Fruit and veg growing - quantities

[NKF]

I've had an allotment for about four years. Usual story. Some successes, some disasters, a work in progress. But one thing I never get right is the quantitites. And oddly enough, the books rarely tell you what to expect from a plant.

So, I have two blueberry bushes. Very small Bought last year. About a foot and a half high. Between them they produced about 10 berries. Are they no good or do I have to wait years until they are quite big? Or do you need lots of bushes to get a decent crop? I also want to plant some raspberries but not sure how many canes I would need. Three of us in the family adore fruit.

Too dull a post? Nobody knows?

I agree with you, i can never seem to find even a rough idea about yeilds. I really recommend raspberries though, really good value as they are so expensive in the shops get 5 summer fruiting and 5 canes of autumn fruiting. You'll have raspberries from june til oct and anything over you can freeze and make jam or smoothies. By next year the canes will have produced plenty of new suckers that you can re-plant if you want to increase your yeild, or give away to a fellow gardener
Sounds to me like your blueberries just need to establish. Give them time.

Agree with wishi re: raspberries.

I think VVV has blueberries.

There is a Pippa Greenwood Organic Veg book (thin paperback) that quotes yields although I've found her slightly optimistic.

Oh thank you. I've just been up there and have decided to move the strawberries into pots, freeing up a nice big bed for raspberries.

Have you ordered fruit bushes? If so, from where? I got the blueberry bushes from Guardian Gardening offers and don't think I'd use tehm again.

Is VVV a MN poster?

apparently strawberries and raspberries have the same diseases so you should allow 3 years between planting crops (if that makes sense?!). I don't know about yields for blueberries but iirc they like ericaceous/alkaline conditions, could that be affecting the yield?

Probably Redclover. We have clay soil so although I dug in lots of ericaceious compost, it probably isn't enough.

VVV is an MN poster - VeniVickiVidi etc. I'm sure she would be happy to answer you if you 'hijacked' her on another thread!

Good point re: acid loving blueberries, now is a good time to mulch them, best and cheapest acid/ericaceous mulch is pineneedles. Have you a pine forest anywhere near you? just scoop a bucketful off the floor. Or maybe you could find somewhere they have been shredding Christmas trees, that would do nicely, just pile it up around the base of the bush. Last year I had one blueberry bush and I got about a handful of berries every 3 days over about a six week period, fed them to my dd, she popped them like they were going out fashion. We planted three more bushes last week, they have the added attraction of the foliage going red in autunm. Looking forward to having some to freeze for supersmoothies.

Don't give up on the raspberry bed, unless your strawberries turned blue and walked off the plot themselves, it's worth taking the risk and growing the raspberries. Autumn Bliss is a autumn variety that seems to be foolproof, big fat juicy raspberries, amazing. DD spent the summer scoffing them too.

Blueberries tend to start fruiting in the second summer after planting and they reach full cropping potential after 5-6 years so give them a chance and see how you go. Two or three bushes gives a better crop than just the one so you have done the right thing getting two. You also need to protect the bushes from late frost. Using tap water on the plants can affect them badly - best to use rainwater. Check your soil pH - blueberries need it to be about 4 and 5.5. If you are having problems keeping it that low then consider transferring them to pots where they do well.

IMO you can never have enough raspberry plants so I would buy as many as you can find space for

hth

Do raspberries need a lot of soil, or could I grow them in trough type planters?
I am liking the sound of them (thinking of cost of keeping dd in raspberries for the summer! ) but don't have an allotment or garden space.

Well, I do have a garden, but is mostly lawn for dd to play on, and too small to dig up a bit of it IYSWIM.

We have a south facing patio which would presumably help (though maybe too hot?) also have a border down lefthand side, so kind of west and south facing.

...and where do you buy canes from?

Well I thought no, but I just checked in my organic gardening book which has a good section on growing fruit in pots and it said...

Not summer fruiting raspberries but you might be OK with autumn fruiting ones as they crop on that current years growth. You might need to replace them every year though. Sounds a bit expensive to me.

It suggests that blueberries, red and white currants, gooseberries, grapes and strawberries are the best berry fruits to grow in pots. Blackberries and other hybrd berries are too vigorous.

Can't see why you can't put the raspberries in your border though if it gets sunshine for about 1/2 of the day. They are fine with a bit of shade and you get a good crop with not much effort at all.

Now is a good time to look out for bare root canes - but don;t leave it for much longer or it will be too late in the season. Try garden centres, nurseries, online, local market traders - I have even seen them for sale at supermarkets (prob is you don't know what you are getting from them, it's a bit of a gamble but I have had good success with some from morrisons before). My nan used to buy her plants from Woolworths and did wonders with them (she was very green fingered though) not been in a wollies for years so not sure if they still do that sort of thing.

Thanks! will have a look next weekend.

Oooh hello

Cant resist a gardening thread and lo and behold.....thank you norks

I have two blueberry bushes. They both fruited in the first year. They must have ericaceous compost or acid soil though.

If you dont have acid soil you'll need to plant in pots in ericaceous compost like mine are. They are doing really well. We had quite a lot last year, despite ds and dd raiding them regularly to eat the fruit.

could the lack of fruit be down to birds pinching them too? perhaps a bit of netting is required after the flowers have set?

Also, I never prune unless i have to and I havent done mine yet. They do tend to fruit on 2nd year wood though, and mine were already that old. Perhaps yours werent.

Raspberries you would probably need 10 canes to get a decent crop. Perhaps 5 of one variety and 5 of another to prolong the picking season. (You can get Summer fruiting or Autumn fruiting or ones that fruit the whole way through)

oh, and also - I have a thornless blackberry called Loch Ness. It is absolutely marvellous. REALLy heavy fruiting, with large sweet fruits. I highly recommend it as an addition to your fruit and veg growing.

I love gooseberies.
And thanks for all this advice. I will be patient with the blueberries, perhaps even buy an other bush. We love them in this family. A punnet from the shops vanishes in minutes and as they cost something unthinkable, it would be fantastic to have some from the allotment. A friend has offered me some raspberry canes so hopefully we'll get some fruit this year.

We have about 20 raspberry canes - right along the West Facing Fence, so that we can tie them to the fence and try to keep them covered. We lose about a quarter of the crop to squirrels and birds - they obviously love them too. To get best crop you need to pick twice daily morning and evening, easy in the garden but not at an allotment.

Just thought - do I need to shred the pine needles?

no shredding needed, just pile it on. If you are collecting it from a pine forest floor, dig deep and get the already composted pine needle mush underneath too. Got to be good. I love free compost.

I have planted new raspberry canes close to my new blueberry bushes and other fruit bushes (redcurrent, blackcurrent and gooseberry, they were a wedding present from a neighbour) with the intention of being able to erect a fruit cage over the whole lot, if the birds/mice get too greedy.

The best thing about the fruit is that they are there year after year, no sewing, potting on, planting out etc. Just keep the critters away.