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Just got a tayberry plant from aldi for £1 not sure if I should stick it on the allotment or in a pot in the garden? It is a raseberry/blackberry hybrid raseberries don't fair too well in pots but black berries can (I believe).

A whole quid!! Wow, that's a bargain.

A scottish hybrid if I'm not mistaken. No idea AT ALL whether it will grow in a pot... soz mate... Have never grown rasps or blackberries in a pot. Will ask around.

I'm off to Aldi myself on Monday. 99p for fruit bushes is a great price and I want raspberrys for jam this year.

Sounds like you did well, mate. I've never heard of a Tayberry!

Nev

I wonder that they sell these Scottish specials down there... Tayberries are very vigorous - I would plant it in the ground rather than a pot. They make nice preserves, but I think raspberries are better to eat raw.

Ina

cheers the ground it is then. I need to have a proper look up at aldi to see if they have any rasberrys too.

Tayberries sound a bit like boysenberries I reckon. I had them years ago in New Zealand and they were lovely, but I have never seen them in the UK. I think they were a raspberry and blackberry hybrid with something else too - loganberry maybe.

We don't have an Aldi, but I discovered that Wilkinsons is very good value. Got the seed potatoes in there the other day.

Hi i have 6 tayberry bushs and they do grow quite fast, they do have lovely mouth watering fruit, i was putting manure around all my fruit bushs today will have to collect more for the fruit trees, i think it the weather that has us all out working the garden.

jessie

Ah a Tayberry grower can I pick your brains then? Is it going to be ok to plant it out now? I am guessing I will have to put a bit of manure around it? - Never grown any fruit (apart from tomatoes) before so any advice would be fantastic.

Hi now is the time to plant them out before they get there leaves and dig some manure in with the soil around the bush . there may not be to much fruit on the bush this year but next year should crop well as the bush is really only estblishing its self in the ground/soil this year.

jessie

I just bought 2 tayberry plants from woollies for 2.48 the 2. They are planted out and look okay(it says April on the box so I think they'll be alright).
I had to dig a new fruit bed as I also got 8 rasps. My fruit beds are now chockablock so if I buy anymore I'll have to start yet another bed.
The birds are going to love us this year.

Time for an update on the tayberry bushes then. Well one of them seems to be sprouting new shoots, the other is doing nothing. They went in at the same time as some red currants and another three raspberry bushes, signs of life on all of them apart from one of the tayberry bushes.

I didn't get hold of any manure so they in with compost. The dormant one got the pick of the crop though. I am wondering as it is the most exposed out of all of them if the last big cold snap that we had killed it off.

Mine isn't doing much yet either but then neither are my raspberries. I don't think they are dead as the buds look okay so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's just the late start all the plants seem to be having this year.
Tayberries are yummy and make the best jam IMHO

Mine had a few leaves when I put them in and still have them after the last few frosts. I expect they will be okay as they are part blackberry which is nearly indestructible.I've put compost around mine too as I didn't have any manure. An old book I have, mentions youngberries which are a blackberry/raspberry cross.I wonder if that is another name for them.
I got my redcurrants from some which had spread from next door. They are getting some good leaves on despite looking like bits of stick just shoved in the ground last autumn.

Tayberries are delicious eaten off the bush, but only if eaten when very, very ripe (and therefore very, very mushy). In fact, I'd rate them higher than rapsberries or blackberries - we grow all three (including both wild and cultivated raspberries) plus blueberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants.

In general though, I'd recommend picking tayberries while they're still a little firm and using them in preserves as Ina suggests.

For useful info on organic bramble growing, have a look at

http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/bramble.html

In general though, you need soil with a pH of 6.0-6.5, low in phosphates (so no chicken manure unless you really know what you're doing) and no potassium chloride as brambles hate chlorine salts. What they do like is nitrogen so well-rotted manure and compost are a must.

You can use fresh manure, but then you have all the problems of nitrogen burn and restrictions on when you can harvest so we don't use it. Oh, and apply your organic fertilisers mid to late winter, so it's ready for spring.

Other than that, make sure you net your brambles or the blackbirds will have a field day.

If you have any other questions, please ask.

(And no, I'm not an expert but I've made more than enough mistakes to know what not to do next time!
)

Stonehead