How to grow... Berries & Currants
Rocket Growing Guides
Berries and currants are a brilliant fruit to introduce to your kitchen garden, especially if you’ve never grown fruit before. They are really quite straightforward to grow and as long as you follow our guide carefully you should get a bountiful crop each summer for many years to come.
- Planting your berry bush
- Plant Care
1. Give them a good drink
If your fruit plant has arrived bare-rooted (i.e not in a pot), then you will need to soak the roots in a bucket of water for 1-2 hours before planting. If the plant has arrived in a pot, give it a thorough watering.
2. Choose a nice sunny, sheltered site
Fruit is best planted in a sheltered spot that gets plenty of sunshine.
3. Dig a hole (or choose a container)
Make sure that the hole you dig or pot you choose is big enough for the entire root system to fit in, without folding them over or bunching them up.
4. Pop your plant in
Put the plant in making sure the top of the root ball is at ground level (not above and not below!) and cover the roots with soil, firming in lightly and watering it in.
Water in dry spells
In the summer, it’s important to give your fruit plants plenty of water during dry spells especially if they are in pots (it’s easy to forget to water fruit bushes so you’ll have to make a note to self to remember!)
Give them a feed
This is a little dependent on the type of plant you have, so please follow the instructions that come with your plant, but at some point you will need to give it a feed to get nutrients back into the ground.
Apply a mulch
This is a really useful technique for fruit plants – add a layer of leaf mould, manure or even wood chip around the base of the plant to retain moisture, keep weeds at bay and keep the ground temperature more even.
Keep the area weeded
It’s important to keep weeds down, especially when you’ve first planted your new fruit bush.