rasps and if you have a June fruiting one, I'll happily buy some runners. But I doubt it.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

No chance of piccies I am afraid - the chances of me teaching my dad how to get photos onto his pooter and email them to me is around zero Sister lives in East Sussex where I think they have had better temperatures. My rasps are ripening now but I think they are later than usual this year due to the chilly snap we had. I suspect you could be right on them not being pruned last year.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

Can you help a friend raise money for British Heart Foundation please. He is climbing Machu Pichu later in the year and needs to make all the dosh he can for a good cause. www.justgiving.com/simonquinn2010

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

For blackcurrants once they go black you should leave them for a week or so for them to ripen fully, then pick them. Its a good time to prune them then too, taking about one third of the old wood down to the ground, otherwise prune in late autumn and use some of the new growth to take cuttings - about 8-10in long. Stick a few of them together in a large pot and repot in the spring individually then plant out in November that year, you will get a crop the following year but the year after is when they will really show a good harvest. They are very easy to propogate.

Never heard of removing the leaves and don't know why you would, unless they are diseased in which case you should take out the whole stem rather than just the leaves.

On the new blacurrants you have don't prune them, pruning shouldn't be done until they are about 3 years old, by all means pick the berries when they are ripe though.

On the rasps the fruit grows on the previous years' new growth (the old canes need to be cut down to the ground) very unusual to have them now so early but maybe the warm weather earlier this year has forced them on?

Hope that helps?

Unless of course they are last year's fruit on an autumn fruiter. In which case this year's fruit will come on this year's growth. I think that is very likely.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

I had a few ripe raspberries last weekend. On this years shoots, so I guess that must make them very early Autumn ones?

I know all my tree varieties, but haven't got a clue with my soft fruit. I got various packs from Netto/LIDl/ALDI and just bunged them in here and there.

They're in a pot, so maybe stress has caused it to fruit ASAP.

I have seen what are described as 'mid-season' advertised BFG. My Polkas are just starting to sprout. Yours sound great. Pity you don't know the variety because they are Very early. My strawberries only started last week here in the frozen north.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

My autumn fruiting raspberries, the golden ones, have just started ripening! Had a good handful of ripe fruit yesterday.
Sue

I have been eating raspberries for the last week or two and have a great crop.
They are Malling Jewel and are about 4 years old.
Black Currants are still green and have to say, I have'nt heard of anyone removing the leaves.
My one and only red currant is laden down with fruit which will be ready for picking by the end of the week.
Hope this info may help.

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And when your back stops aching,
And your hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Cheers folks. Will pass it all along to dad. My rasps have started to ripen and are being stored in the freezer for some jelly making later on. I don't know what variety mine are but there is a huge crop on them this year. I suppose I will have to go and visit my sister some time and have a look see what is wrong with hers.

__________________
Happy Gardening,
Shirley

Can you help a friend raise money for British Heart Foundation please. He is climbing Machu Pichu later in the year and needs to make all the dosh he can for a good cause. www.justgiving.com/simonquinn2010

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I have had a couple of pickings from my raspberries, my allotment neighbour has been picking his for 2 weeks!

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Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.