I have new raspberry (Autumn Bliss - just fruiting), blackcurrant, and
gooseberry bushes in a small patch plus a fig in a pot.

The fig produced a couple of figs last year or the year before (can't
remember which) but didn't really grow leaf-wise until this year, it's
really come on and I think may have some little fig buds (they are
petit-pois sized but don't look like the leaf buds as they are not
pointy). It used to live in London and before that in Devon but now
lives in coastal Lancashire - frost is rare, and it's in a sheltered
yard on a south-facing wall. It doesn't seem to have been bothered by
the winter last year when it got a little frost. So I'm wondering if
it really needs horticultural fleece as I've read it should - it was in
a more exposed spot in its birthplace in Devon.

I pruned it a bit in early summer (May/June) having read that you need
to get each group of leaves down to about 5. Now the leaves have
blossomed (so to speak) and it's got loads more per group. Do I prune
it again? When should I do that? It hasn't started losing its leaves
this autumn yet.

On the soft fruit front, what/when/how should I prune? Neither
blackcurrant nor gooseberry produced fruit this year, the blackcurrant
has grown a lot and still has lots of leaves but for some reason (I
suspect slugs) the gooseberry, which is quite small still, has only a
few leaves (mostly recent - it seemed quite bare for a while).

Thanks!

Katie

Katie,
What a cosmopolitan fig you have. Figs are hardy down to -15°C so I
don't think that is your problem. The south facing wall will help
retain heat. Is it growing in a pot or has it been dug up each time?
Also how are you training it - as a tree, a T or as a fan?

As for pruning the soft fruit.
Autumn raspberries are pruned after fruiting. Basically you cut out
all the growth down to the ground, so you are left with stumps, and
new shoots will emerge in spring and fruit in the autumn. Any mulch
around the roots should be removed and put elsewhere in the garden. I
have found that doing this seems to reduce harbourage of over wintering
raspberry pests. The same also found on gooseberries too - but taking
a little topsoil too. Reduced the instance of gooseberry sawfly.

Pruning the blackcurrants. Ideally you are looking for a stool bush -
that is a bush of multistems coming up from the soil rather than lots
of stems off a single leg. If you have this then you can prune from
the woods third year, removing about 1/3rd of the old wood from groound
level. This is done in the autumn, although some do this as summer
pruning after picking.
Pruning the gooseberries is dependant on how the plant is trained -
bush or cordon. As fruit comes on spurs on older wood the aim is to
keep air circulation in a bush. Unless a branch is being trained for
branch formation, new seasons growth is cut back to 5 leaves in summer
(which in winter are reduced to 3 leaf buds). The books encourage the
growing of Gooseberries on a leg - the first branches 4-6 inches off
the ground, with 6-6 main stems. So any new growth appreaing below
this is removed and if there are too many main branches, reduce them.
The key is air movement through the bush which will reduce instances of
mildew.
A link - http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/cane_bush.asp

Regards
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

Thanks for the extensive reply!

cliff_the_gardener wrote:
Katie,
What a cosmopolitan fig you have. Figs are hardy down to -15°C so I
don't think that is your problem. The south facing wall will help
retain heat. Is it growing in a pot or has it been dug up each time?
Also how are you training it - as a tree, a T or as a fan?

It's been in a pot since leaving its native home in Devon, so it hasn't
been dug up. I didn't really think about training it - it's only about
4 foot high now (was about 2 foot at the start of the summer) - but I
suppose I'll need to train it onto the wall eventually...

As for pruning the soft fruit.
Autumn raspberries are pruned after fruiting.
I understand this part about the raspberries and the gooseberries...

Pruning the blackcurrants. Ideally you are looking for a stool bush -

I think I'll need to look at the blackcurrant to see...

Pruning the gooseberries is dependant on how the plant is trained -
bush or cordon.
It's a small bush... again I think I'll need to have a look at it to
make more sense of it. It sounds like I should have pruned it already
though...

thanks

Katie

cliff_the_gardener wrote:
Katie,
What a cosmopolitan fig you have. Figs are hardy down to -15°C so I
don't think that is your problem. The south facing wall will help
retain heat. Is it growing in a pot or has it been dug up each time?
Also how are you training it - as a tree, a T or as a fan?

As for pruning the soft fruit.
Autumn raspberries are pruned after fruiting. Basically you cut out
all the growth down to the ground, so you are left with stumps, and
new shoots will emerge in spring and fruit in the autumn. Any mulch
around the roots should be removed and put elsewhere in the garden. I
have found that doing this seems to reduce harbourage of over wintering
raspberry pests. The same also found on gooseberries too - but taking
a little topsoil too. Reduced the instance of gooseberry sawfly.

