Fruit Cage - spacings and paths

[rainbow1]

Hello everyone

I am planning a fruit cage for our brand new allotment and as I've never grown fruit I'm after some advice. I plan to start with five currant/gooseberry bushes and some raspberries.

Obviously I'll need to leave space around everything to harvest, prune, etc but the question is how much? I've read that I'll need to leave 5ft between rows of raspberries but how far in from the edge of the cage should I plant them? And how far in from the edges should I plant the currant bushes & how far apart?

Any help gratefully received!

Thanks

[rainbow1]

[tonybloke]

Keep the raspberries at least 3 foot from the cage in all directions, they spread by runners.
gooseberriey bushes will occupy approx 3 ft by 3 ft, currants about 4 ft by 4 ft. plus you need to leave room for yourself to move!  Fruit cages, like greenhouses, are NEVER big enough!! ;)
(sorry for not replying sooner, I was hoping some one else would jump in)
rgds, Tonybloke

[manicscousers]

hiya, rainbow, welcome to the site ;D
we've got a fruit cage, pics in our gallery, the original was only 8' wide x 22' long, there are wire supports , we have a wall behind ours but managed to plant 8 raspberry canes, 2 jostaberries, a grape and 4 autumn yellow raspberries on one side, we do have to pull up suckers of the raspberries from time to time but they manage ok.
the path in the middle is only 1' wide and on the other side are gooseberries, redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes.
hope this helps

[rainbow1]

thanks both - that's really helpful

I'll post results when it's all finished!

[Mrs Ava]

I'm with Tony, they are never big enough.  Mine is now a jungle and picking the fruit is quite an adventure.  I have had to extend it twice but the raspberries do like to roam far and wide.  I now have a patch of Autumn Bliss rasps which are grown by my neighbour on her allotment and they have crept under the 3 foot path onto my plot.