Make a Rainbow...

Pots of Fruit Blog

Yay...I've a new blog.... "Pots of Fruit" .  Seen as I'm concentrating mainly on growing fruit in pots at the moment I decided to set up a new blog devoted entirely to that.  I've just started it and am still tweaking it so be patient :) I have moved all the fruit posts from here and am now starting to add new posts as I go about my business in the garden. 
I expect to do about two posts a week as I'll be starting yet another blog in a few weeks and will splitting my blogging time between them both.  The second blog will be all about natural horse care so watch out for that. 

Enjoy!

Strawberries - Encouraging good fruiting conditions and more on runners

When we got them we planted our first three strawberries all in one pot - a large fish box - and last year I realised that it wasn't a very good idea.  While the plants grew strongly and did produce strawberries it was very hard to look after them as there was such a massive tangle on leaves.  There was too much cover for slugs and woodlice to hide.  The leaves of each plant overlapped each other creting a dense thicket.  These guys obviously aren't the best friends of strawberries and so conditions that are unsuitable for them are to be encouraged.

The plants are in their dormant stage in this photo so there are only about 25% of the leaves that were present during the summer. 

Also, the fact that there were so many leaves all overlapping each other meant that most of the strawberries were trying to ripen in very damp conditions.  As a result of this a good few went mouldy (botritis) before being ready to eat :(  Only the ones that hung over the edge and were able to escape the sprawl were salvaged.

Here is one that was planted in a pot by itself and this fared much better.  We have about 7 of these and overall I think that if you are keeping strawberries in pots then they should be potted up singly.  It was easy to see the growing strawberries and check for any slug damage.  Also it was easier to look under the pots to see where the feckers were hiding as the pot was smaller and lighter.

Originally I had decided to repot the three in the fishbox but then I thought of a better idea.   These three big healthy plants are going to be this year's Mammys.  In order to get really good runners I have read that you should dedicate a plant or two to this purpose alone and prevent them from fruiting.  All the energy then goes into the runners and so next year's plants get a good start. 

Even though I have enough strawberry plants in the garden it is still important to keep propagating new ones.  There are two reasons for this 1) Strawberry plants start to loose their vigour after 3 or 4 years and so they should be replaced with new ones in order to ensure good crops.  Rather than replace all your plants suddenly you should propagate enough every year to replace about a third so that you have a steady supply of mature plants.

As you can see the crown on this guy is quite large and so I think it will do a good job.  But just to make sure I added some manure as a top dressing.  I wouldn't normally add manure to the strawberries this close to summer as it's not too hygenic for the strawberries to be sitting on them.  But as these guys will not be making fruits it should be fine.

The manure will go towards making nice big foliage which should strengthen the plant overall.   

Here is the manure in place.  I put in about two inches of it so we'll see what happens.  When I start to see any little flowers emerging I'll pick them off and just allow about 5 runners to develop per plant.  I'll probably cut off any weak ones and allow the strong ones to mature.

To find out more about runners and how to get them to root and all that have a read of this post

Redcurrant Pruning

In general I find pruning different bushes confusing and it seems to take ages of comparing photos and diagrams to decide which branches to cut.  But I've figured out the red currant for now so here goes.

I bought this bush in mid 2006 and here it is the following spring(2007) just as it started to bud.  When I got the bush the two long(main) branches you can see above were longer.  The norm might be to get one with three or four.  Anyway, what I should have done was prune it immediately as this encourages growth.  I didn't and the thing did not grow at all.  There were a few measly leaves on it all through the year and that was it.  So in its second winter I pruned it so that it looked like it does in the above picture.  I cut the two branches by one half of their length.

The difference this made was incredible!  This is it in May of the same year with loads of new shoots and leaves.  If it hadn't suffered from wind damage it would have gotton a lot bigger.   So pruning actually does promote more vigorous growth.

Here is the same bush about 8 months later in January 2008

(You can see that the some of the branches are all wiggly on this bush because it suffered from wind damage when this years shoots were still very young.  They almost snapped at the join and I staked them upright again hoping they would survive.  Most of them did but the had already gone a bit funny as they weren't sure which way they were supposed to be growing.)

I have read that you should mainly be prune red currant bushes in late winter.  If you have a problem with birds eating the young buds then hold off for as long as possible so as to decide which branches to take off etc.  I suppose if all the buds have been eaten off you should just take this one out, giving more space to other branches.

