PYO Growers

Pick-Your-Own (PYO) farms are growing in popularity across the UK and Europe. With over 50 years of experience supplying plants to PYO growers, we offer a wide variety of options perfectly suited to your needs. Our expert agronomist, Jeremy Darby, has created a comprehensive list of the ideal PYO varieties, ensuring that you select the best soft fruits for your farm’s success.

Varieties we recommend for PYO growers must:

Provide a good spread of season
Be well adapted to growing in a range of soil types
Have high level of tolerance to the common diseases
Have a good flavour
Be easy to grow in traditional growing systems (e.g. matted row for strawberries)

Strawberry Picking Season

Starting in early May, reaching its peak in June and July, and, as long as the weather holds, strawberry fans can enjoy picking these delicious red berries throughout August, September and even October.

Raspberry Picking Season

By selecting a range of varieties that crop at different times you can extend your season. Raspberries ripen in late June and often continue until the first frosts.

Blackberry Picking Season

With so many thorn free varieties now available your customers can forget about scrambling in hedgerows and can start picking these glossy berries from late June until mid October.

Strawberries

Our bare root strawberries are available as ‘fresh lifted’ in October and November or ‘Cold-stored graded’ from January to June. Fresh lifted plants will develop a strong root system prior to going dormant and then take off in the spring, producing 1 or 2 trusses of fruit in their maiden year.

Cold-stored, graded plants, when spring planted in well prepared soil and with back-up irrigation will produce 1 or 2 trusses of fruit within 60 days of planting. In most cases, both of these plant types can be cropped for 2 more seasons in most soils.

Early Season

Allegro – an exciting new variety with an exceptional disease resistance
Rendezvous – selected for unprotected, soil grown production and its long shelf life
Christine – a great flavour with tolerance to root and foliar diseases
Malling™ Centenary – large berries with an exceptional fruit quality
Korona – a great flavour with good disease resistance
Glorielle – performs well when soil grown without protection and produces a high percentage of class 1 fruit

Main Season

Sweetheart – excellent flavour, suits matted row production and produces bright, glossy berries
Renaissance – excellent flavour and heavy yielding
Marshmello – good disease resistance and excellent flavour
Pegasus – good disease tolerance and heavy yielder which thrives in heavy soils
Cambridge Favourite – a well known ‘heritage variety’ with good resistance which develops a good matted row

Late Season

Fenella – heavy yielding and thrives in heavy soils. Fenella is known for its disease resistance and can tolerate high temperatures
Cupid – selected for its disease resistance
Symphony – resistant to Red Core and well adapted to heavy soils – a very popular PYO variety

Very Late Season

Malwina – outstanding as a PYO variety once established! Very late but with a superb flavour that everyone loves. Beware of Blossom Weevil due to the late flowering habit

Everbearers – for an extended season

Flamenco – easy to grow, with a long season from July to October and large fruits
Malling™ Champion – available as Tray Plants and ideal for long season production. This “easy to establish” variety produces its first fruit of 300-400g from the ‘nursery initiated’ flowers in May or June. Following a short gap, these plants then produce their main crop from mid-July until late October. Either ‘crown-thin’ in February of year 2 to 3 crowns per plant or replace

Raspberries

Primocanes

Autumn fruiting raspberries that produce fruit on 1st year canes from late July until October. Available as bare root standard cane, spring pots or tray plants. Our tray plants offer a new, “easy to establish” option for establishing a primocane plantation; available ex cold-store from January.

Enrosadira – outstanding, early primocane selection with a great flavour. Easy to pick berries and does well in soil
Joan J – early cropping, large berries and superb flavour make this spine free variety a long standing favourite with PYO growers up and down the country
Polka – earliest of all our primocane varieties, well adapted to a range of soil types. Excellent flavour!
Autumn Treasure – good quality mid season variety with superb disease resistance. Strong erect, spine free canes, easy to grow in soil

Floricanes

Summer fruiting raspberries that produce fruit on 2 year old canes from early June to late July. Available as bare root standard cane or spring pots

Malling Juno – a very popular early season variety with a sweet flavour, strong skin and a firm texture. Canes are spine free and reasonably vigorous
Glen Mor – NEW! A breakthrough, with resistance to Phytophthora root rot. An early season with large berries
Glen Carron – easy to grow in a range of soil types. Glen Carron produces large berries with a superb flavour (note – requires 1200 chill hours so not suitable for the South)
Cascade Delight – a reliable variety producing high yields; field tolerance to root diseases and a long season. If you only want 1 variety, plant Cascade Delight!
Octavia – the latest of the floricane varieties, producing high yields of large fruits until mid-July (Octavia needs free draining soil)

Blackberries

Available as 1 year old plants in 9cm pots or 2 year old plants in 2L pots. All of our blackberries are propagated on site and raised by means of leaf bud cuttings.