14 Dec - Dormant Fruit

November to February is a good time to sort through the fruit on the plot. Last month I planted a short row of autumn fruiting 'All Gold' raspberries (11 Nov post) and this month I have been tending to other soft fruits too. This time last year I planted a Victoria plum tree and a few rows of bare rooted strawberries. While the plum has taken its time to get established, the strawberries have really grown over the summer helped by a few doses of fertilizer, so I've thinned the rows out this month. I've pulled off the dead leaves, tidying up the plants for the winter.

I didn't encourage 'runners' to form on the new strawberries this autumn, as I wanted them to put their energy into growing larger plants but, needless to say, I missed cutting out some and a few runners formed. I didn't want to waste these so I've added them to the allotment this month forming another row of strawberry plants. On the plot I have 'Cambridge Favourite', 'Honeye', 'Hapil', 'Sonata' and 'Malling Opal' - mainly mid to late season, fruiting from June to August.

There are also five small gooseberry bushes in the fruit bed that I mainly use for wine making though their berries often make it into the odd jar of jam or a Sunday crumble. As they are dormant now I was able to move two so all five are located together. I've had some Bindweed issues around one of them so it was an opportunity to comb the soil at the base of the gooseberry bush while it was dug up to remove all the offending Bindweed roots so it doesn't sprout again next season.

I really pruned back the blackcurrants last year so I have decided to leave them alone apart from any dead branches. I've debated about adding more summer raspberries over the winter but have held off so far as I have three 'sparse' rows which I'm certain will spread over the next season so perhaps I'll just wait before buying more. The summer fruiting raspberry canes are 'Glen Ample'. As with all summer fruiting raspberry canes, they fruit on wood that grew the previous season so, I've cut out the canes that fruited this year and have left this seasons' new growth so the fruit can grow on it during the summer of 2014.

There's a fair number of rhubarb crowns in the plot too, three in the fruit bed, two in the side strip by the cold frame and a couple by my compost bins on the edge of the plot. Most of the rhubarb was moved last winter so I picked very little this season, again hoping that the energy of the plants went into bulking them up ready for this year. I have no idea what variety the rhubarb is as it was on my plot when I took over in 2007. I have at least seven crowns now, all from that original clump. It's a mid-season variety, cropping between May to July.