Grow Your Own Magazine

Just wanted to share my delight of having just picked 7kg of gooseberries from 2 3yr old bushes!!!!

They only produced a token gesture last year...and on top of that, the lower branches have started to root where they are in contact with the soil...so more baby bushes next year!!!!!

Have to say though....that if babies really do come from under gooseberry bushes, the midwives should have a massive payrise...my arms are torn to shreds!!

lol well done Nicos - I've not had the courage to do fruit yet...maybe next year!

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"A cat sees no good reason why it should obey another animal, even if it does stand on two legs."

Well done, Nicos! I only got about 5 gooseberries from my little bushes, but I think I had a little help harvesting. Oh well, I did want birdies in the garden and they do say be careful what you wish for...

I've got five goosberries too, Sluglobber. Enough for a very small fool

who you callin a fool????

My Gooseberry fruits are smaller this year...anybody else hove this problem..?

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"My neighbour asked me if he could borrow my lawnmower and I told him of course so long as he didn't take it out of my garden."

Eric Morecombe

Me, i have 1 red gooseberry bush and 1 green, the red has 7 berries on it, the green has 4...all except 1 on the green bush are vary small, normally their 10p size. They had lots of flowers on them, but most fell off..on the other hand my blueberry bush is cover in berries.

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" A garden is a friend you can visit everyday! "

I harvested about 1.5 kg and when picking it reminded me why I haven't grown them for many many years. I think you have to be a bit of a masochist to grow them as it is impossible to harvest without getting stabbed to death.

Ian

Try long nosed scissors, you can get them from most hardware stores, they dosn't stop you getting stabbed all together, but its a lot better than looking like you've split two tom cats up

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" A garden is a friend you can visit everyday! "

I picked 12 lb of my bush how old it is i do not know.
it was on the plot when i took over about 6 years ago and this is the best crop yet.
Still more to pick but the bucket was full ....jacob

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What lies behind us,And what lies before us,Are tiny matters compared to what lies Within us ...
Ralph Waide Emmerson

I keep eating mine straight from the bushes so I hope I've left enough to cook with!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

I've been doing the same. They have been delicious. Huge and sweet.

Very jealous..... lost al;most the entire crop to mildew...... I want to sort them out this autumn.... I'll be moving the bushes but need some advice on pruning like what to take out and what to leave....I reckon I want to keep four bushes (I want the rest of the space for Blackcurrants....

chrisc

You can do a summer prune now by shortening lateral leaves to about 5 leaves but, assuming these are bushes not cordons, your main prune should be in winter. If birds are a nuisance then leave pruning until the buds start to swell so you can cut back to a healthy bud. Prune spreading or drooping bushes to an inward pointing bud to 'tighten' it. Upright bushes to an outward bud for the opposite reason. Otherwise just prune as currants, which you seem to know about.

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Why didn't Noah just swat those 2 greenflies?

I have had about 18 kg from 4 bushes so far. I started putting up a fruit cage last year, managed to finish it about 6 or 7 weeks ago. Well worth the effort. I had already lost about half of this year's crop by the time it was finished, so expecting twice as much next year. Gooseberries make excellent wine.

Do any of you net your gooseberries? Our lottie neighbours seem to have such terrible trouble with sawfly that its put us off trying gooseberries so far - does netting work?

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As far as I am aware, they appear from the soil and lay eggs in the centre of the bush. when the eggs hatch 3 weeks later they eat the leaves. There are often more than one lifecycles a year.
This being the case, it's not really a matter of netting the bush, but preventing the developing pupae from getting into the soil and then migrating up the plant.
So...a cover over the soil under the bush would be the way forwards ( bit like a huge cabbage cuff). Maybe netting might stop the odd one migrating- but I'm not quite so sure if that's the usual thing which happens???

This is what I've understood to be the case- but never really had a problem, so I've never had to try out the theory!