Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland A Practical Guide and History: by Kenneth Cox, Caroline Beaton.
to be published by Birlinn, Spring 2012
All the currently available books are written by and for southerners and none has any specific reference to growing fruit and vegetables in Scotland whose different climate makes English books of limited relevance. For example tomatoes, figs and peaches are barely worth growing outdoors in Scotland, but none of the available books deals with such issues. Now is the prefect opportunity for a practical guide to growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in Scotland. The main part of this book will be a contemporary guide to the best techniques for growing produce, whether in a garden, allotment, patio or window box. Scotland's plant breeders, Beechgrove garden presenters, show growers, head gardeners and keen amateurs will be interviewed from Shetland to Galloway to learn how local conditions affect what to grow and how to grow it. It is already clear for example that the best apples for the borders are not the same ones that would be recommended for Fife or Aberdeenshire.
The book will also deal, in some detail, with the history of fruit and vegetable growing in Scotland. We will delve into the largely untold and fascinating history of the development of Scottish fruit and vegetable varieties some of which are still widely grown, others which have almost disappeared and are being preserved only in heritage collections. The SCRI near Dundee is responsible for the breeding of many of the world's major varieties of blackcurrants and raspberries. The Clyde Valley, Galloway, Carse of Gowrie and Newburgh Fife have a long history of apple growing and important apple varieties have been bred all over Scotland. Scotland's potato famine was almost as devastating as the better known Irish one. But few people have heard of it. Many of Britain's most popular potatoes such as Duke of York were bred in Scotland and most of the seed potatoes are produced in Scotland. The record breaking Kelsae Onion, which can weigh up to 6 kilos, was bred in Kelso in the 1950s. Author of the best-selling potato book Alan Romans, lives in Fife as does fruit expert Willie Duncan.
Kenneth Cox will cover the fruit and historical sections, while Caroline Beaton will bring her wealth of practical experience as a vegetable grower and organic gardener to the coverage of growing vegetables and herbs. This book will form a set with Kenneth Cox's other best selling Scotland gardening books Garden Plants for Scotland and Scotland for Gardeners.
Can you help us please?
The first book for Scotland's fruit and vegetable growers. Part history and part practical, we aim to show the best ways to grow things from Stranraer to Shetland and we need your help. If you have time to give us information on what you grow and how you grow it, please copy this page into an e mail and fill in as many questions as you like. Dont feel any pressure to answer all of them. And tell us anything else useful we might need.
Name
Where do you garden? postcode would be useful
E mail addressHow long have you/your family been growing fruit and or vegetables?
Did you inherit seeds, practices, a plot from your parents? Other family?
Do you have an allotment and if so where is it and how long have you had it?
What size is your plot and is it walled, fenced, sheltered?
Do you lime your soil?
Do you garden ‘organically’?
Or with minimum pesticide use? And if so what pesticides can you not do without?
Tree Fruit
APPLES
What apples do you grow?
Are they free-standing or trained on walls?
Do they set good fruit every year?
Do you suffer from apple scab?
Do you spray against it?
If you were advising 2-3 apples for your area, which one(s). Of course we know that Bramleys cannot pollinate other apples, so you’d need 2 others.
PEARS
Can you grow pears in your garden? Are they trained or free-standing?
Which varieties do well?
These are the varieties proposed for inclusion: ‘Beth’ ‘Beurre Hardy’ ‘Concorde’, ‘Conference’, ‘Doyenne du Comice’ ,‘Hessle’, Invincible, ‘Jargonelle’, ‘Merton Pride’, ‘Williams’ Bon Chrétien’ .Do you have any comments on the list?
Do they suffer from scab? or any other pests and disease? pear leaf blister mites, pear midge, winter or codling moth
Do pears fruit every year? Do they sometimes get frosted?
Plums, gages, damsons
What plums do you grow?
Are they free-standing or trained on walls?
Do they set good fruit every year?
Have your plums suffered from canker?
Cherries
Which varieties do you grow/recommend?
Do you know what rootstock they are on?
Do you net? Do the birds get them?
Peaches, apricots, nectarines, figs
Do you grow these, indoors or out? Do they set fruit.
Do you suffer peach leaf curl?
NUTS
Do you grow any nuts and if so which ones.
Do they set nuts each year and do they ripen well?
SOFT FRUIT
Blueberries
Have you tried growing these? If so which varieties.
Do you grow them in a border or a fruit cage?
Do they set good fruit. Do the birds eat them?
Have you had trouble with pests such as sawfly?
JOSTABERRIES
Have you tried to grow these
Do they fruit well?
Do they taste good?
Are they as good as blackcurrants?
Goji Berries
Do they fruit in Scotland/ Are they hardy?
Honeyberies , Tayberries, Boysenberries etc
Have you tried these? Do they set good fruit?
Raspberries and Strawberries which varieties do best?
Goosberries.
Do you grow them?
Which varieties.
What is your experience
Vines/Grapes
What varieties do you grow?
In what sort of greenhouse and with what style of training?
Do you thin your fruit?
Do you use any artificial heat
Do you get mildew and if so do you spray against it?
Have you tried growing any other Fruit? Aronia, saskatoons, melons, kiwi fruit, citrus?
Vegetables
Are there any vegetable varieties that you would not be without as they are so good compared to other varieties you have tried?
What ground preparation do you do to your plot each year? Seaweed, manure, double digging etc.
What on-going feeding do you do?
Do you rotate crops? On a 3 or 4 year rotation?
Where do you get plants, seeds?
Have you tried forcing anything? Rhubarb, chichory, scorzonera, celery and celeriac for example?
Where do you get information on fruit and veg growing. Is there information available on growing in Scotland?
Are there some veg that you would grow every year without fail?
Do you grow vegetables in containers and if so which ones and how do you get on?
What were the dates of the last frosts in your area in 2009 and 2010?
What is the earliest you are prepared to put out tender vegetables?
What do you protect them with?
Tomatoes
Do you grow them?
Indoors or out
Which kinds?
Do you find them easy?
What pests and diseases do they get?
Herbs
What herbs do really well for you?
What herbs are too much like hard work?
Sweetcorn
Do you grow this? If so what variety.
Do you start it off indoors?
Does it ripen and does it taste good?
Potatoes
Which are your favourite and best performing potatoes?
Have you tried August sowing for Christmas harvesting?
Which varieties?
How did you get on?
Pests and Disease
What are the worst pest and disease issues for vegetables for you?
Do you have any tricks for overcoming common pests/diseases,
Have you given up growing some vegetables due to pests and disease?
Have you ever grown any of the following and if so, what was the result?
Asparagus
Artichokes
Sweet potatoes
Autumn planted onion sets
Corn Salad
Komatsuna
Okra
Chillies
Aubergene
Melons
Do you know any really good fruit and vegetable gardens or growers in your area that we can get in touch with?