Pruning the blackcurrants. Ideally you are looking for a stool bush -
that is a bush of multistems coming up from the soil rather than lots
of stems off a single leg. If you have this then you can prune from
the woods third year, removing about 1/3rd of the old wood from groound
level. This is done in the autumn, although some do this as summer
pruning after picking.
Pruning the gooseberries is dependant on how the plant is trained -
bush or cordon. As fruit comes on spurs on older wood the aim is to
keep air circulation in a bush. Unless a branch is being trained for
branch formation, new seasons growth is cut back to 5 leaves in summer
(which in winter are reduced to 3 leaf buds). The books encourage the
growing of Gooseberries on a leg - the first branches 4-6 inches off
the ground, with 6-6 main stems. So any new growth appreaing below
this is removed and if there are too many main branches, reduce them.
The key is air movement through the bush which will reduce instances of
mildew.
A link - http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/cane_bush.asp


Thank you for a very useful link - and thanks to the OP for reading my
mind: I was about to ask about the same topic.
Re. summer fruiting raspberries, I'm affraid I've missed the pruning
coach, seen as I was apparently supposed to prune the old fruited canes
immediately after fruiting. Will the world come to an end if I do that
in the next week end or two? Or should I abandon ship till next
Summer?

Cat(h)

"Cat(h)" wrote in message
ups.com...

cliff_the_gardener wrote:
Katie,
What a cosmopolitan fig you have. Figs are hardy down to -15°C so I
don't think that is your problem. The south facing wall will help
retain heat. Is it growing in a pot or has it been dug up each time?
Also how are you training it - as a tree, a T or as a fan?

As for pruning the soft fruit.
Autumn raspberries are pruned after fruiting. Basically you cut out
all the growth down to the ground, so you are left with stumps, and
new shoots will emerge in spring and fruit in the autumn. Any mulch
around the roots should be removed and put elsewhere in the garden. I
have found that doing this seems to reduce harbourage of over wintering
raspberry pests. The same also found on gooseberries too - but taking
a little topsoil too. Reduced the instance of gooseberry sawfly.

Pruning the blackcurrants. Ideally you are looking for a stool bush -
that is a bush of multistems coming up from the soil rather than lots
of stems off a single leg. If you have this then you can prune from
the woods third year, removing about 1/3rd of the old wood from groound
level. This is done in the autumn, although some do this as summer
pruning after picking.
Pruning the gooseberries is dependant on how the plant is trained -
bush or cordon. As fruit comes on spurs on older wood the aim is to
keep air circulation in a bush. Unless a branch is being trained for
branch formation, new seasons growth is cut back to 5 leaves in summer
(which in winter are reduced to 3 leaf buds). The books encourage the
growing of Gooseberries on a leg - the first branches 4-6 inches off
the ground, with 6-6 main stems. So any new growth appreaing below
this is removed and if there are too many main branches, reduce them.
The key is air movement through the bush which will reduce instances of
mildew.
A link - http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0600/cane_bush.asp


Thank you for a very useful link - and thanks to the OP for reading my
mind: I was about to ask about the same topic.
Re. summer fruiting raspberries, I'm affraid I've missed the pruning
coach, seen as I was apparently supposed to prune the old fruited canes
immediately after fruiting. Will the world come to an end if I do that
in the next week end or two? Or should I abandon ship till next
Summer?

Cat(h)

Prune them now, but make sure that you only take away the canes that have
fruited or you will terminate next years crop.

Gill M

Cat(h)
The point of pruning asap after fruiting has finished is so that the
plant puts its energy into the new canes. Left to its own divices it
will fruit on this wood but a poor crop. So do it dow .
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorskhire

Katie,
There is an excellent little book ( and it is small 10 x 15cm, 36
pages) crammed with great stuff on figs
It is one of the Nutshell Guides written by Clive Simms.
Nutshell Guide to Growing Figs ISBN 0954460715 - costs around £3.99

The growth you are getting sounds right, but should be getting this
each year. What colour are the leaves? If a little yellow, this
suggest they need feeding, if green then its fine. Don't rush to feed
unless its asking for it as excess feed makes figs leggy. Figs like
fierce drainage but need pleanty of water, use a loam based compost -
John innes no2 rather than a peat / peat free compost . Some people
get the idea that they must like arrid conditions but this is not the
case.
In the leaf joints of the new growth is where the figs will develope,
when the leaves fall you should be able to see the embro figs there.
If these shoots get frosted, then you might not get any figs. Some
people wrap these branch tips in bracken / straw (as you may have seen
the tree ferns done).

If you want to train it, start it young, its much harder to teach an
old dog new tricks and its harder to get it into shape if you leave it.
The classic way of training figs against a wall is as a fan on a
series of wires. The tree needs to look like a Y so if you have two
branches coming out from the main stem they can be your main branches.
The central branch will need to be cut out, this being done in March.
If it is only a single stem, then reduce it by half. I know this
sounds drastic, especially after waiting so long to get this far, but
needs must.

Watch the white sap when you prune - its an ittitant.

That should get the tree into an intial shape, if you want more help -
feel free to shout


Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire

cliff_the_gardener wrote:
Cat(h)
The point of pruning asap after fruiting has finished is so that the
plant puts its energy into the new canes. Left to its own divices it
will fruit on this wood but a poor crop. So do it dow .
Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorskhire

Thank you Gill and Clifford. That'll be a job for next week end. And
I won't leave it so long next year.

Cat(h)