Plot for 2-3 years, what fruit to grow?

[hamamelis]

So, I've taken on a little allotment while I'm a student. The course lasts for 2 years, 3 if I do a top up year, as I'm currently hoping. After that, odds are I'll be leaving the area.

Strawberries are a given, but other than that, what fruit bushes/canes are worth getting, that would either stand a reasonable chance of giving me a decent crop in that time, or possibly would be happy long term in a pot, so I can grow in there and take 'em with me when I leave?

Thanks for any advice!

[nickdub]

Any soft fruit is worth a punt, if you like it. Only really worth planting trees, if you can dig them up and replant somewhere after a few years - obviously easier to do if you move in the winter.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

As a beginner myself, I've found autumn-fruiting raspberries pretty easy to grow. Fewer pests to worry about than summer-fruiting ones, they produce fruit quicker and they require less support.

You can get some varieties that will produce a double crop (main crop on current years growth, which will produce a second crop in early Summer the next year if you don't cut them right back). I have "All Gold" in my garden. Nice berries, a bit soft so don't keep well, I might try another variety next year.

Get yourself some bare root canes now, stick them in the ground, give them a general purpose feed and mulch with some rotted manure in Spring and off they'll go. Cut down the fruited canes to the ground the following February or if you have a double cropper, keep some of the stronger canes and just cut down to below where they previously fruited.

[hamamelis]

In an ideal world, yeah, but I have limited money and limited space, so I can't really use either without a reasonable expectation of a return :/

[hamamelis]

I *think* I have Autumn fruiting raspberries on the plot already; they're definitely raspberries anyway. They're the only plant that was already on there.

I'm not sure if I should keep 'em or chuck and get more though, as most of them didn't look very healthy, they're really not where I would have planted them, and they may have been sprayed with glyphosate by the neighbour, who strimmed and sprayed the plot before I took it on. He certainly strimmed half of 'em.

[sparrow100]

I'd think of the space a little like a nursery. If you want trees, you can grow them sunk into the ground in large pots or tree bags. The latter are meant to last for 10 years. Certainly all the mature trees I saw at flower shows were container grown and bearing fruit. If you only have the space for a couple of years that means you will get decent growth out of twiggy-maidens and where you go next will have the benefit of you sticking in trees at bearing age, rather than maidens.

You can shift the raspberries now to where you want them with no ill-effects. Plus that means you can plant them at the right spacing. People on my place offer out raspberry runners at the beginning of the season when they thin out the clumps. I know at least 4 plots have my JoanJ runners growing on them now.

[Chestnut]

other than strawberries, I can’t think of anything that would fruit in first year (unless you count tomatoes as fruit).
Stuff like currants and goosegogs could go in pots (or take lots of cuttings when you move house).
Do you have any plot neighbours who might donate some cuttings this autumn?