Fruit cage soil rescue

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Turnba

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Fruit cage soil rescue
« on: October 20, 2013, 02:06 »
Hi all

I have a fruit cage that I inherited on my allotment two years ago. The only plants that were on there (besides creeping buttercup and couch grass) were a blackcurrant bush and some raspberries. For that first Christmas I got two gooseberry bushes which I planted up after painstakingly weeding it over.

I put down wood chips to prevent the weeds, which has worked well, but the plants are doing really poorly. I have only had a few handfulls of berries from the green gooseberry, none from the red, and the blackcurrant bush gives next to no fruit. The soil is thick, thick clay, which I suspect is doing most of the damage.

I believe this is the right time of year to move shrubs, but since the cage structure is cemented in I would prefer to find a way to improve the soil without changing location.

Can I improve the soil keeping the plants in situ or do I have to dig them out?

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mumofstig

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Re: Fruit cage soil rescue
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2013, 10:21 »
Wood chips take nitrogen from the soil as they rot down, so wouldn't really have helped the plants.

Give the area a good weed and feed with BF&B,  then mulch with well rotted manure or garden compost ;)


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