PRUNING THIS BUSH....

The first branch to go was the right most branch you can see above...the large one that starts at the bottom of the plant.  All branches that are within about 10cms of the ground should be removed so as to encourage a good framework.  Each type of fruit bush seems to need a different shape in order to help the fruit flourish.

    

At the start of the life of the bush you want to start choosing upright branches to keep.  You want four good strong ones to start things off.  There are two obvious contenders here and so I thought about those first.  You chop half of your chosen branch off.  You can see the before and after shots above.  Remember to cut a slightly slanting cut so as to prevent a build up of water on top of the branch.

I then did the same with the three other branches than looked sort of like main upright stems.  Compare this to the bush before I pruned it.....You will notice that there are two side ways branches unaccounted for.  Well, if you look closely you will see two very short "spurs" on the left most branch nearly half way up.  These were pruned differently because they were off shoots of my chosen main stem.  Any side shoots should be cut back so that there is only one bud left on them.  These will be the fruiting spurs for this spring.  I have only two :(

This is not unusual and it will be next year before the fruit is set up for fruiting.  There is now a good frame work on the plant which you develop from year to year, basically repeating the same process.

I hope this is helpful...it may all sound confusing but I have found that if you keep comparing the before and after photos and just start having a go that you will get the hang of it.

Remember to stake any new growth so as to protect against the strong winds.  Putting your pot in a sheltered position would help.  One of the advantages of keeping fruit in pots is that you can move them around depending on the seasonal requirements.

Here are a couple of photos from the book that I have been consulting about this.  They might help.

Good luck!

 

Blackcurrant Cuttings

Ever since we got our first blackcurrant bush about 2 years ago I've been waiting to take a cutting from it in order to increase the potential amount of fruit we enjoy.  Yesterday was the day.  New year's day.  It is recommended to take cutting in about October or November so that they will get a good chance to root before the next growing season, but I have been a bit lazy and only got round to it now.  You choose a good strong branch that has just grown in the current year.

I chose a branch that I would be removing anyway while pruning so as not to waste anything (the one with the arrow pointing at it).  I wanted to remove this branch so as to create an airy centre to the bush.  It seems to be important to allow plenty of air to circulate around a blackcurrant bush so as to prevent diseases.   I'm confused about pruning blackcurrant bushes after this and so I just left it alone.  I will be experimenting with my new bush in the future hopefully.

I read that you should cut the branch off just below a bud, making a horizontal cut.  It is important to have a good set of pruners so as not to tear the fibres thus preventing infection of the bush. 

Your cutting should be about 1ft (30cm) long.

Then you cut off the top piece of the branch, making a diagonal cut.  I did this just above the first good sized bud.

The reason you make a diagonal cut here is to facilitate rain water run off.  You don't want to make the cut too slanty though.  If you do this you will be increasing the area of exposed branch and this too can cause infection.  The one I did possibly could have been slightly less inclined.  When the rain falls on the top of the cutting it should flow off rather than sitting there encouraging rot.

You then either put the cutting into a trench in the ground or a pot like I have done.  As I don't know where I will be living next year I thought it would be better to go with the pot.  I used a mixture of old potting compost and garden soil.  This is one bit I'm not 100% sure of so I'll let you know how I get on!

Here is my garden supervisor and cleaner upper.  He follows us around in the garden as we disturb the soil, revealing plenty of lovely insects.  Bury the cutting to a depth of about 4 inches or 10cm, covering some buds in the process.  This encourages a multistemmed bush which is what you are looking for in a blackcurrant.  In other words more than one stem grows out from the ground. 

Your new cutting should be put somewhere not too sunny and a bit sheltered and left until very clear signs of growth appear.  I would leave it a whole year before disturbing just to make sure it has plenty of roots and will survive a transplant.  If you are doing this in a pot as I have done make sure the pot doesn't dry out at all.

Good luck and I'll let you know how I get on.

Potting on the Strawberry Runners

Transplanting the strawberry runners has been long overdue and so I went for it today so that they would still get a chance to establish themselves over the winter in preparation for a bumper harvest in summer…I hope.

I got a fairly large pot, about 10 inches across and put in a 1 inch layer of pebbles at the bottom.  Strawberries must have good drainage in order to flourish. 

