Saturday, August 31

I take it all back

Regular visitors may remember that our summer fruiting raspberries were wiped out this year.

This was a bit of a blow as we love raspberries. We did harvest lots of purple fruiting raspberries but these are smaller than the traditional varieties, so it's not really the same.

Fortunately our two varieties of autumn fruiting raspberries were not affected by the rotting disease. They are in a different position but I have read that they are less susceptible to root rot.

Now I have to eat humble pie and make a public apology. In the past I haven't rated the yellow variety Allgold. It had produced smallish berries which were easily damaged in wind and rain. Being disappointed with its performance we had considered digging up the bed but this year, (with little wind or rain to spoil things) All Gold has been a star. The canes are loaded with good sized clean berries.
So All Gold - I apologise unreservedly.

The red Joan J is also producing a good crop of large juicy berries.
So we have our raspberry crop at last - now we need to think about replacing the summer fruiting varieties and also decide what we can plant in the old raspberry bed that won't be affected by Raspberry Root Rot (Phytophthora fragariae)

PS: We carried out a mega harvesting session yesterday see Martyn's blog here

25 comments:

  1. With all that lot (and the mega harvest) you don't NEED any tomatoes! :)

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    1. You know how it is, Mark - what you haven't got you want!

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  2. Glad all was not lost with your raspberries. It looks like there's some whoppers there.

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  3. Just stumbled across your blog today. I am grateful for the helpful information it contains as I am a volunteer for adults with disabilities at allotment in Leeds and, although a keen gardener, have little knowledge of growing veg. Other allotment holders have been really encouraging too.

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    1. Glad you found me L and that the blog/website was of use. I wish you lots of luck with your project.

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  4. Those Raspberries look scrummy! I have never seen yellow ones before, how does the taste compare to the usual red ones? I want to thank you for the tip of enviro cloth for carrots. When I was at local hardware store they had one roll, so I snapped it up. I had never heard of it before, so fingers crossed for my carrots this year.

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    1. Yellow raspberries taste much the same as red ones, Sharon. Good luck with the carrots - I shall watch with interest!

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  5. I used to have these yellow raspberries in my plot when I took it over, but they were growing in the wrong place and, like you, I thought they produced a pretty poor crop with little taste. So I actually dug them out when I moved my raspberry patch then about 2 years ago felt really upset about doing that as they're so unusual. Now I feel even more upset!!!! I'm pleased you've given them the credit they deserve and they've come up trumps for you :)

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    1. Just wonder how often the weather will play it's part, Anna. Although I must admit I had started to give them a bit of TLC in the hope that they would improve. Just as well given the summer raspberries sudden demise.

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  6. I've never tasted the yellow raspberries, but I must say they look delicious!

    Harvest time is fantastic isn't it....you have enough to feed a village!xxxx

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    1. It is Snowbird. Not enough for the village -but enough to stock up my freezer

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  7. Wow! Just been over to Martyn's blog, Sue - what a bumper harvest! I bet that kept you both busy in the kitchen when you got home! I'm very envious of your gorgeous greengages and plums, mine are yet to produce a crop but I live in hope every year! Glad you're getting a good raspberry crop; for me, they're more a taste of summer than strawberries!

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    1. The greengages are absolutely delicious Caro but we have plum moth maggot in the many of the Victoria plums. The yellow Oullins Gage aren't too bad though just a few casualties. We were busy washing, chopping and bagging.

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  8. The fruit harvest has been quite spectacular this year hasn't it? We got 50lbs of plums off our tree in the end - the rest the wasps can have. The apples are looking like a bumper crop and the figs... my word, my hubby went up above our pergola today and has got about 30lbs of them, I now have to think of a recipe for these, any ideas? Will be tackling the blackberries at the sides of the roads next week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Chel x

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    1. Have any of your plum hot maggots inside - our later Victorias have. Everything is so much later this year. Our fig is only small so we have only every eaten then as fresh fruit. Try the BBC Good Food site. WE have thornless blackberry that has been producing fruit for ages. Another cultivated old thorny one that I prune each year has lots of large berries too and then we have a wild bramble on a corner of the plot that has small berries so no need for hedgerows but i remember doing this as a child with my granddad

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    2. Have any of your plum hot maggots inside - our later Victorias have. Everything is so much later this year. Our fig is only small so we have only every eaten then as fresh fruit. Try the BBC Good Food site. WE have thornless blackberry that has been producing fruit for ages. Another cultivated old thorny one that I prune each year has lots of large berries too and then we have a wild bramble on a corner of the plot that has small berries so no need for hedgerows but i remember doing this as a child with my granddad

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  9. Wonderful raspberries, they are my favourite. Mine haven't been great this year, although I have a few autumn fruiting ones now. I am very envious of those lovely yellow ones. I was promised some canes, but they haven't materialised yet. I'm living in hope.

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    1. We'll have to dig up our dead plants soon CJ. I hope your promised cames appear.

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  10. The raspberries look yummy, glad you ended up with a good harvest.

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    1. We just had to wait longer than usual Kelli

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  11. Yours look so yummy! Last year all four varieties of mine cropped twice!!! I think they realised their error, and the false expectations I had from that this year and they reverted to normal! lol~~still, yours look so much better than mine!

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    1. Are yours autumn ones Deborah and do you limit the number of canes?

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    2. Confession~they have been in for four years and I just let them do their own thing so more of a berry patch with standing spaces for picking. I really should try harder but am scared witless of the secateurs. I have four sorts, supposed to fruit in rotation for about 5 months. The Autumn ones do best by far.

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    3. The autumn ones are easy to prune Deborah - just cut all the stems down in early spring and give them a feed. Then as new canes come up cut out weak straggly ones and where two are too close choose the strongest and cut the rest out.

      Summer ones - just cut out all the fruited canes after fruiting is over. They will be brown and the new ones for next year will be green. As for the autumn ones cut out and weak spindly green canes and thin out where canes are growing closely together by keeping the strongest.

      Go on havbe a go Deborah

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