Biodynamics: Soft Fruit

Raspberries

The normal life of a raspberry cane is three years. In the first year a small shoot is formed at the base of an earlier cane or from a point on a larger root, but it does not appear above the soil. In the second year the shoots develop into fully grown canes but do not flower. In the third year flower-bearing shoots grow out from the buds formed at the bases of the previous year's leaves. After bearing their crop these canes die and are replaced by the next generation. There are, however, varieties that fruit in the autumn on current season canes brought into growth by cutting back all except very young shoots in March; much of such fruit often fails to ripen properly. It is best to start a raspberry bed with bought-in plants which are certified as virus-free. Even if they have been maltreated with chemicals they will soon lose any hankering after them and will respond to bio-dynamic treatments. The bought plants will consist of a cane up to 60 cm (2 ft) long and should have at least one shoot 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) long at the base where the roots come out. They are planted 38 cm (15 in) apart, so a dozen plants will occupy 5 m (15 ft) of row. If planting a double row do not be led astray by the usual text book advice to space the rows 150 cm (5 ft) apart; give them an extra 30 cm—it will make picking and other operations much more convenient. Planting is best done in the autumn but may be deferred until early spring. Take out a trench 45 cm (18 in) wide and 30 cm (12 in) deep and as usual keeping the top and subsoil separate. On a heavy soil fork over the bottom of the trench to break it up a little and help drainage. About six buckets of nearly rotted compost or well rotted manure will be needed for the 5 m (15 ft) trench, but it must not be put in below 15 cm (6 in). One kilo (2 lb) each of bonemeal and hoof and horn are also advisable. The trench is filled as for top fruit holes. The young plants must not be set too deep down in the trench; a good guide is to put them in so that not much more than 25 mm (1 in) of soil will cover the small young shoots.

The usual practice is then to fix training wires for the canes to prevent wind damage and to support the crop. Old telephone wire, if obtainable, is very good for this purpose. A stout post with its last 60 cm (2 ft) well creosoted is planted firmly at each end of the row and wires are stretched between them at 90, 120 and 150 cm (3,4 and 5 ft) above ground level. An intermediate less stout post will prove to be a good addition as 5 m (15 ft) is rather on the long side for keeping the wires reasonably taut. An alternative method is to dispense with wires altogether after the first two years. In this way a kind of hedge is developed, allowing more canes to grow out from each stool than is possible under a strict training programme. There will be a certain amount of mutual support without excessive overcrowding, but the outer canes will tend to droop when carrying a heavy crop.

After planting, the canes on the new plants are cut back to four buds: the leaves from these will help to nourish the sprouting shoots in their early stages, but any feeble attempts by these older buds to flower and fruit must be frustrated. In the second and future years the old canes are cut out as soon as harvesting is complete. At the same time young weaklings and any canes surplus to future requirements are removed, leaving four per stool. The temptation to leave more than four must be resisted because overcrowding on the wires is one of the main causes of mouldy fruit in damp weather. At this stage the new canes are loosely slid between the wires. When the buds begin to swell in the spring (February/March) tip back all the canes to a strong bud and fix them with two ties to the appropriate wires, leaving no growth much above the 150 cm (5 ft) wire. Buds at the tips, if not pruned back, do not bear the best fruit, so it is better to concentrate the plant sap into stronger growths. This job should not be done before bud swelling as there is a danger of frost damage and die-back.

There are several troubles to prevent or watch for. As mentioned above, raspberries may get infected by virus, the commonest being indicated by a bronzing and mottling of the leaves with a consequent deterioration in the size and quality of the fruit. These symptoms are unlikely to appear in a well established bio-dynamic garden, but the virus could be present or dormant in old stools on a recently acquired property. Early diagnosis is made difficult by the fact that the very young leaves of some varieties tend to have a bronze tinge. There is no proved cure for this trouble, either conventional or bio-dynamic. An infected row will have to be eradicated and another one started on a new site well away from the old one.

