"Chris" ] wrote in message ]...
In article , Rod
writes
"Chris" ] wrote in message
]...

I was thinking of, say, one each of: gooseberry; black currant; white
currant; red currant.
How big would the cage need to be?
And what varieties would you recommend?

Your Red /White Currants and gooseberries won't take much room at all
if you grow them as cordons, grow 2 of each
red/white as single cordons and 1 gooseberry trained as a double
cordon, you'll need about 8-10ft of row with posts and
wire for those. Quality is much better than you get from bushes and you
can pick your gooseberries without getting cut
to ribbons.
I would add to that half a dozen raspberry canes, a few strawberries
say 2 or3 of perhaps 4 varieties to spread the
season, and a blackcurrant - I prefer the older tastier varieties like
Wellington XXX.

Now that's very interesting, Rod - I hadn't thought of cordons.
It sounds a bit advanced for me but I'll read up on it.
The thing I haven't had much success with is finding out about the fruit
cage design. I've done a thorough web search.

There are very expensive commercial ones - but I was thinking of three
inch square posts set in those metal spikes you can get from B&Q.
Do you reckon 2m x 4m and 2m high would be enough?
I'd like to see some, really, to get design ideas.
--
Chris

The cordon currants and gooseberries are very easy, no rocket science involved. It's possible you my be able to get
partly trained plants to give you a start but if not, any good strong plant preferably with good roots and not too many
stems will do. Just cut all but the best strong straight shoot out when you plant for a single cordon, 2 for a double.
Tie them in to a vertical cane for the singles, to two 45 degree canes for double. The double might take longer to form
because you'll need to gradually pull the 2 shoot down nearly horizontal in the first season, during the first winter
decide how far apart you want the 2 upright stems to be and at that point prune to an upward facing bud, those buds will
grow to form the 2 vertical stems of your cordon. Maintenance is just removing completely any unwanted new basal stems,
keeping the main stems tied in to the canes and 'summer pruning' which is just cutting all new growth on the fruiting
'spurs' back to one or 2 buds sometime in early June - then pick your fruit when it's ready. You'll need post & wire
support to tie your canes to.
The size of your cage will depend to some extent whether you're going to have some sort of door and walk around your
crops inside - in which case you need to allow room for paths or headlands.
If on the other hand you're going to open the side netting to get in you could probably manage with less space but the
price you pay is the bother of unfixing and refixing the net each time.
If you need paths, the post and wire rows for cordon currants and Tayberry would need to be at least a metre apart and
not much less than a metre away from the side netting. A full bush blackcurrant will occupy at least 1.8metres diameter
plus room to work around it. Raspberries will need post and wire and minimum 1 metre from side netting and 1.5 metre
from other stuff on wire like the currants. Strawberries are short term crops so probably best given their own space and
protection outside the cage.
That's a long winded way of saying your cage is on the small side to include everything the congregation has suggested
to you. The 2m posts are fine. You will need something across the top to stop the netting sagging, if you used wood for
that then a 2metre span between supports would probably be the limit, so posts at 2m x 2m, cage 4 x 3, the inside posts
could be part of your post and wire rows. Only snag with wood for the cage is just that - snagging the netting. Netting
from local garden centre or cheaper and more choice of types from Knowle Nets
http://www.knowlenets.co.uk/shop/system/index.html

I intend replacing the side netting on ours by wire netting after spending the week breathing fire down the neck of a
colleague who wrecked the sides of the cage with a strimmer and let the blackbirds into the cherries. You need something
like a gravel board at the bottom to hold the net down and stop things getting underneath.

Rod