Organic Soft-Fruit Plants Info
One of the few raisers of organic soft fruit plants is a member of the Graig Farm Producer Group in Mid-Wales. The range offered now includes strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrant, gooseberries, red and white currants and jostaberries (a cross between gooseberries and blackcurrants).
These plants are variously available from mid-October until May.
The plants are grown in mid-Wales on a mixed family farm. One of the advantages of growing plants amongst the mid-Wales hills is that the isolated position and its healthy environment reduce the pest and disease risks. By having a mixed livestock farm and using long rotations the soil can can be kept in optimum condition which helps reduce plant stress. Thus, together with suitable tolerant varieties, the farm can produce organically certified soft fruit plants.
All the plants are grown here amongst the fertile uplands of Powys in extremely healthy conditions. The isolation is second to none, being in the middle of a sparsely populated, livestock rearing area and over five miles from any known fruiting sites.
The plants are field grown in a loamy, free draining soil at an altitude of over 1000 feet. By using long rotations with livestock enterprises, often planting on fields that have never seen any type of fruit before, we keep our ground naturally fertile. The farm still relies heavily on hand hoeing and cultivating, thus reducing the need for herbicides. Together with careful day to day management any stress on the plant parent stocks can be minimised, enabling them to produce the top quality, healthy plants which are available to you again this year.
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