The raspberry beetle Byturus tomentosus can become a nuisance. It is a small pale brown creature which lays its eggs in the flowers, and the emerging larvae (maggots) eat their way into the fruit. The standard remedy is to spray the flowering shoots with derris two or three times during the season, but this can be very dangerous for bees unless the treatment is done in the evening when they have ceased working. This rather drastic remedy should never be used unless there has been serious damage in the previous year and unless the beetles have actually been seen. In any case, collect and burn any damaged fruit. The larvae pupate in the soil round the stools where they pass the winter, so it may be a good plan to work over the soil very gently two or three times during autumn and winter in the hope that robins will find the pupae.

In damp, dull weather the fruit may go mouldy due to attack by botrytis. If such conditions prevail when the fruit is setting, a preventative spray of equisetum (508) repeated at seven to ten day intervals will be a help, though it may not be 100 per cent effective. Other preventative measures will include the normal spray of 501, the avoidance of a spring application of any raw manure, and perhaps the waterglass treatment described below for gooseberries.

Gooseberries

Gooseberries are most conveniently grown on a leg—that is, with about 15 cm (6 in) of clear stem before any branches are allowed to grow. If purchased from a nursery two-year-old plants are to be preferred because the basic framework will have been formed by the nurseryman, and they will be easier than three-year-olds to establish under bio-dynamic conditions. It is not difficult, however, to strike cuttings from one's own bushes or from a friend's: the main point here is to cut out cleanly all buds below those which will eventually form the framework: any bits of buds on the part of the cutting below ground level will shoot all too easily and create a multi-stemmed bush very quickly.

Planting is done in the usual way during autumn in holes spaced 150 cm (5 ft) apart. A slightly raised bed may help to ward off mildew. After planting shorten the leading branches by about one third to an upward and outward facing bud. Subsequent pruning will consist of shortening the leaders and reducing side growths to two buds to form fruit spurs, the latter operation being done in July. After some years the leaders and spurs on the main branches may start to lose vigour: they can be cut out to a strong new shoot which will probably have been formed near the centre of the bush. Long-established bushes with a mass of shoots arising from the base should be drastically thinned, cutting out the oldest and weakest and leaving only a few strong growths. When pruning gooseberries the main point is to make picking as easy and painless as possible, so try to imagine what the bush will look like when carrying a heavy crop.

There are two common troubles. First is the sawfly (Nematus ribesii) whose larvae can defoliate a bush very quickly if given full rein. They are green and spotty, almost translucent, and their presence is soon betrayed by the little black specks of their excrement on the leaves below. They usually start on the young shoots on the lower centre part of the bush from mid-April onwards. Derris dust will deal with them, or they can be hand picked if caught at the earliest stage of their activity: if this batch is not tackled at once, a second more numerous generation will emerge three weeks later. The second trouble is mildew which starts as white spots on the developing fruit and soon covers them with a sort of grey felt which later spreads to the young shoots. This is a case where prevention is better than cure, for even regular spraying with 508 is not very effective once the mildew has become established. The first precaution is to ensure that the soil around the bushes is not compacted and that no raw or half rotted manure is used. Lime sulphur at the recommended dose sprayed when growth is starting and again a month later is said to give good protection, but some varieties are sulphur shy and the young leaves will be killed. Waterglass (sodium silicate) at a strength of 25 g (1 oz) per 4.5 litres (1 gal) seems to help but has not been proved over a long period: it is sprayed as for 508. At the same time a little of the solution at double strength is poured into small holes half a trowel deep and spaced 90 cm (3 ft) apart under the extremities of the outer branches. Slightly attacked fruit can be washed and cooked. Strangely enough mildew can be even more devastating in very dry weather than when it is wet.

Blackcurrants

Blackcurrants are planted in the same way as gooseberries. The planting distance may be as little as 120 cm (4 ft), but unless space saving is of prime importance 150 cm (5 ft) allows for greater ease of picking, weeding and cultivation. They are propagated by 20–25 cm (8–10 in) cuttings taken in autumn from young growth which has just shed its leaves, making sure that any rounded buds are taken off and burned. The lower buds are not removed as for gooseberries because plenty of growth from the base is desirable: they will have to remain in the bed for two years before planting out, and it will then be another year before a small crop can be expected. Bought-in plants will probably have three or four shoots on them: these are cut back to about four buds which will produce the fruiting stems for the following year. Most of the crop is borne on the young pale-coloured growths of the previous year. Any older black-coloured branches and stems will make some shoots during the growing season, but these are usually short and thin, and will not carry the best fruit. The object of management and pruning is to stimulate long, strong shoots at or near the base of the bush. This is achieved by pruning out all branches which have borne a crop right back to the base or to a strong shoot not less than 45 cm (18 in) long. Pruning is done as soon as the last currant has been picked, thus concentrating all the plant's energy into next year's crop. Mature bushes which have been allowed to retain a lot of old wood are best treated over two years, cutting half the old branches right back to leave only 7.5–10 cm (3–4 in) of stump from which strong shoots will spring in the following year.

