Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: DanielCoffey on May 10, 2016, 21:02
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I have just been watching the recent Quickcrop video about planting young Tayberry/Boysenberry whips and saw that the presenter was giving them a sturdy wire support between braced posts. Do you think this was simply because he wanted to train them along the wires as they grew or is it because these fruit bushes generally need support?
I was under the impression that most soft fruits were self-supporting and could be pruned to open bushes relatively easily but do the varieties he was showing tend to need more support?
I was thinking about some Jostaberries in a future garden and wanted to know if I should be planning a similar support under netting or if they will be fine as a free bush.
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Tayberries and Boysenberries are like blackberries in their growth, so I have mine trained on wires.
Blackcurrants, plus the white and red ones, Gooseberries, Jostaberries plus Autumn raspberries don't need supports.
Summer raspberries will also need tying up or on wires as they grow taller than the Autumn ones.
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Ah, so it was a species thing then. I understand. I had read that Jostaberries were woodier once mature so I assumed they didn't need support by wire.
Next question is about cages...
Since Jostaberries are slow growing, I assume they only need netting from birds once they are old enough to fruit and the net can be removed until that point so the birds can get the bugs and similar from the bushes and growing area. I was thinking of a permanent fruit cage on a couple of courses of bricks to make strimming up to the edge easier with heavy mulch inside to keep weeds down. I was then planning to put up the cage on top of the brick once the bushes were old enough to need protection and also to remove the netting at the end of each season.
Does that sound reasonable?
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I've never caged my blackcurrant / Jostaberry as the birds don't seem to bother with them. Redcurrants on the other hand ... ::)
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I've never caged my blackcurrant / Jostaberry as the birds don't seem to bother with them. Redcurrants on the other hand ... ::)
Blackbirds and magpies and Jays love jostaberries and black currants, as well as gooseberries and red currants so the nets go on as soon as there is full size green fruit to be seen. I also have a small cherry tree in the fruit cage, which means we do get cherries too!
Daniel, jostaberries are not particularly slow growing in my experience, and are well worth their space. I like the idea of edging your cage with bricks btw
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I've never caged my blackcurrant / Jostaberry as the birds don't seem to bother with them. Redcurrants on the other hand ... ::)
Blackbirds and magpies and Jays love jostaberries and black currants, as well as gooseberries and red currants so the nets go on as soon as there is full size green fruit to be seen.
must be the location - lots of blackbirds and magpies here too (no Jays but plenty of pigeons) and they leave the blackcurrants alone
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Don't they have a preferred order of colours to eat. ie they will eat red berries when they are available and will leave black berries alone, then they will eat black berries before touching yellow berries. I seem to remember hearing something like that on a nature program.
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Since Jostaberries are slow growing,
Not in my experience. Mine have run crazy every year for three years.
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My Jostaberries fruited in the 2cd year and have been prolific every year since. Blackbirds will strip them if not netted and my experience is that they need regular pruning to keep them in check. They can get very large. I love the fruit, fresh, tarts, crumbles, jams. Had a look before posting and it should be a bumper harvest again.
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I hate to say it but my Jostaberries got totally out of control and are no longer. ! I dug them out at the beginning of the year and put in some Saskatoon berries instead. hopefully they will behave a bit better.
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I hate to say it but my Jostaberries got totally out of control and are no longer. ! I dug them out at the beginning of the year and put in some Saskatoon berries instead. hopefully they will behave a bit better.
never heard of Saskatoon and googled it ... it's a tree (8-10 feet tall x 4-8 feet wide)! I think you may find it considerably bigger than a Jostaberry
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I am growing the Northline, they do get tall but are easy to keep under control, three people on our plot have also got rid of their jostaberrys as they just get so big .
When they get that tall I will invest in some steps LoL :D
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I've never caged my blackcurrant / Jostaberry as the birds don't seem to bother with them. Redcurrants on the other hand ... ::)
Blackbirds and magpies and Jays love jostaberries and black currants, as well as gooseberries and red currants so the nets go on as soon as there is full size green fruit to be seen.
must be the location - lots of blackbirds and magpies here too (no Jays but plenty of pigeons) and they leave the blackcurrants alone
Definitely a location thing. Blackcurrants, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, jostaberry and blackberries all untouched at the allotment. Pigeons strip brassicas in no time though. At home, two miles away, the blackbirds strip redcurrants, blueberries and raspberries but the pigeons ignore any brassicas.