Xenia gooseberry

[cheops]

Bal - your link works. The giant yellow gooseberry I'm referring to is not this early sulphur. It would be marvellous if someone out there knew anything about this giant yellow or even better where I could get one.

[gullivar33]

xenia

Thank you CHEOPS that sounds just the one , really wonderful gooseberries my dad had a row of 10 bushes

[BUFFS]

when you prune your gooseberries remember that you are trying to create a "goblet" shape, this allows small birds to get to the sawfly grubs and means the plant is always well "aired". thus stopping any moulds etc to get a foothold, it also makes picking them easier, I will start picking mine this week as they have turned a ruby red so will be sweet and juicy, and all from 2 poundshop buys. do not be too fast pruning out whole branches as you will see when a branch is not producing, I make a note of any dud stems while picking and then cut it out before I forget as we now have about 10-11 bushes from those original 2. any viable trimmed stems can be cut to 8/10ins and shoved three quarters depth into a greenhouse border or a 5ins pot of compost and put in a shaded corner until spring, and then plant out your new bush and let it grow away to give you free fruit...

[Kirk]

If I recall gooseberry's fruit on "old" wood, bits that are more then a year old. So if you heavily prune this year then expect to have no (very little) fruit next year 2017, fruit will return the year after 2018.

What is usually done is the bush is trained into a 3, but prefrerably 4 branch structure then you can prune one quarter each year, thus developing some new growth while the other 3 fruit. You cycle round each portion.

If you did not want fruit in any amount then prune heavily and then perform minor pruning the achieve the shape and structure you require as a final result.