-EP264 Six Best Fruits You Should Grow At Home

What if you could transform your small space into a flourishing fruit paradise? Join us on the Master My Garden podcast as we unlock the secrets of growing delicious fruits at home, no matter how limited your gardening space may be. This episode is packed with practical tips and insights as John lists his six best fruits to grow at home. Including apples, strawberries, plums, Raspberries, pears and Rhubarb (I know its a vegetable). D. We promise you'll come away inspired to savor the superior taste of homegrown produce, regardless of the size of your garden.

Explore the versatility of compact fruit trees, especially the innovative Coronet apple tree, ideal for balconies and small gardens. We explore the joys of cultivating strawberries, revealing the best varieties to extend your harvest throughout the growing season. Uncover the charm of self-fertile Victoria plums and the freshness of homegrown raspberries, with handy tips on training and pruning for the best yield. Pear enthusiasts will appreciate our insights into the frost-sensitive Conference variety, while those in colder climates might use the hardy damson. Whether you're just getting your hands dirty or are a seasoned gardener, this episode is your guide to enjoying the abundant rewards of a fruitful home garden.

Chapters

• 0:11 Top Fruits to Grow at Home
• 10:26 Compact Fruit Trees and Strawberry Tips
• 14:43 Best Fruits and Vegetables to Grow

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 264 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode, I'm looking at the top six fruits to grow at home and I suppose this is a kind of a subjective list and it's going to be one that, you know, not everybody will agree with and that's good. So hopefully you know if you find that there's something on this list that you think shouldn't be there or there's one that you think definitely should be on it, but be sure to let me know. Um, but a strange week in terms. You know, as we head towards the end of february, it's been a strange week.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Weather you know, as we head towards the end of February, it's been a strange week weather wise. Certainly, a lot of rain. Last weekend was extremely cold, it was a way at the weekend and it was just bitter, bitter cold. And you know when it's bitter cold like that at this time of the year, I think about the little seedlings, or the seeds that you've just sown, and how you know it's very, very difficult to get, to get the germination and get growth. At this stage of the day, there's no vigor in it. So you're still looking for, as I've said, and I'm sure some of you are kind of sick of listening to me saying it. You're still looking for that feeling of that warmth of spring and that sense that everything else is waking up and that's kind of a good time to get going, and that sense that everything else is waking up and that's kind of a good time to get going. And I see all the facebook groups this week. You know there's a lot of different messages about people putting potatoes in a few weeks ago and there's nothing happening, sowing seeds and the. The seeds are not germinating or you know that sort of thing. Now I know there's some people are brilliant at it. They're doing their sowing inside, they're applying that. Yeah, because it's inside, they're getting enough of heat, it's in the windowsill, they're getting enough of light and they're getting some germination, getting good germination, and then they're able to move these on and skill. You know people who are sort of giving things a bit of time and are able to watch them on a regular basis or to do that. But for for generally speaking, uh, sit tight, um, I'll definitely be starting to sew in the next, in the next few days or week or week or so. It's just that time it'll get going. But but still proceed with caution because it isn't.

Speaker 1: 2:19

It's definitely not kind weather yet and this week there was a lot of stuff in the media around the the light levels that we're getting in Ireland, and I think there was a stat that there's been 12 or 15 days since the sun has been seen at all at Dublin airport, so essentially it has been cloud cover all the way and that's kind of verified that that's that is the case and it's something that I've been talking about a lot over the last 12 months. The, the lack of sunlight levels, seems to be a bit of a feature and then, following on from that, there's kind of a. I saw somebody was was commenting that ireland now has the like the fifth or sixth lowest light levels. You know, you know below, slightly below um on the list. Norway, obviously, and and those type scandinavian countries have very low light levels because their days are really short up there, but we're definitely up there and we're certainly certainly getting less from what I can see.

