Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: -Cat- on March 07, 2008, 12:59

Title: Fruit growing questions.
Post by: -Cat- on March 07, 2008, 12:59

Riht well I have worked out the layout for my proposed garden. I have decided to grow all the fruit (except rasperrries) in pots as I read it can be a good way of stopping them growing to big. I do however have a couple of questions.

Things like blueberriesI readget better yealed if you have 2 different plants to pollinates each other. Well I dont really want to have 2 largepots of them, so can I either plant 2 plants in the on pot, or would they also be polinated if I had other berry pots with them, like redcurrents, strawberries and the raspberries?

Also On the subject of dwarfing fruit plants. I read the same about doing this with things like apple and pear trees, planting them in pits to reduce root grwth and stop them growing to huge. Cn you do this with any apple/pear tree or would it only work with verities specifically sold as dwarf trees?

Oh sorry one more queston, I want to grown the rasperries trained up a garden oblisk structure. How many plants should I look at planting round its base?

Title: Fruit growing questions.
Post by: gobs on March 07, 2008, 13:06

Only dwarf trees will suit pots.

Other berries won't pollinate your blueberry.

Raspberries, 1 1/2 - 2 feet apart.  They won't grow upward more than their height, though, a few feet, depending on variety.

Title: Fruit growing questions.
Post by: agapanthus on March 07, 2008, 13:10

You do need different varieties of blueberry to make them pollinate, but I would'nt put 2 plants in 1 pot....they need a largish area  (pot) to themselves. Also they need ericacious compost and no tap water only rain water. :)

Title: Fruit growing questions.
Post by: philskin on March 07, 2008, 13:21

hiya cat  a few yrs ago I read a book about a victorian walled garden I think it was heligan that if you placed a large flat slab ie slate or concrete slab , it would stop the tap root going down thus stunting the apple tree, because they dug them up in the old garden and couldn,t work out what they were for and an old surviving worker from heligan told him thats what they were for  hope thats usefull

Title: Fruit growing questions.
Post by: -Cat- on March 07, 2008, 14:58

Right I have done a hunt and found a veriety of blueberry called 'sunshine blue' which is self fertile and compact in size to be grown in containers. I dont know what the fruit taste like if anyone has any experience of these. I did also look at the 'tophat' variety but aparenty the fruit have a poor taste and are very small.

Thank you for the tips re dwarf apples and rasperries. I did think that raspberries grew quite tall, I think I might make a row of them instead with can and wire supports with a little row of flowers allong the front to make it look more attractive.