Soft fruit and vine plan, step by step
Interactive lesson: how much soft fruit and how many grapes your family needs, which species suit your area, where to plant them and how to plan supports, water and plants.
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The whole lesson as text
1. How much your family needs
Before the first plant, work out how much soft fruit and how many grapes your household needs.
- How much fruit a year — An adult eats and preserves roughly 75 kg (165 lb) of fruit a year, fresh and preserved.
- The soft fruit share — 30 % of that fruit can come from soft fruit, about 22 kg per person. That is about 22 m² of planting.
- Strawberries, raspberries, currants — Per adult: 9 m² of strawberry bed, 11 m of raspberry row and 1–2 currant bushes.
- Grapes separately — Grapes are not part of the standard. For fresh dessert grapes, count 8–12 kg per person: 2–3 vines on wires or a pergola.
Why: Soft fruit is the fastest route to your own fruit: strawberries crop next summer, raspberries in their second year, currants in their third. Once you know the need in kilograms, you know how many metres of row, bushes and vines it takes.
- Convert your family into adult equivalents: an adult counts as 1, a child aged 7 to 14 as 0.7, a child up to 6 as 0.4.
- The yields in the plan are deliberately cautious. For the first two years, count on the standard.
2. Species for your area
Each species has its own needs, so check the species first, then the variety.
- Strawberries and raspberries — Strawberries grow everywhere. Raspberries like cool, moist climates and dislike heat, drought and waterlogged soil.
- Blackberries and currants — Thornless blackberries tolerate heat and drought better than raspberries. Currants and gooseberries like it cooler and suffer in heat.
- Blueberries need acid soil — Blueberries grow only in acid soil, pH 4.5–5.5. Only bring them in once you know your soil pH.
- Vines somewhere warm — Vines want the warmest spot on the holding and free-draining soil. Further north and in Ireland, plant them against a south wall or under glass.
Why: Your winter, your summer, your soil and your water decide what will crop for years. A species that doesn't suit the area crops poorly, however well you look after it.
- Strawberries, raspberries and currants are the safest start in the UK, Ireland and the northern US and Canada.
- Blackberries and grapes are the safest start in warm, dry places such as south-east England and the southern US.
3. Site · Locked
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4. Soil and rotation · Locked
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5. Layout, supports and water · Locked
Buy the Planning soft fruit and a vineyard module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
6. Plants and the plan · Locked
Buy the Planning soft fruit and a vineyard module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.