The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Berry bounty
From strawberries to saskatoons, the berry crop has been outstanding and with a few simple steps you can boost it further still
The long hot summer means the berry bushes are laden with fruit. John Stoa shares the pick of the crop.
TSaskatoons, aronias and blueberries ripen up towards the end of July but are best picked in August once they have fully ripened as this increases the sugar content
he berry picking season is now well underway. The first early strawberries ripened up at the end of May, with the help of some polythene tunnel protection, and then mid-season Elsanta kept us in fruit until July when the later Symphony showed a very heavy crop. The wet weather in June and July caused a fair bit of botrytis rot, although there were always more berries than we could use so there were plenty for the freezer. The perpetual Albion (an autumn variety) started fruiting in June and will hopefully continue through to autumn but it lacks that true strawberry softness.
My new Colossus variety put on a poor show, as the huge berries I’d been led to expect from the catalogue failed to live up to expectations. They weren’t nearly as big as those from Symphony so time will tell if this newcomer is going to live up to its name.
The raspberries, Glen Fyne and Glen Dee, have been outstanding but we could do with more sunshine to sweeten up the fruit. The autumn fruiting varieties are all growing very strongly but cropping is still a few weeks away.
Currants, be they red, black or white, are all having a great year. Again Ben Conan is the star performer but Big Ben – now in its third year – has given us 6lb of fruit from a single bush with very large and sweet berries. They were perfect mixed into a yoghurt dessert – and simply delicious eaten fresh off the bush.
The gooseberries all have branches almost broken with the weight of crop so straw has been placed under the bushes to keep them off the soil. I had pruned off all of the lower branches last winter so that’s some indication of how good the season has been.
My cherry Cherokee is now a few years old but still not too tall so it was easy to cover with netting to keep the blackbirds off. The dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5 keeps the size down but some summer spur pruning helps too. This has been a good year for my cherry and so far there has been no sign of blackfly, which often infests the young growing shoots.
Saskatoons, aronias and blueberries ripen up towards the end of July but are best picked in August once they have fully ripened, as this increases the sugar content. Birds will eat the saskatoons
and blueberries so it is advisable to cover them with netting. The aronias are usually safe since their fruit is somewhat astringent and less appealing to sneaky beaks.
The James Hutton Institute at Invergowrie is currently working on improving the quality of blueberries, blackcurrants and raspberries through plant breeding.
Varieties of blueberries are being assessed to find ones that suit Scottish soils and climate, as well as those with the best size of fruit, flavour, colour and texture.
Meanwhile blackcurrant experts are looking for varieties that can flower and fruit following mild winters, as they normally require a period of winter chilling to initiate fruit buds. Berry size, sweetness and evenness of ripening is also important, as commercially they will be picked in one operation by machine. As much of the commercial crop goes into Ribena production, flavour is very important, as are high levels of health-boosting anthocyanins.
For raspberries, tolerance to root rot is important. Commercially, raspberries are grown under protective polythene tunnels and many are still hand picked so berry size is important, as are flavour and colour. A longer season is made possible by using autumn fruiting (primocane) varieties but leaving the old canes on to produce two crops. Many primocane selections had fruit ready to pick in June, almost a fortnight ahead of the normal summer fruiting (floricane) varieties. Although Glen Ample is well established as the industry favourite, Glen Dee, with its large sweet fruit, is becoming very popular and others will follow soon.