The demand on the plant for vigorous growth every year means that it will need more nitrogen than other soft fruit. This is given by compost or manure at up to two buckets per bush, applied in the autumn. First loosen any compacted patches with a fork and spray with preparation 500. Then, after spreading the manure, cover with a straw mulch. If the work has to be deferred till the spring, only fully ripened compost should be used. An alternative to the autumn compost/straw combination is deep litter from a poultry house, when available: it is spread 5 cm (2 in) deep around the bushes.

Apart from greenfly, the chief trouble with blackcurrants is likely to come from big bud. It is caused by tiny mites which enter the buds while they are still growing and cause them to develop into a larger spherical form instead of the normal smaller and more tapering shape. As soon as the buds begin to swell in the spring, the mites feed on the embryo flower stalks within and then migrate to other buds. The standard remedy is lime sulphur applied when the leaves are just opening and again later, but as with gooseberries some varieties do not like this treatment. With only a few bushes hand picking is quite possible at any time during late autumn or winter, but it is essential to go over the bushes two or three times because it is almost impossible to spot all the infected buds at the first picking. Burn the buds in an open tin over a hot wood fire, mix the white ash with fine sand and scatter it round the bushes, or else treat the ash like 501. This will not provide an immediate cure, but will help if repeated over three or four years.

The big bud mite is liable to carry the virus which causes a condition known as reversion: in other words the bushes revert to a wild state, bearing undersized fruit and small leaves with only three points instead of the usual five or more. There is no known remedy: infected bushes must be uprooted and burned and a fresh start made in a different part of the garden. When moving into an old garden it is advisable to inspect any old blackcurrant bushes very carefully for signs of this disease before deciding whether to keep them.

Red and White Currants

The treatment of both types is the same, so they are taken together: in fact it almost seems that originally one of them sprang from the other. Here again 150 cm (5 ft) spacing is to be preferred to 120 cm (4 ft). The fruit is borne on both old and young wood, so training and pruning are quite different from blackcurrants, in fact much the same as for gooseberries. Both are best grown on a leg with four well-spaced main branches from which strong outward-growing laterals are allowed to develop so as to fill out the bush without overcrowding it. Smaller and inward-growing laterals are cut back to three buds soon after harvest in order to promote the formation of fruit buds for the following year. If multi-stemmed plants are bought or inherited, they should be treated as if the leg had been buried and was forking at ground level. Only four or at most five main stems are needed, and all young shoots springing from the base are cut right back during autumn pruning when leaders and main laterals are shortened by a third. These currants are liable to get rather straggly with age, but this habit can be corrected by cutting the main branches back to a strong growth near the centre. Soil treatment and the use of 500 and 501 follow the same lines as for gooseberries.

The only fairly common trouble is due to aphis attack quite early in the season. The growing leaves develop small red patches which enlarge with the leaf, turning a dark crimson and distorting the normal shape. By the time the bulbous-looking blotches become obvious it is too late to do anything about them, but the damage is not very serious. It is not difficult to spot the trouble in its early stages, and a spray or dusting with derris, pyrethrum or nettle jauche should clear things up.

These currants, and gooseberries also, can be planted against a wall or fence and trained either as cordons at 30 cm (1 ft) apart or as fans at 75 cm (2 ft 6 in). This method is very convenient for netting and makes picking easier. An annual mulch of compost, manure or deep litter is given in the autumn with 500: this helps to retain moisture, but in a dry summer some irrigation may be necessary.