Then I put in a load of our own garden soil, complete with worm(in the middle).  I am using this in preference to a peat based soil in order to see if it will dry out less easily.  This year the strawberry pots were prone to drying out and were then hard to re-wet, so I’m hoping the heavier clay soil will help.  Then I popped in the baby strawberry on top of this and filled up the rest of the container with rich garden compost. 

I put in about 2 or 3 inches of this as I have read that Strawberries like lots of humus and fertility that is not to highly nitrogenous.  I think that this means you shouldn’t use fresh manure and possibly other things that I haven’t identified yet.  I still a bit confused about this.

I didn’t fill the container as much as I could.  I just barely got up to the same level as the base of the plant, the crown.  This is because I want to add some composted manure later in the winter and I don’t want to cover over the crown of the strawberry.  If this is under the soil it will rot and then the plant will probably die.

To top off the planting I added a bit of seaweed meal as an all round tonic.  I gave the newly potted strawberry a reasonably good water and set in the garden where it will get the best sun.  They all look very happy now and I’m also going to compare each plant to see how much difference the size of the pot makes to the amount of fruit obtained.  I’ll report on that in about 9 months!

And now a report on this summer’s fruiting.  The strange thing about our existing strawberry plants is that they are setting fruit again.  I‘m not sure if they have been confused by the weather but three of the plants have nearly fully grown fruit on them.  I have a feeling they won’t ripen but I might put one of the smaller containers in the greenhouse and see what happens. 

The one thing that I learnt was that if you are putting strawberries in pots then it is better to plant just one per pot.  We planted three in a large fish box and in the end it was hard to get into to the middle to maintain them and check on the fruits.  Also there were runners appearing from every where and even though I was trying to restrict there numbers they just kept sneaking out because it was so hard to see into the plants.  The strawberries planted singly however were very easy to keep an eye on and these also suffered less slug damage.  I think it was just too comfy in among the leaves in the triple planted box for the slugs.  There were too many hiding places.  I also found that taking a pot and placing in a tub of water in order to give it a good soaking also hunted out any sneaky slugs and they could then be picked off as they scrambled, slowly, up the side of the container.  The water protection in the form of the raft with its feet in water also helped.  Hopefully next year will be a better year.  The small number of strawberries were absolutely amazingly tasty and I just can’t wait for a proper bowlful……mmmmm

Physalis/Cape Goosberry Success

Our sole remaining hope for our physalis or cape gooseberry began ripening its fruit about 3 weeks ago.

The other runner for best physalis got severely rampant and as a result did not produce many fruits.  It also got attacked by woodlice as it was inside in our porch.  The little woodlice just ate of each flower as it developed and unfortunately it took us a while to realise what was happening.  Fruit plants that are in greenhouses or porches seem to be most affected by these fellas.  Also, the fact that they are in pots seems to confound the issue as well.  But I’ve had a suggestion as to how to prevent this in the future.  Rubbing Vaseline on the stem should prevent the little guys venturing beyond and into the flowering region.  I will certainly try this next year although I have not been able to completely decide whether this would be organic or not….It’ll be good enough I think.  We did very little with the successful plant except leave it in a sunny place and allow the copious amounts of rain that we have had this year to water it. 

The fruits are nearly ripe when the little lantern packaging looks sort of dried up and crispy.  It changes from green to beige.

I have read that you should wait for the fruit to drop off in order to ensure that they are at perfect ripeness but there is no way that we have the patience for this. 

Here is Chris marvelling at the wondrous fruit that I thought would never produce fruit.  As it turns out it is pretty easy to grow these and you should expect a reasonable fruit as long as you keep it stressed to a degree.  Chris brought out a cape gooseberry plant to the farm where he volunteers and Jim promptly put it in the ground in a polytunnel.  Again, this was just too easy for the plant and so it just got massive without doing much fruit.  Chris is now experimenting with taking cuttings from this plant and I’ll let you know how he gets on. 

Here is the finished product once the handy wrapping is peeled back….all lovely and yellow and soft. 

Yum! 

Unfortunately some of the fruits have split while still on the plant.  I’m not too sure why this is but it may have something to do with getting too much rain in a sudden burst.  We still ate most of these ones and they were still nice although a few had started to go mouldy.  So in some ways it might pay to take them off a little early so you can be monitoring the situation.  Overall I would HIGHLY recommend these fruits as being easy to grow, very suitable for planting in containers and for small areas.  They don’t seem to require much heat but do need to be taken indoors during the winter to ensure they survive another season.  Have a go!