Speaker 1: 3:24

So, and that's very relevant at this time of year when you're sowing seed, because you need those light levels, you also need that little bit of a temperature, and the light levels is the big thing, because if you're getting relatively short days I know they're extending, thankfully, over the last week or two it's really noticeable the days are extending. But if you're not getting sunlight during those those days and you're getting a lot of gray skies, it's very, very difficult to get your seedlings to grow and not be like leggy or leaning to the side or weak because they're stretching all the time. You know you don't, you're not getting that vigor into it. So I suppose the message or the point I'm trying to make here is sit tight over the next couple of weeks or proceed with caution. You know, and there's no, there is no mad panic, because the ground is still extremely wet, as I say, very, very cold last weekend. So yeah, it's, it's uh, proceed slowly at this stage. Um again, any of you that listen to the podcast the whole time, you're probably a little bit sick of me saying that and you're mad to get going. You want to get sewing and I understand your frustration. I suppose once you get sewing it feels like everything is kicking off. But there is a point. There is a point where that will start and if you feel natural, everything will grow right. Everything will grow as it should. I just don't feel that we're quite there yet. So just, uh, proceed with caution over the next week or two.

Speaker 1: 4:47

But to get back to today's episode, I suppose, um, we're talking about six fruits that are the best fruits to grow at home in my opinion. As I say, that list might be different for everybody. Some people might have preferences for certain fruit or a dislike for certain fruit, but where I think growing fruit is so hugely important, obviously the taste is so much better grown fruit at home. There's probably, you know, certain crops that you can grow at home that are just so noticeably different than what you'll buy in your supermarket or or local shop and they, for me, an apple is so different. Strawberries, particularly, are worlds apart a strawberry that you'll buy in a shop and one that you'll grow yourself, just worlds apart, and there's a phenomenal difference in them. So you know, they're one of the. That's one of the reasons, this big difference in taste that you get.

Speaker 1: 5:40

But one of the I suppose the main one for me is that it's can be difficult, if you're growing your own food, to get children to, I suppose, buy into and eat the vegetables. That's just a normal thing in the earlier years. They, they'll taste and they'll test and they'll try, or they'll copy you or they'll mimic you, but they generally are not going to love the taste of, you know, spinach or onions or you know different, different, different vegetables. Like that they're, they will come around to it and they will eventually eat all or most of them. But in those earlier years it can be a little bit trickier to get them to to to engage with with fruit or, sorry, with vegetables, as you know, while they're eating their meals. But you'll have no such issue with with fruits, because if you take a strawberry, I don't I don't think I know a child that that doesn't eat a strawberry and fruit apples I would say the same. There's very few children that won't eat an apple, and especially those tasting ones. They're gonna, they're gonna love them, and so it becomes. It becomes a, you know, a really good way of getting quality food and getting them connected to growing the food and eating the food themselves and then eventually that will lead to the vegetables. So that's a huge plus of growing them at home.

Speaker 1: 7:03

I know some people might say, well, I only have a tiny garden. But to be honest with you, there's so much fruit that you can grow even in a tidy garden, and most of the ones of the six that I talk about today will be suitable for small gardens. Not, there might be one or two exceptions to that, but generally speaking you'd be able to grow quite a bit of fruit even in a small garden. Containers are really useful in terms of fruit if you're in a small space, so don't be dismayed if if you're, if you're listening, and you have a small garden and you think you're about to tune out that there's no benefit here for you. I think there will be.

Speaker 1: 7:38

So yeah, the first one on the list anyway is an apple, and not necessarily going to talk about varieties too much, because I suppose taste and variety, they're very subjective. But for me a homegrown apple is absolutely delicious. It's streets ahead of what you'll get in the shops, especially the. You know the mass produced. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones that get all the heavy advertising on TV. I find them bland. The don't really fit the bill for me at all. I like sort of that traditional apple taste which has the, the sweetness, but also the bit of sourness as well, but particularly that real crunch that when you bite into it. That's what I'm looking for from an apple and varieties that you know. There's lots of varieties, there's so many out there. I think, generally speaking, if you're growing any fruit at home, you'll have that freshness, you'll have that crunch anyway, but some good varieties are. You know, johnna gold is a really good one for me. I still love the the cox's pippin type apple, that kind of sweetness but a bit of sourness as well. I like them and a really good crunch and they're they're a great apple.

