Grow Your Own Magazine

I will try and make this a regular posting if you want....something to save time, money or just help you out.

FREE FRUIT!!

This tip is to get some free fruit bushes or canes. It is best carried out in November and relies on you already having a parent plant or a neighbour having one.

Gooseberries, Redcurrants & Whitecurrants:

A mature bush should undergo some pruning or thinning, what you need are some cuttings from one year old shoots (those that grew this year) which are strong and straight. Select the number you require and shorten them to 9-10" long. You do this by removing the tip and base of each shoot, the top and bottom cuts are made immediatley above and below bud respectively.

From your cutting remove all buds except the top four, along with thorns. Insert each cutting into the soil, about half its depth and with the buds above ground. Fingers crossed in about a year you will have a four shooted bush growing quite nicely.

Blackcurrents:

Prepare shoots as above but leave all buds on 9-10" shoot. Plant upright so only 2 or 3 buds remain above ground (about 80% of shoot below ground). This is because the new shoots will come from below the ground.


All of above plant 6" apart in rows, leave for a year and then transplant to final position.

At approximatly £8-10 per bush thats a lot of money saved!

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Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

You get a big thumbs up from me!

I've bought Rasberries three times and they died every time. so in my case £24 and no bushes.

Jaxom,

I forgot to include the raspberry but this is really simple. Again you need a friendly neighbour or other supply of canes to take your cuttings from.

New growths will spring up from around the base of existing raspberries during the summer. These should be dug up including some parts of their root system in October and transplanted to their new place - the chances of success are very high.

I hope this info will help if you manage to get some cutings:
Most soils are suitable for raspberries, but a little preparation will pay rewards, especially because they will remain in the same position for 10 to 12 years. Dig a row 30cm (1ft) deep by 1m (3ft) wide, working in as much well rotted compost as possible. Where more than one row is being planted, allow 1.7m (5ft) between rows in order to let the roots spread freely and give room for you to harvest the crop in summer.

Summer fruiting raspberries (the most common for us) will require support during the growing season. Put the support poles and wires in place after digging, but before planting. Secure two 2.2m (7ft) poles in the ground at either end of the row. Tie two or three horizontal wires at 60cm (2ft) intervals to the poles. Tie the plants loosely to the wires when they begin to grow. (Diagrams would make this a little easier!)

Place the plants in the trench about 45cm (18in) apart, and cover the roots with soil 5cm (2in) above the existing soil mark on the stem. This will encourage more vigorous rooting. Work a handful of bonemeal per square metre (3ft) into the surface of the soil. Firm down the soil by lightly treading it down and water if the soil is not moist.

Finally, cut the plants to 15cm (6in) from the ground. This may seem a bit drastic but if the correct pruning for the first year is not carried out, the plants will be seriously weakened.

Just in case you fancy more fruit I suppose I better cover Blackberries:

It is an easy job to propagate a blackberry bush, even for novice gardeners. The best time is around early September. Select a stem which is in perfect condition (growing vigorously with no blemishes) and bend it's tip to the ground. Where it touches the ground, dig a small hole about 15cm (6in) deep and bury the tip of the stem into the hole. Cover with crumbly soil to the surrounding soil level. If the stem looks like springing out of the hole, place a few largish stones over the soil to keep it in place (remove them two months later). Water well if the conditions are dry.

The stem tips will root in a couple of month's time, and can be dug up and moved to their final position early Spring next year. To do this, sever the parent stem about 30cm (12in) from the new plant. Dig up the new plant, trying to avoid any root disturbance and plant in their new positions.

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Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

Hi Geordie

Can you do something similar with autumn fruiting rasps? I've just been cutting mine back to 4 or 5 inches - what chances of the prunings rooting do you think?

I think if you take a cutting from the bottom of the pruning to about 12" in lenght and give it a try, either in open soil or a pot you should see some results.

Alternatively, for an extra crop in early summer consider only cutting half the fruited canes downs to ground in late winter. Just tip back the remainder. These taller ones will then branch and produce raspberries around June to July. The new canes (primocanes) will still have sufficient space to grow up through and will crop in the autumn.

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Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

Thanks Geordie

I must admit I had stuck them in the ground anyway (I rarely throw a pruning away!) but wondered how likely they were to take. Your answer gives me some hope! I might also try your other suggestion when the canes are more established - this will be their first season.

By the way, I nearly missed your reply - is there some way of setting up a default on your own account to notify you if there's a reply to a thread you've posted in? I know you can do it individually for a thread but I keep forgetting!)

Hardy if you go into Thread Tools at the top of this thread and scroll down to Subscribe To This Thread you will get e mail notification of any replies.

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Thanks Lesley - what I really meant was can you set it up once and for all to notify you of any replies to any threads you've posted in. I keep forgetting to subscribe to individual threads (but not this one, as you can see!)

Sorry if this is the wrong place to discuss this - is there another area of the forum for techie tips?

Probably the easiest thing to do is to click on New Posts at the top of the main page each time you come to the forum then you are guaranteed not to miss anything.

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Right got it sorted. Go into User CP at the top of the page and click Edit Options under the heading Default Thread Subscription Mode on the drop down bow select Instant E Mail Notification.

I hope it works!!

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Thanks, Lesley - that's exactly what I was after! Tweaked a few other things while I was in there - great!

I hope this slight diversion was of use to other readers too!

Thanks again