Soft-fruit shrubs, plants and canes are suitable for gardens of all sizes. Gillian Vine reports.
The term soft fruit covers unrelated plants that have stoneless berries, most produced on low bushes or canes. The obvious exception is strawberries, which hug the ground. The range is wide and covers raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, New Zealand cranberries and redcurrants.
The biggest group of soft fruit is the brambles, which includes blackberries and raspberries.
Gathered in Europe for thousands of years, blackberries and raspberries are sub-groups (genera) of the rose family. As well as the usual red raspberry species, there are species with black (marketed as Ebony) and pinkish-yellow fruit (sold as Ivory).
Raspberry species look meagre alongside blackberries, for there are at least 300 species of European blackberry and several North American ones, including the Californian dewberry (Rubus ursinus).
Until the 1830s, blackberries were gathered only from wild plants but experiments in the United States produced new cultivars, including a thornless form of R. lactiniatus found in 1930. Black Satin and Navaho are thornless cultivars available in New Zealand.
Loganberries also originated in the United States, when a Californian judge, J.H. Logan, grew seed of dewberries that had grown next to a red raspberry (R. idaeus). They fruited in 1883 and were named loganberry after their breeder.
In turn, crossing loganberries, blackberries and raspberries in the 1930s produced boysenberries; youngberries (1905) originated from interbreeding dewberries, blackberries and raspberries; while marionberries (1956), "grandchildren" of youngberries, are a larger, juicier type of blackberry. Less familiar are the cloudberry (R. chamaemorus), native to colder parts of the northern hemisphere; the Australian native raspberry (R. parvifolius) and the Asian wineberry (R. phoenicolasius); while the rampant groundcover plant sold as orangeberry is a Taiwanese native, R. pentalobus.
The most recent addition to the bramble family is the tayberry, a raspberry-blackberry cross released commercially in Scotland in 1979.
Blackberries, boysenberries and other cultivars fruit on the long stems produced the previous summer. After picking the crop, cut the canes that fruited down to about 10cm above the ground to make room for the new growth that will carry next season's crop.
Raspberry canes are also cut back after fruiting, although autumn-fruiting varieties, such as Heritage, Southland and Autumn Bliss, are usually left until winter or spring. In both cases, the old canes are cut at ground level.
Currants - black, red and white - and gooseberries belong to the Ribes genus.
Unfortunately, American mildew disease (Sphaerotheca morsuvae) has hit old gooseberries hard and only a couple of newer varieties, Pax and Invicta, are resistant to it.
Currants seem to be unaffected.
Blackcurrants fruit on last season's growth, often coming up from the base of the plant. Pruning after fruiting involves taking out old branches and leaving new growth to develop.
Redcurrants and their albino form, whitecurrants, fruit mainly on old wood, so pruning involves removing crossing branches to open up the bushes and trimming to encourage new growth.
The New Zealand cranberry (Ugni molinae syn. Myrtus ugni) is not a cranberry but a South American native, sometimes called Chilean guava.
Evergreen, with shiny, leathery leaves, it is an undemanding plant that makes a useful low hedge to edge a sunny vege plot and is easily propagated from cuttings.
Blueberries are a little trickier because they need a very acid soil, in the pH range of 4.5-5, so growing them in the vegetable garden is not ideal, as most vegetables do best where the pH is 6-7. Their hatred of lime reflects their relationship to rhododendrons and azaleas. Mulching blueberries with pine needles helps increase soil acidity.
There are three types of blueberry - lowbush, highbush and Rabbiteye - but lowbush varieties are considered less suitable for Otago and Southland than the other two types. Grow at least two varieties to maximise crops.
Strawberries are universally popular and easy to grow in a sunny spot where the soil does not dry out. Increase by growing rooted runners - the one nearest the parent plant is usually the strongest. Old varieties, whose fruit is too soft to make them commercially viable, are often sweeter and better-flavoured.
Growing conditions
All soft fruits like fertile, well-drained soil and a sunny situation. Most like a slightly acid soil, with a pH in the range of 6 to 7, so go easy on the lime. An annual mulch of rotted manure or compost helps improve crops.
Protection from birds and possums is important, especially for strawberries, redcurrants and gooseberries. The old-fashioned fruit cage is rarely seen, although it is returning to favour in large gardens. If you don't run to a fruit cage, soft netting can be draped over a frame for strawberries, or over currants or gooseberries.