Speaker 1: 8:50

The big thing to to watch out for when you're growing apples at home is to get a really one that's grown on a, on a small rootstock, so that's an m9 rootstock and that determines the overall size of the tree. And if, as I said before, if, if you, if you're buying it and wherever you're buying it, doesn't know what rootstock it's on, leave that tree there, because it could be some different type and it could go a lot bigger. But an M9 rootstock that's going to go like six to nine foot, which is going to be suitable for most gardens. You'll grow it even in a big container and you'll be able to contain that and prune it to keep it at a relatively manageable size, something that you can always pick the fruit from without getting up on a ladder. You can always prune without getting up on a ladder, so you're just always going to be at working height, and that's a vital thing in the home garden, you know, especially as you move down through the years. You don't be climbing up ladders to prune this massive big tree. You'll be able to keep a small tree manageable and be able to harvest the fruit, you know, really easy and keep it all under control. And I think that's that's the key is is looking for something on an m9 variety wise, just, you look for maybe something that's going to crop a little bit earlier. Ones that will store well are quite important as well, because if you do end up in a couple years time with good harvests, you want to be able to harvest them and store them for a little while so that you can eat them over the period of a couple of months coming up. And that's that's a vital one.

Speaker 1: 10:26

The the other, the other thing to note and I've probably mentioned it before, but not very much there's um a tree which is bred in ireland called the coronet apple tree, and it's a miniature tree, so way smaller than the m9, and it's designed to be grown in a pot or on a balcony or on a really small space, can be sewn in, can be, can be planted into the ground as well. But it was bred by pat mcdonald down in waterford and it's sold pretty much through all garden centers across ireland and in europe. It used to be, I think it might be just ireland now but it's a superb, superbly bred apple and what you'll get on that. So coronet is the type of tree like like the9, like what I was talking about, the M9. So the coronet is a type of tree and then you'll have various varieties in that and there's coronet trees with single varieties, there's coronet trees with double varieties, so two varieties of apple on the same tree and there's even coronets, I think, with three varieties on the same plant or the same tree.

Speaker 1: 11:31

But these are going to grow no more than like four foot one by two meters, that kind of size, really really small and compact. So again, if, if you're on a balcony, if you're in a really small garden, these are going to be suitable. They fruit really quickly, so they'll fruit within the first year or two. They're self-fertile all of them. So even the singular varieties are self-fertile and you don't need any partners with them or anything like that. So that's what I'm saying. If you are, you know, in a small space, these are going to be perfect for you and you can still grow fruit. You don't have to have a big, big garden and but that's a really, that's a really good one and it's a really interesting one for people as well, because it's so small but very, very productive and, of course, when they flower they look, they look pretty and and all the rest of it. So that's a that's a big advantage.

Speaker 1: 12:16

So that's the coronet apples, and you'll find there is a website. Just search carnet apples and then there's a list of stockists and you'll, you'll find you know a stock is near you across ireland. They're brilliant, really, really great, and especially for people in small spaces. So, apple, the number one, number one fruit to grow at home. Number two is strawberry and I think it's kind of hard to argue with this one. I don't know anyone that doesn't like strawberries and, as I said with children, they absolutely love them and you know, you're guaranteed that they're going to eat them.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Key, key thing to watch out for here is if you're able to get a couple of different varieties and these can be grown perfectly well in you know window box or a pot or in a small, in a small garden. You can grow them into you know tomato planters and different things like that. So there's ways of doing it even in a small space. But the key is to plant more than one different variety. So if you go to your garden center, there's no point in buying, say, 10 plants of the exact same one, because you're going to have all your fruiting at the same time. So what you're looking for is you're looking for varieties that you'll have a early season, a mid-season and a late season. So, again, you're looking for varieties that's going to extend that season. So your early one is going to give you your first crop, mid-season give you your middle crop and late croppers, obviously giving you the late one. Now there is everbearer strawberries on the market and these would be the ones that we use commercially and that means, as the name says, everbearing, so they're going to bear fruit across the whole season.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Typically, in my opinion, those don't taste as nice. They are actually typically the ones that you'll get in the, in the supermarkets, especially out of season, and I just don't like the taste of them. I think they're bland by comparison to getting you know the cambridge favorite, which is an old, an old traditional variety. The sweetness of that, the taste is just delicious. El Santa being a very good mid-season and then the likes of Symphony is another good one. But any varieties like that, I just think they taste a lot better. Everbears of course will, as I say, fruit across the whole season, so that kind of ticks that box. But I just think from a taste perspective you're better with individual varieties for the different fruiting periods. So that's strawberries and, as I said, kids. There's very few kids that won't eat that. So when you're grown at home with your family, it's, it's a brilliant one.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Next one on the list is plum, and I love, absolutely love plums. I love that again, that kind of a sourness in the skin. I I really like that. And, to be honest, when you're growing plums at home, there's several varieties. You know there's our and different timing periods, but the best one of them all is and the most productive one of them all and probably the biggest seller across ireland is victoria and it's it's a really good plum. It's self-fertile, so you don't need any other pollination partners with it, which is a big thing. So you can get a singular tree and it'll be. It'll fruit away really good.

