It’s well worth spending some time sorting out your soft fruit

I’M ASHAMED to admit that, even up until relatively recently, I’d never really appreciated the distinction between “soft fruit” and “top fruit”. Fruit is fruit, I reasoned to myself, until someone gently pointed out the obvious – that “soft fruit” is the particular classification given to any stoneless or pipless fruit, such as strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries etc. “The kind you can eat whole,” added this same someone, raising aquizzical eyebrow at my lack of horticultural nous.

“As for ‘top fruit’ or ‘tree fruit’ as it’s also known, it means any fruit that grows on trees. Simple, really.” And while I later discovered that this particular definition doesn’t always hold (for example, some soft fruit, such as melons or kiwis, still have to be peeled/seeded) and that it isn’t always simple (some stoneless, pipless fruits such as the mulberry are still classed as top fruit), it’s still the most succinct definition of the difference between the two types that I’ve ever been given.

In the OPW’s walled kitchen garden in the Phoenix Park, gardeners Meeda Downey and Brian Quinn have just begun the lengthy job of pruning all the soft fruit bushes and canes, an often painful and prickly chore that will take them several weeks.

Many of the self-supporting bush types, such as the blackcurrants, red and white currants, gooseberries, jostaberries and worcesterberries, had already received a light summer prune earlier this year, given by the two gardeners just after the plants had finished fruiting.

“We topped them with a shears”, explains Meeda. “But now, once they’re losing their leaves, is the time to give them a proper pruning.”

A proper pruning means that the gardeners will get down on their hands and knees and methodically work their way through each bush, using a loppers or a sharp Felco secateurs to cut away any dead or spindly growth, along with any low-hanging or crossing branches. “How much you cut off really depends on the variety and on the age of the plant,” says Brian. “With the gooseberries and the red and white currants, you’re aiming for a nice goblet shape with an open centre that’s not too crowded. We bring the bush back to about five main stems, and then cut any side-shoots back to about three-four buds long.

“But the blackcurrants are a bit different – instead, once the plants have been in the ground for a few years, you need to start cutting out about a third of the old wood every year. That makes room for the strong new shoots.”

“Old wood,” explains Meeda, “means any of the really thick, stiff branches. They’re usually slightly darker coloured than the newer growth. When we’re pruning any of those out of the blackcurrant bushes, we cut the branch right back to just above ground level.

“And then, just like the rest of the bush fruit, we cut off any weak, diseased, crossing or low-hanging branches. Otherwise we’d end up with a messy looking blackcurrant plant, and fruit that’s resting on the ground.”

Along with the bush types, there are also dozens of different cane types of soft fruit waiting for the OPW gardeners’ careful attention. These include the self-supporting autumn raspberries (Autumn Bliss and Himbo Top, both of which will be pruned in early spring), along with blackberries, loganberries and tayberries , all of whose long, thorny, arching stems are trained on a support framework known as the post-and-wire system. With the last three, the gardeners are cutting any recently-fruited stems back down to the ground while gradually tying the younger growth onto the horizontal wires.

“We’re also experimenting with growing the Goji berry ”, adds Brian, pointing to some already very large plants that he and Meeda have carefully trained against the tautened wires.

“We bought them from Tully’s and planted them as bare-roots last spring. Just like the blackberry, loganberry and tayberry plants, the Goji berry needs lots of space, because each bush can grow up to 3m tall. They’ve already put on masses of growth, which we’ve been training along wires. But we’ve only lightly pruned them because the recommendation is that you keep pruning to a minimum, otherwise you won’t get lots of berries.

If the idea of “lots of berries” sounds like a very good one, then now, while the soil still holds some of the summer’s warmth, is the ideal time to get young, bare-root soft fruit plants in the ground (strawberry plants are the exception and should be planted either in early autumn or mid-spring).

The good news is that while most soft fruit generally prefer a sunny, fertile open site, many will cope with a certain amount of light shade, including blackcurrants, blackberries, loganberries, tayberries, raspberries and goosberries. What they won’t cope with is a poorly-prepared site – it should be weed-free, and enriched with plenty of manure and/or compost. Remember also, and as mentioned above, that both summer raspberries and many of the larger, more thuggish varieties will need some form of sturdy support – this should be in place before planting, using secure timber/metal posts (no more than 3m apart and with 150cm-180cm above ground) and 3-5 tiers of 12-gauge galvanised wire (starting at 75cm above ground and then 30cm apart) held taut with a straining bolt.

With the exception of the Goji berry plants, almost all of the soft fruit grown by Meeda and Brian in the walled garden was bought bare-root and certified free of disease from English’s Nurseries in Co Wexford (053-92340984/ 9240504).

Other reliable Irish stockists include Future Forests (futureforests.net ) and Irish Seed Savers (irishseedsavers.ie). Alternatively, if you’re absolutely confident that existing plants are free of disease, now is also the time to propagate soft fruit bushes such as blackcurrants from cuttings (for details, check out The Fruit Expert by Dr DG Hessayon).

You can also sow seed of strawberries (with heat and under cover) in early spring, which allows for far more choice as regards some of the tasty but hard-to-find varieties.

Organic grower Nicky Kyle swears by varieties such as the alpine variety Ruegen (from chilternseeds. co.uk) and Christine (from mr-fothergills.co.uk) while many other unusual varieties are available from CN Seeds (cnseeds.co.uk).

But start ordering and planting any of the other soft fruit varieties right now, to allow them time to develop a vigorous and healthy root system. By next summer, you’ll be “berry” glad you did.

* The OPW’s Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. The gardens are open daily from 10am to 4.00pm

WHAT TO: sow, plant and do now

Sow outdoors: Broad beans

Sow under cover:(With heat of 55-60ºF/13-16ºC then plant in polytunnel once germinated) Kale (Ragged Jack), Peas (Kelvedon Wonder), Swiss chard, spinach

Plant outdoors: Garlic, autumn onion and shallot sets, rhubarb sets

Plant in polytunnels: Kale, Peas (Klevedon Wonder), Swiss Chard, Spinach, garlic

Do:Continue harvesting and storing, clear, weed and manure beds, order fruit trees

Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer