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Lichen on Gooseberry bushes.
Shoz2
Posts: 15
in Fruit & veg
This is growing all over my gooseberry bushes.... will it kill them?
They dont seem to be growing nice new shoots these days.
How can I get rid of it??
It is blue ish colour and crusty.
0
Posts
Sorry, Im new to this and dont know how it works yet!
"It" is a blueish ,crusty Lichen growing all over the stems of the bushes.
Any help will be appreciated.
Hi Shoz2, lichen is harmless, but it does take a few years to grow. From that I think you might not have been pruning them? Have a look at the RHS gooseberry pruning advice here:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=332#section2
and a video:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Video/Gooseberry-pruning
It may denote clean air, but if it remains on the branches it will harm them as they rarely get a chance to dry out properly.
If you look more closely at the photo it says 'lichen on blackthorn' so it isn't on gooseberry bushes.
It can be expected on blackthorn as they are long-lived trees.
Phillipa, I realised that as soon as I posted. As lichen takes quite a long time to grow I think the problem with the gooseberry is that a pruning regime has been neglected, but if started this year all will be well!
Interesting.... I was looking up lichen as I have it on a lot of plants... Azaleas it seems to be more common on, I also have it on gooseberry bushes and several other woody stemmed shrubs around the garden...I pruned it out last year although it has returned with a vengeance! .. I have very wet heavy clay soil which I'm beginning to think could be the main problem?
It's absolutely nothing to do with the soil - it's because you have clean air
It tend to grow more strongly on slow-growing plants, so if your shrubs are a bit lethargic, possibly because of cold and heavy clay, then you can perk them up by mulching with lots of organic matter to feed the shrubs and improve the soil structure. That should make the shrubs grow a bit faster and the lichen won't be as noticeable.
However, personally I'm thrilled to see it on my trees and shrubs - when I was a child I only ever saw it in isolated woodland on Dartmoor or West Wales - the only places where the air was pure enough for the lichens to grow.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.