Blackberries, Loganberries and Tayberries

It is well worth growing at least one plant of each if the necessary space can be found. Each will require a 300 cm (10 ft) run of three or four training wires stretched between supporting posts. Propagation is simple. In September the tip of a young cane is pegged down to the soil and covered with a piece of slate or tile. By the end of November it will have developed a mass of roots and a small young shoot. The cane is cut at 60 cm (2 ft) from the young plant which is lifted and transferred to a well composted nursery bed for a year before being moved to its permanent position. At this stage the old piece of cane will have died, and there should be a strong shoot about 90 cm (3 ft) long with an embryo shoot at its base, just like a raspberry. This is what one gets if purchasing from a nursery. Planting is done in the usual way and the leading cane is taken back to about half a dozen buds. The new cane should attain several feet and will bear fruit in the following year. Cultural treatment in subsequent years is similar to that for other soft fruit.

Again like raspberries, the canes die after bearing a crop and must be cut back to the ground soon after harvest is over; but on some very vigorous blackberries only the ends and the side fruit-bearing branchlets die off and it is possible to keep the main cane for cropping in the second year. After three years or so quite large stools will have developed and they will produce a lot of young canes every season. With loganberries and tayberries, a way has to be found to prevent them interfering with the ripening crop. There are four possibilities.

Leave them alone and put up with the inconvenience: at least the young growth will give some protection from birds. Train all bearing canes to one side of the stool and the young ones to the other, reversing in the following year, but this method does not make full use of the available space. Bundle the young canes round a tall central pole as they grow—not at all easy. Gently bend each young cane over to the left or right as appropriate when it has reached a length of about 120 cm (4 ft) and tie in bundles very loosely to the lowest training wire.

Methods 1 and 4 are the most practical.

After cutting out the old canes the young ones are spread loosely over the training wires where they will continue to grow. The final training is left until the leaves have dropped off in February or March. One, or at the most two, of the strongest canes are twined round each of the top three wires, giving a maximum of twelve canes per stool. Damaged and weak canes surplus to requirements are cut out at ground level, only one bud is left on any side shoots which may have arisen, and the ends of the trained canes are taken back to a strong bud near the supporting posts.

Blackberries are easier to deal with as they do not produce so many young canes from the base, and it is not so necessary to sort these out from those bearing the crop: four strong canes per stool will give a good crop because each flowering side branch carries much more fruit than on a loganberry or tayberry. Pruning and training are similar to loganberries and tayberries. Although varieties are mentioned in Appendix B, it is perhaps appropriate here to give a word of warning about Himalayan Giant. Its large fruit are of reasonable quality, but its thorns are particularly vicious and it produces canes of six metres (20 ft) or more which are very difficult to manage.

These fruits are susceptible to the raspberry beetle, and the same methods of dealing with it are applicable. In a wet year logans may suffer from botrytis mould which will be more damaging in crowded conditions—an argument against method 1 above. Again treat as for raspberries. Logans may also develop smutty nose, a trouble not mentioned in any text book. As the name implies, the pips at the ends of the fruit do not swell and generally become dark in colour. It is probably a physiological trouble brought on partly by the greed of the grower in leaving too many canes to fruit, and partly by a shortage of potash. The remedy is obvious.

Tayberries are the result of a cross similar to loganberries but are more vigorous and tolerant. The flavour is excellent. When very ripe, almost purple, they can be eaten as dessert but are particularly good for stewing, bottling or freezing. It is worth planting a few along a stretch of posts and wires if you can afford the space. Propagation is by pegging the tip of a young cane into the ground or a pot.

Strawberries

Strawberries fall into a category of their own, quite different from bush fruit. Their maximum useful life is only three years, or four under exceptionally good conditions. It is not advisable to replant in the same place after uprooting the worn-out plants, so some form of rotation is called for. Strawberries cannot conveniently be fitted into the vegetable rotation unless large quantities are needed and there is plenty of space: in such a case an extra plot would have to be incorporated and they would occupy one plot for four years, following root crops and followed by brassicas. A better arrangement is to devote part of the garden to strawberries and to divide it into three plots. One plot would carry them for two years, the other two being used for fertility building and odd vegetables such as sweet corn which do not fit easily into the main plan: salad crops could also be grown here. In the first year take runners (as described below) from any existing strong plants, or buy them in, certified virus-free, from a reliable source. Plant them out as soon as possible in late July or early August. Leave these to fruit a second year, and take runners from them then for the next planting. The plot which is to take them will have been sown the previous autumn with winter tares and rye to give a good bulk for digging in during the latter half of May. The green manure will be well decomposed for the runners in July, and could stand an intercrop of lettuce. It would be quite possible under this system to leave the original bed for a third year and postpone the planting of the next one, but the largest and finest berries are borne on maidens and two-year-old plants.