Speaker 1: 15:23

I've had, I've grown that one for a long time. There's the only thing I ever only problem I ever had with it was branches breaking. So essentially too much fruit and a bit of a weakness, kind of a weakness around where it joins the main stem and just snapping off there. But I suppose that's a good thing. You know it's getting weighed down with the fruit. I know if that happens you can support them. Just a couple of times I didn't do that and you ended up with broken stems. But to be able to produce that much fruit in the first place, you know shows how good of a good of a one it is and it's a great tasting. Great tasting fruit as well, uh. So yeah, definitely plum for me number three on the list. Number four definitely goes on the list.

Speaker 1: 16:11

It's raspberries. Absolutely delicious taste of homegrown raspberries and, you know, just so much fresher. They don't last long. So like if you get raspberries in a shop or supermarket, typically you need to be eating them that day. Like they're very and especially out of season. They're not good at all, but in season from your own garden, the taste of these is just going to be phenomenal.

Speaker 1: 16:36

And again, what you're looking for is you're looking for an early, a mid and a late season. They, they're probably one now that doesn't do so well in pots. You can get fruit and they they do fruit, but they'll need a bit of care because they're quite hungry, they're quite thirsty and they like to roam in the ground. So it's one that will do well in a pot, but you'll need to give it a bit of pampering. You need to water it regularly, you need to feed it quite regularly and make sure that it's vigorous and not looking to expand beyond the pot. But if you do that, you can have good fruit from from from containers, from a raspberry, but best grown in the ground.

Speaker 1: 17:18

The early and mid-season ones tend to be ones that need to be trained on wires. They tend to grow really tall and they'll they'll spread as well. But you're looking to, you're looking to grow those on wires, so you'll have to train those slightly, not a lot, but slightly. The autumn ones, on the other hand, they'll grow into a bush form. You don't need to train them. They don't need to to run along a wire or be trained along a wire, but they do need heavy pruning every year. So you basically prune them right to the ground every single year and that's you know that revigorates the plant. With the autumn fruiting ones, they fruit on the current year's growth. So you cut it to the ground in the winter time, it'll spring up, it'll grow up in the spring and then in the autumn on those same stems you'll have fruit, whereas the, the other ones, the early season and the mid-season they will fruit on the previous year's growth. So, on the, it'll be on the browner stems as opposed to the green stems. And that's just an important point when it comes to pruning, but you'll figure out that as well. But just in terms of what good ones to grow, raspberry is definitely up there. Some good varieties. Mauling jewel is a really good one, traditional variety. Then you have, you know, the likes of, uh, glen, ample and mauling, mauling bliss, um, autumn bliss, all gold. They're two autumn ones. They're very good and, yeah, they're good, superb varieties to grow. And, uh yeah, raspberry a very, very good one.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Pear is one that I haven't had great success with here, to be honest, and the reason being late frost. Simple as that, pears are a little bit. They're not as hardy, say, as an apple. They tend to prefer very little wind and they like they. They like to get areas where it's just not that cold, so they do better south facing wall things like that. I have had fruit here, but it tends to be not as good or not as prolific as, say, apples, plums and so on. And yeah, it's, it's a brilliant one to grow at home. So if you're in the right conditions, it's a brilliant one to grow and the fruit that I have had over the years has been so better, so much better than what you buy in a shop. So pear is a brilliant one, again, a little bit like the plum. There's kind of one variety and that's conference. It's probably the best seller. There is other varieties. They're very good, but conferences are a good all-rounder and, yes, self-fertile and all that so brilliant one to grow. It's something I didn't mention earlier and probably should have.

