Minimum effort soft fruit?

[sandspider]

Hi all

Looking for a bit of advice please on soft fruit. I have an orchard (apple, pear, plum, cherry) with a few soft fruit bushes too (fig, blueberry, wild blackberry, wild sloes) but would like to add a couple more. I'm looking for something that doesn't require too much effort, and that is tasty eaten straight from the bush. The site is a (slightly shaded) south facing slope, can get quite cold in winter, on deep, rich slightly clayey soil.

I was thinking of tayberry or loganberry, but I think both of these require support structures. Or blackcurrant, but I think these need to be cooked / processed to be really tasty. I'm not a big fan of gooseberries, but am not ruling them out. Redcurrant?

Any other suggestions appreciated...

Thank you.

[bario1]

Raspberries seem the obvious omission there.... although they'll need support as well.

[sandspider]

Not a huge fan of raspberries either! Though never say never...

[Thelma Sanders]

I wouldn't recommend red currants raw, unless you don't mind sprinkling them with sugar.

[nickdub]

I'd get both a tayberry and a loganberry if I were you - I have both, they taste different and crop at different times. Support doesn't need to be anything fancy - either a couple of long poles or alternatively a couple of wigwam type tripods like you might have for climbing beans.

[veggiechicken]

It has to be raspberries - easy to grow, nicer to eat than tay/logan/young berries, IMO. Simple to prune, don't need much, if any support. Cheap to buy or scrounge and the most delicious sort fruit there is - and a long season. I'm picking Joan J's every day for breakfast at the moment.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Glad you're not ruling out gooseberries. Easy to grow with very little to do to look after them apart from a wee bit of annual pruning.

[Thelma Sanders]

It has to be raspberries - easy to grow, nicer to eat than tay/logan/young berries, IMO. Simple to prune, don't need much, if any support. Cheap to buy or scrounge and the most delicious sort fruit there is - and a long season. I'm picking Joan J's every day for breakfast at the moment.

Joan J raspberries are perfection. So easy, chop them to the ground sometime in winter, then leave them to do their own thing. No supports used here

[Aberdeenplotter]

I have autumn fruiting raspberries but they are the most awful things for spreading where they arent wanted.

[veggiechicken]

That's one of the reasons I like them.

[Thelma Sanders]

I have autumn fruiting raspberries but they are the most awful things for spreading where they arent wanted.

Are you complaining about free plants? LOL

[Bluenowhere]

I’ve got blackcurrants and the ones I have (free from a fellow allotment holder) are tasty straight from the bush.

[sandspider]

Thanks one and all.

Maybe I'll plant lots of new fruit bushes!

[Derbydal]

thats what i'm doing , got 3 sorts of curants rooting ,3 red gooseberry cuttings that seem to be rooting and green gooseberry bush that iv'e to got move of a nieghbours plot, also layering 4/5 thornless blackberry plants !
so if I can get some rasbery/ tayberry cuttings I should be fruitfull ! atb Dal.

[4Shoes]

Think if you don't like rasps, then Tayberry and Loganberry are not going to do it for you either. They are a cross between Rasps and Brambles (Blackberry). Perhaps Blackberry is the taste for you, but they will also need support..... These will all require some supporting structures - Think they all fruit on 2nd year wood

I have both Summer and Autumn Rasps. Going to grow Autumn as Summer by keeping more of the canes . The harvest at this time of year and cold is not (IMO) worth it. All best