How to grow fruit

Picking your own fresh fruit is a real joy and you don't even need lots of space to do it as many fruits can be grown in pots on the patio.

Which? Gardening has trialled varieties of all your favourite fruits to help you choose the best ones to grow. We not only grow them all to see how productive they are, but we also taste them to make sure you get the ones with the best flavour.

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How to grow blueberries

Best Buy blueberry varieties

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Planting

Plant in a moist, well-drained, acid soil with a pH of 5.5 or lower.

Blueberries like a sunny and sheltered spot, so they're ideal for growing on patios.

Keep the soil around your plants moist, watering with rainwater if possible.

If you’re planting your blueberries in the ground, they may not need a specific feed. You can apply a mulch of well-rotted leaf mould or composted conifer clippings. Conifer clippings have the added benefit of helping to acidify the soil.

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Growing blueberries in containers

If planting in pots, use ericaceous compost and add a controlled-release feed suitable for acid-loving plants. Choose a container that's at least 6L for young plants, then move into 10-12L pots as they grow.

Pruning

Your plants should not need pruning in the first two years. Prune older plants from late February to early March, removing around a quarter of the old wood at the base every year. 

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Protecting from cold

Blueberries are on the tender side, so it’s a good idea to wrap pots in bubble wrap for winter and bring them inside if the forecast is particularly bad. Flower buds are also susceptible to frost, so cover them with fleece if frost is forecast during this period.

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How and when to harvest

July to August

Protect your berries from birds by covering the fruit with netting as it starts to ripen. Harvest them when they turn a dusty-blue colour. You may need to pick over your bushes several times, as they don’t all ripen at once.

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How to grow apples

Recommended apple varieties

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Dessert apples

Cooking apples

Rootstocks

Apple trees are grown from shoots grafted onto a rootstock, which controls the final size of the tree. This lets you choose your apple based on flavour, but also on a tree that’s the right size for your garden. 

Apple rootstocks have codes starting with M and followed by a number. There are six rootstocks in total, covering every size of tree from a stepover to an orchard tree. It’s worth speaking to a specialist fruit nursery for advice on the best rootstock for your needs.

Growing apple trees from seed

You can experiment with sowing seeds from an apple you eat. Bear in mind that they'll be many years before they'll produce fruit. The tree will get very large unless you get a specialist to graft a piece of wood from it onto a rootstock (see above). The easiest solution is to find out which variety the fruit is and buy a ready-grafted plant.

Planting

Apples thrive in moist but well-drained, fertile soil. 

Choose a frost-free position, sheltered from strong winds. A sunny spot is best, but they tolerate shade for part of the day. 

Most apple trees only fruit well when planted near a compatible pollinator tree. This can be another apple tree or an ornamental crab apple. Ask for advice from your nursery when choosing your variety. 

Plant as bare-root trees from late autumn until early spring, or as container-grown plants at other times. 

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Ensure the root flare (where the trunk broadens as it becomes the roots) is just above the soil surface. Place a stick across the planting hole and hold your tree in the right position when back-filling with soil.

Stake your tree to keep it stable and allow the roots to establish undisturbed. Water and then mulch with soil improver.

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Watering and feeding

Water young trees and pot-grown trees regularly in dry weather. Apply a general fertiliser, such as growmore, in spring, and replenish the mulch of soil improver as necessary. 

For pot-grown trees, scrape off 2cm of the old compost from the top of the pot and add fresh compost for containers mixed with controlled-release feed each spring. You may need to increase the size of the pot as the tree grows.  

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Harvesting and storing fruit

Harvest only ripe fruit. Cup it in your hand, lifting and twisting gently. A ripe apple will come away cleanly from the tree.

Not all varieties store well. Only save unblemished apples with no bruises, cuts or insect damage. Keep in a cool, dark place with good ventilation.

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Pruning

One and two-year-old trees will need formative pruning over the winter to achieve a healthy, strong shape. Further pruning will depend on whether your tree is tip-bearing or spur-bearing and the form of your tree, such as cordon or espalier.

Pruning encourages the tree to grow fruit, helps air circulate and lets sunlight onto the fruit. Remove any dead, diseased or crossing branches, but try not to take too much growth each year.

How to grow gooseberries

Best Buy gooseberries

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Full testing results for gooseberries

Planting

Grow in sun or part shade in fertile, heavy soil that is well drained. Clay is ideal.

Buy plants as bare roots or in pots. Grow as bushes, on cordons, or in containers.

Space 1.2-1.5m apart.

Help your plants with a recommended soil improver

Feeding

Feed in late winter with a balanced granular fertiliser at 100g per sq m, such as Vitax Q4. Mulch well with soil improver.

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Encouraging a good crop

Protect from late frosts by covering plants with fleece on cold nights. Water plants well while the fruit is setting.

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Pruning

Aim for a goblet-shaped bush on a ‘leg’ or trunk. In midsummer, prune side-shoots to five leaves. Thin large-berried varieties in early summer, removing every other fruit. In winter, remove dead, diseased or dying wood.

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How and when to harvest

May to July

The best way to harvest your fruit is in two sessions. Pick every other fruit when the berries are semi-ripe, around the end of May or beginning of June - traditionally this was done for the Whitsun holiday. This first crop has the highest pectin levels, making it ideal for jam making or tarts and crumbles. It also coincides nicely with elderflowers, the flavour of which combines brilliantly with gooseberries.

Leave the rest of the fruit on the plant to ripen fully, and enjoy them fresh like grapes around the middle of July. This is the only stage when you’ll need to protect the berries from the birds. All varieties can be treated this way.

How to grow blackberries

Best Buy blackberries

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Planting

Buy blackberries in autumn or spring, as bare-root plants or in containers. Space them out at the recommended planting distance so that they have enough room. Blackberries cope with partial shade, but the fruits are sweeter when grown in the sun. Enrich heavy soils with soil improver before planting.

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Feeding

Feed plants in spring with Vitax Q4 or Growmore, and mulch with soil improver, such as garden compost or well-rotted manure.

Help your plants with a recommended soil improver

Pruning and training

Blackberries are vigorous and need supporting. Grow on a wall or fence, tying in along strong wires. 

After planting, cut stems back to a bud 20cm from the base of the plant, so that plants produce new shoots in spring. 

Fruit is only produced on two-year-old canes. To help make pruning and picking easier, tie in all the new canes in one direction. These will crop next year. The following year, tie in canes produced that year in the opposite direction; these will crop the year after. Training like this will help make it quick and easy to separate and identify one- and two-year-old canes. 

In autumn, prune the canes that have fruited at their base. Tidy the plant in early spring to remove any dead, diseased or dying growth after winter.

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How and when to harvest

August-September

Berries are best picked ripe and then either eaten fresh, or used in jams, jellies or even wine for a taste of summer all year round. If you want to freeze them, do so as soon as possible after picking.

Store your fruit in one of the best freezers from our independent tests

How to grow strawberries

Check our full guide to growing strawberries, plus Best Buy varieties

How to grow raspberries

Check our full guide to growing raspberries, plus Best Buy varieties