Grow Your Own Magazine

I have well established gooseberry bushes which have never failed before but this year despite the usual start all the fruit is grey, mouldy and going brown. Is this gooseberry mildew? Is it related to the wet May and June? Do I need to destroy the plants or remove all the fruiting stems? Help, I don't think I can live without my gooseberries - one year without fruit will be bad enough!

Sounds like it. They reckon improving the airlfow through the bushes helps so give them a pruning to thin out the centre of the busg a bit. The wet season will not have helped. Some varieties are resistant to mildew. I have a bush of Invicta which is resistant. (Sadly it's so thorny it's almost resistant to picking too!) Just pick off the gooseberries and destroy them. I don't think you need to cut out all the fruiting stems (but I'm prepared to be corrected?)

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www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

Thanks for your reply. I think this must be due to the weather because the bushes are several years old and I have pruned them the same way I always do. However my neighbours have planted a beech hedge and its causing problems all along the boundary so that probably hasnt helped - now that its reach 6 feet high and hasnt had any pruning so overflows my side by 2 feet at least!

Beech hedge??? Watch out for white fly then!