Growing Tayberries

Sparhawk you are a slave driver!!
CW, I see from your blog you have tayberries, do you grow your own?
Pol

Yes!

Very easy, much more so than raspberries, self propagating, just need tieing in to the wire fence we grow them along, digging out the runners we don't want and moving them, light pruning of the old growth....and keping the hens away!!

Don't actually grow summmer rasps any more, just Tays........

Ah but when is the best time to prune please. I am growing tem in a large pot as we have spent about 20 years with raspberries coming up all over the garden, so am hoping for some sucess in apot. It has taken well but I am not sure on the pruning. My own habit is perpetual pruning on most things jasmine, ivy honeysuckle etc.

Pol

Oh how I've wanted to do that for years!!!

Just because they are fruit, it is still a garden question.

The pot it is in is also a raised bed, so there

Ahem, for the first pruning, wait until after the second season when the canes should have produced fruit & then cut out the old canes that have fruited, then in subsequent years prune out the old canes that have fruited... :bigsmile:

Thank you
Pol

Oi! Stop it you two!

Pol it IS a veg plot question...I amswered you so I have decided it IS....and Spar my decision is final on this so leave her alone!

Need to ask Compostman when he prunes the Tayberries as he does it, I just help with this one as my stiff fingers are not up to doing it...I hold things and hand over the bits of jute twine...

Will report back when I have found out from him..I think I know when we do it but need to confirm with the Tayberrymaister..........!

And no more BICKERING you two...I am watching you!

Yes CW, certainly CW Thank you
Pol

Thank you dear!

And you, Spar

(Spar's post is back in Raised beds, where it belongs.....I accidently moved it when I was splitting off the Tayberry thread!)

Just on the subject of tays - ours is a bit of a bully, throwing up shoots all over the place, and needing strict discipline. I'd be really interested to know how growing it in a pot affects it; whether it tames it a bit and makes it behave, or whether it needs a bit more space.
With ours, I tie the new shoots which come up in the summer into a big bunch to one side, then in late winter I cut down last years fruiting stems to the ground, untie the bunch of new shoots and then train them along the wire supports. I did it last week - don't know if this is textbook stuff, but it seems to work! I've had some nasty scratches from these processes, so I wear long sleeves.

Will let you know, good idea with the shoots though
Pol

Compostman decides we are going to prune them "when he can be bothered" , usually mid March.

He cuts off the old, dying growth ( which is obviously not going to fruit) and ties in the new growth, ( which you can see by March...) while I stand by with lengths of twine.....

We do this then because if you leave it too long the dangly bits will layer and then you get a thicket...doing it in March means you can see the runners, still pull them up and out AND move/pot them on if you want to.

They layer very easily, so if you want more just leave a few tips on the ground, with a brick on the runner to get it to layer.

Ours grow up a fence with wires ( like a cordon apple tree does) and we get a good crop each year, but the season isn't very long and wet weather on the nearly ripe fruit does for them, they go mouldy.

Hope this helps!

Thanks CW
Well we have been raided for more pallett wood for the rather large raised bed just round the corner. It is going to be large, just hope Sparhawk can keep the cats off it with netting etc. Think OH is going to have an outing to pick up some more.

Just in case anyone was wondering, I have split off the "Tayberry" posts into a separate thread so we can all follow what we are all up to.

Hope that is OK, haven't edited anything anyone wrote,, just moved it around a bit!

For Dandelion & anyone else interested of course.
I think the pot idea was good.
Had a good 1/2 dozen bowl fulls from the one bush in its second year.
Totally under control but does need well watering & feeding as well. It is one of the very fruits that I eat so I was well happy.

That's a good result! Our tayberry continues its bid to take over the bottom of the garden and could do with some taming!

I had a tayberry; it got "tamed" with the shredder ...

Too big to net in the location it was planted, and without netting the birds wouldn't leave it alone. And I didn't think much to it anyway; the fruit I got were a mere shadow of those wonderous juicy looking berries in the catalogue. Admittedly the soil wasn't great where I planted it.

My "Ebony" blackcurrant bushes are set to follow the tayberry too, I think. Still green inside despite starting to shrivel. I'm not completely convinced that they are what it says on the label. Don't seem to have much luck with soft fruit