Although new strawberries may be planted at any time during late summer, autumn or even in the spring (in which case they must be disbudded), by far the best results are obtained from runners established in late July or early August. In order to get them ready in time the first ones from the strongest bearing plants are either pegged into the soil where they will not interfere with picking, or are pegged into 7.5 cm (3 in). pots filled with a rich compost mixture and sunk into the bed. In either case any growth beyond the pegged runner is regularly removed. In very dry weather the pots may need a little water from time to time. The object is to produce as early as possible vigorous runners which will continue to develop strongly well into the autumn after being planted out. Runners planted out in September or October (as is often done) do not get a chance to make a root system capable of nourishing more than a couple of bearing trusses in the following season. When planting out great care must be taken to spread the roots well and not too deeply, and to ensure that that the crown is firmly in position level with the soil surface.

Strawberries prefer a slightly acid soil, and for this reason pine needles are often recommended as a mulch to be applied in April or May before the first blossoms open. Pine needles are less attractive to slugs than the usual straw mulch, and their aroma improves the quality of the fruit. For plants which are to be retained a generous dressing of compost with a sprinkling of bonemeal or very well rotted manure is lightly worked into the soil with the remains of the mulch soon after harvest, but first remove all surplus runners and give a spray of 500. In this way the plants are enabled to build up good crowns for the following year: but on light soils liable to winter leaching the dressing is best deferred until the spring.

Apart from birds the main troubles are greenfly and botrytis mould. The greenfly start right in the hearts among the youngest leaves and are not always obvious to casual inspection: rather than hope for predators to arrive, it is better to deal with them at once with nettle jauche or derris squirted well into the crowns. Botrytis attack can be severe in dull, damp seasons. The normal 501 sprays at bud formation and first ripening will afford some protection, but it is best to supplement these with regular equisetum treatment at weekly intervals from fruit set if conditions appear to be adverse. In gardens where the trouble has appeared in the past irrespective of the weather, it is worth trying the waterglass treatment. In any event do not tempt the botrytis by leaving dead leaves and old fruit stalks on older plants: remove them in March, or April at the latest.

Strawberries should be planted and cultivated preferably on fruit days. In damp climates especially, and to discourage fungal attack, it is a good idea to plant them on slightly raised beds—two rows to a bed. It raises them a little above the fungi level of the soil and they are also easier to pick.

Birds

For soft fruit the question whether to net or not is a difficult one. On a commercial scale netting is not only impossible but is also quite unnecessary; in a small garden the percentage of fruit taken is likely to be very much larger. The one or two redcurrant bushes which are quite sufficient for the needs of a family must be netted, otherwise thrushes will strip the lot before they are fully ripe. Blackcurrants are not so tempting and a good crop can usually be obtained from unprotected bushes. Raspberries and logans are borderline; sometimes it seems that birds regard nets as a challenge to their ingenuity. If there are bullfinches around it may be necessary to protect gooseberries from their ravages between Christmas and Easter; it does not take a pair of them very long to take all the buds off a bush, leaving only those at the ends of the twigs. Apart from almost total loss of crop the bare twigs are useless for further bearing, and the bush will have to be pruned down to a skeleton. A small patch of strawberries is extremely vulnerable and must be netted unless the plants are under cloches.

One solution to the problem is to have a fruit cage. The old-fashioned type, small mesh wire netting stapled to a stout timber framework, is now prohibitively expensive to erect and maintain; but synthetic fibre netting on a frame of interlocking aluminium rods is well worth consideration. It must, however, be remembered that it is essential to remove at least the top net during the offseason, both to allow access to birds looking for insects and to avoid heavy accumulations of snow which may bend the frame, rupture the net and break the fruit bushes.