Growing Soft Fruit

One could spend a lifetime writing about growing soft fruit. It is an area that is perhaps more varied than top fruit (apples, pears etc). Soft fruit plants come in a multitude of guises, from strawberries with their runners, to raspberry canes. From Prickly gooseberry bushes to rampant (but thornless) boysenberries. Blueberries growing is acidic soil most gardeners would weep over and currants in a range of colours and sizes.

The basic principles, however are pretty simple. All soft fruit likes soil that contains plenty of organic matter and that is well drained (with the exception of cranberries). Almost all soft fruit likes the sun and prefers sheltered spots that are not frost pockets. All soft fruit is readily picked over by birds and needs netting so it can be picked over by humans....

Soft fruit pollination is easy - they pollinate themselves, so there are no worries about pollination groups. All soft fruit fruits carry their "burden" over a relatively extended period. They all need picking over several times during a season as opposed to most top fruit that tends to ripen in a short time frame.

And although one or two types of soft fruit need particular conditions, in the main soft fruit plants are incredibly easy and enormously satisfying to grow.

If you think this could be clearer, or you believe we have made a mistake of some sort please visit our blog site at http://blog.ashridgetrees.co.uk and leave a comment - we will do our best to make the changes you think would make anything around soft fruit cultivation simpler to understand.