Fruit bushes

[Daryl209]

Hi all, I have bought a selection of fruit bushes (gooseberry, raspberry etc),
I am planning on growing them together at 3ft apart up a wire frame. Is there a problem with cross pollination, root disturbance and fruit yields or will they grow happily together?

[BertieFox]

I have always grown cane fruit like these in close proximity, with no problems. They are all different species if not families and although some prefer slightly different conditions, they will all prosper in a cool, damp environment. Ever since we have moved to France, cane fruit has been a disaster. We just about do raspberries but red and black currants have never worked given the dry conditions and high temperatures in summer. If you remember that all of these are woodland or wood edge plants, you can easily replicate the slightly acid, damp, shaded areas where they will do well.

[Daryl209]

Thanks, living in northern England I can pretty much guarantee cool and damp conditions!!

[solway cropper]

You'll be fine, Daryl. I live in north Cumbria and get wonderful crops. A lot of the cane fruits and currants are bred by the Scottish Crop Research Institute so if they grow up there they'll grow anywhere!!

If you put your location in your details it helps people give answers as conditions vary so much across the country.

[boundtothesoil]

Hi all, I have bought a selection of fruit bushes (gooseberry, raspberry etc),I am planning on growing them together at 3ft apart up a wire frame.

I'm not so sure that I'd grow gooseberries, redcurrants or blackcurrants up a wire frame, unless I had to. Certainly, the raspberries are fine. With the others it's easiest to grow them as freestanding 'bushes'. You can train gooseberries as cordons or fans, and hence up a wire frame, but you'll have to get into 'summer' pruning to maintain their shape (aswell as winter pruning). Both Blackcurrant and Red currants can spread over several feet in diameter. I'd imagine that trying to train them up a wire frame might cause complications when it comes to pruning designed to ensure a steady replacement of fruiting wood from year to year. Raspberries, on the other hand are dead simple in this respect. I suppose it comes down on how much time you are willing to devote to 'training'. In my experience, gooseberry, blackcurrant and redcurrants grown as free-standing bushes only need attention once a year. On the otherhand, it's well worth 'netting' redcurrants and raspberries against bird attack near harvest time, so you might want these two to be quite close together.

[Paulieb]

Gooseberries white and red currants can be grown as a vertical cordon (one single stem straight up), with spacings as close as 8 inches. Will obviously need to be closely trained, but its possible and looks impressive when laden with fruit. Otherwise they're better grown as bushes with bigger spacings.

Black currants can't be trained so best to grow it as a bush which needs about a 6 ft space.

And raspberries really need the support.