Grow Your Own Magazine

i have seen some cheap (£1) raspberry,black current and gooseberrie canes in a cheap shop. apart from the fact they are cheap and probabley wont grow any way. is now a good time to plant them or do any thing with them o

Oh really, have they started selling these (the cheap open-boxed version) already? I was just thinking when I could look out for them in stores like Wilko and similar.

In March, I bought strawberry bare roots and boxed up blueberry that have grown into fine healthy plants but no fruits this year. I think these cheapies work but for the price you pay, you don't get fruits in the first year as you would with the more expensive ones that are already like established plants. T&M insists you'll get fruits in its first year (wouldn't necessarily always work though) from their fruit plants but they're not cheap. I too like to try out these disposable price bargains and if they don't work, it's not such a big loss.

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hi Snake

Probably someone being a bit enterprising, they're not difficult to root and it's not a bad time to be settling them in if they look healthy enough. Are they named varieties? If not and you're not too bothered by that it's not a huge expenditure if you go steady, and you sound prepared for it to be a chance worth taking (shop bought bundles of raspberry canes usually work out about £2 each and currants nearer £5). They're all a bit demanding in terms of location, space, protection from birds etc so if you're new to soft fruit growing I suggest you have a look at the BBC site which also tells you best way of planting:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basic...nts2.shtml#tip
Hope it works out.

bb

There's a saying that'You gets what you pays for'! Not always true methhinks as keen gardeners can turn a sows ear into a silk purse, sometimes!
I bought a cheap (couple of pounds) bare rooted self fertile cox variant (Sunset) eating apple from Netto's last year. Planted it in a pot and, although theoretically I shouldn't have allowed it to fruit , I did, and had wonderful blossom and about a dozen large tasty apples, half of which are still on the tree!
The apples I have harvested in it's first year covered the cost of the tree and if I look after it, as I will, it should fruit for many years to come.

This year, once the bare rooted fruit is in the cheapie shops I intend buying a lot of plants and making a cordon up the side of my allotment.

Likewise with the soft fruit, all have flourished and i've had no failures up til now!.............. says he touching wood!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Same goes for me Snadger, i got my hands on two cherry trees from wilco's last year, both reduced in price to £1.50 and they looked it too! but put both in the dirt on the plot, one has died but the other has put on about a foot of growth, should get some fruit next year (fingers crossed) and all for a £3 outlay. will be scouring the 'cheap' shops again for more bargains when the time comes. the posh bird on the plot near ours spent small fortune at proper shop (RHS) for cordon apples and had the grand total of 1 apple from four trees (£25+ each) at that rate will take a few years to get her outlay back, mine will take about one punnet next year

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

Yes, they will prob grow if fresh. It is really not worth buying out of date reduced plants as they will have been kept in a hot, dry shop for weeks on end.
Yes, £1 is cheap, but cuttings from a neighbour are even cheaper - blackcurrants, goosegogs and black/raspberries all root SO easily - just cut a 10" cutting and pop it in the ground now. Same with roses.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Main problem with buying from cheap shops is that you never know what variety you've got. Having said that if you check that the plants are alive they usually grow well, and unless you really want a specific variety they are a good cheap way of increasing your stock. And at £1 per plant if they don't work out you can afford to chuck them out.

Agree with Two Sheds.

Cuttings are so easy.. (except blueberries)../

I have more blackcurrant rroted cuttings than I originally wanted.. but that's not a problem:-))

Don't you have to dip in rooting compound first? Thanks.

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The cherry tree from Lidl wasn't too bad. It's still looking very small and tender but doing well for its £5. But all the bushes I got from Poundstretcher pretty much died. However the seeds I got from poundstretcher worked well, especially the "grow directly outdoors" variety. The onion sets from B&Q worked well, too. I was very disappointed though with the expensive seed bands - none of these worked.

I bought my raspberry canes from Woolies last year - going a bit up market I know BUT we got a pack of 2 canes at £1.99 and it was Buy ONe Get One Free, so it actually ended up being even cheaper than those mentioned here. AND they were of named (good) varieties.

We certainly weren't expecting any fruit this year, but in facy 3 of the 4 canes has produced, and delicious it was too!!

So, I would recommend keeping an eye on your local Wollies.....

LCG

What time of the year do they sell these? They're useful price and qty while all the internet ones I checked you have to buy 6 and over and cost £9 and over. Are they Autumn variety which is a must for me as they're supposed to be easier to grow. Thanks

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>veg
No rooting compound needed .. or at least i never use it.. 75-90% success rate. (I use a damp .but not waterlogged piece of ground so drying out in summer is not an issue - except last year!)

We took on the lottie in Oct last year, so I would have planted them in probably Nov time - so start looking soon! I seem to remember they still had some v sad looking individuals through into late spring too. There were both summer and autumn ones available. I think we got the autumn ones - but you'd need to know which varieties are which season, as I don't think it says (may be wrong).

We also bought Woolies sacks of Dutch mixed Irises, again Buy one get one free, so got 50 bulbs for about £1.99. Plonked them all in a 'cutting' bed up the lottie and I kid you not every last one grew and flowered.

Very impressed with their stuff!

Mind you, blackcurrants I bought well-grown potted ones, albeit on the reduced area of our local garden centre. They aren't as robust, so I wouldn't waste my money buying little cheaps ones of those!

LCG