Speaker 1: 19:58

When you're talking about plums, again, sometimes they can be a little bit like the pear in that they, like you know, they like to be in an area that's a little bit warmer, not so much frost and so on, but if you are in an area that's a bit tougher in terms of in terms of weather and so on. You can grow damsons and they're very, very hardy. They probably, in my opinion, they taste as good as a plum. A lot of people wouldn't agree with that, but I think they taste delicious if you get some certain varieties. The only thing is they can grow really, really big, a lot bigger than a plum tree. But if you do have the space and if you are in an area that's a little bit more exposed, let's say, then a damson is a superb fruit to grow as well. So that's pear at number five. So so far we've had apple at number one, strawberry at number two, plum at number three, raspberry at four and pear at number five.

Speaker 1: 20:53

Number six is going to cause some controversy because it's not really, technically speaking, a fruit, it's a vegetable. But in my opinion it's. Everything you do with it, everything you use it for, is more fruit related. So I call it a fruit. I know by the technical term it is a vegetable and I'm talking about rhubarb. So rhubarb is. And, yeah, only in the last week I got a rhubarb crumble and it was sensational and it just really sort of brought rhubarb back up in the top of my mind again.

Speaker 1: 21:32

And I saw the other day the rhubarb stools that I planted a couple of years ago. They're really grown now. They're grown out of the ground. They're doing really well and they're going to get a feed over the coming weeks, just with some poultry manure and that's going to try to drive them on, because they're a very, very hungry crop.

Speaker 1: 21:48

But they are technically a vegetable. You eat the. You know they don't produce a seed, an internal seed as such, and you do eat the stem. So they are, technically speaking, a vegetable. But, as I said, the way we eat them, the way we cook them and use them, is very much akin to fruit. So I I'm calling a fruit for purposes of this, but rhubarb is one going to be one of the most rewarding crops you can grow they obviously there's so much you can do with them from a cooking perspective and it's absolutely delicious, but it's also it's also a crop that will just keep giving and keep giving over a long period of time, both in that year and over the coming years. So, in other words, you're going to get, you'll be able to start harvesting it early in the season and you'll be able to stay harvesting it for such a long time. I think I stopped harvesting sometime, probably around october time in the year gone out.

Speaker 1: 22:47

But prolific, really, really prolific. So long as you feed them and so long as they have enough, you know they're, they're not waterlogged. So long as they're getting enough of feed and nutrition, they will just stay putting out stocks the whole year long. And then that crown, that that that you have planted, will multiply, get bigger year on year for a good number of years. Now, eventually they do get spent out and they and they burn themselves out eventually, but that will take a good few years and sometime in the middle you'll be able to chop off a few pieces and start again and let them let the crowns renew themselves. And yeah, so, as I say, over the coming year and for years to come, it's just going to be such a prolific cropper. And then you have your crumbles to look forward to your, your tarts look forward to your jams to look forward to your.

Speaker 1: 23:38

You know there's so much that you can do with. Do with rhubarb and, yeah, particularly in Ireland, we seem to have a little bit of a of an affection towards rhubarb. But yeah, for me it, it sits on the list here, even though I know, before anyone tells me that it isn't, technically speaking, a fruit. So that's, that's the six best fruits that you can grow at home when growing your own. So we have apple, we have strawberry, plum or raspberry, pear and rhubarb. And, yeah, it doesn't matter whether you have a big garden or a small garden. Again, mentioning the rhubarb rhubarb do perfectly fine in a good size pot. Just make sure you're, again, a little bit like the raspberries, that you give it lots of attention, give it lots of food and and it will reward you over and over again for years to come. And yeah, they're brilliant, like outside of that.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Sure, you can go anywhere with this list. You know you have blueberries, gooseberries, black currants, tumble berries, tay berries. You know there is so many fruits. You know even the, the ones that we call superfoods now blueberries and goji berries and figs. And yeah, here we don't we obviously are not able to grow in any great way the likes of oranges or lemons or so on, but the list is vast.

Speaker 1: 24:58

And, yeah, you, you can go anywhere with it. You're, you're not limited to having a big garden or having, you know, a decent sized garden. You can do a lot of this in containers or a lot of them in containers. Certainly, when it comes to apples, that coronet is fantastic for that and, yeah, you have options always to grow your own fruit. So that's kind of you know, a good list to start with. But let me tell, let me let me hear from you. If there's something that you feel should be there or or isn't there that deserves to be there, let's say so. Tomorrow I head to the, the glda conference and really looking forward to that, some great speakers, as we heard on last week's episode, really looking forward to it. So, yeah, it'll be, it'll be good and interesting to hear. And, yeah, back next week with another episode, and that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.