A week ago our early gooseberries needed a few more days to finish ripening. Today not one berry remains, not one fallen beneath the bush, in fact no sign that there were ever any berries at all. What on earth has happened to them? Are they liked by any creatures apart from humans?
this is my first year of growing gooseberries and it has not exactly gone to plan beacause some sort of garden pest had being eating the leaves, this perticular bush has thorn so i doubt thats its slugs , please help me out as to what it might be.
My gooseberry plants have been devastated by sawfly caterpilaars this year, got some fruit early on by picking off caterpillars but they have no leaves left on them can save save them somehow or do I have to start again. I don't want to use chemicals hence trying to pick them off but this only works if you don't go on holiday!
hi all see some of you are having trouble with yer gooseberrys. it takes a couple of years before it fruits,you can use round up to kill couch and then mulch it.birds are your promblem with disappearing fruits,gooseberrys need covering with nets.hope that help
a friend of mine suggested planting gooseberry bushes through black weed supressing mats, so helps to deal with the thorny issue of weeding: doesn't help with the picking though!
Gooseberry mildew - your compost or especially manure has got to be well rotted! Any that is still rotting down in the soil around them will encourage fungal disease, this goes for all plants, but gooseberries are very susceptible. Spray the soil around them with nettle tea, it strengthens plants and helps them resist and it drives the fungal activity back down into the soil where it belongs.
Compact BLACKBERRY varieties like Loch Ness & Loch Tay have 4 foot spacing recommended, the standard ones get 8 to 13 depending on variety and not just because of the length of their canes but so the roots are not competing if they are different varieties and one is stronger than the other.
There are probably modern options for growing them a bit diferently, by pruning the new canes somewhat so they fruit mostly on sideshoots, worth experimenting perhaps?
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see some of you are having trouble with yer gooseberrys.
it takes a couple of years before it fruits,you can use round up to kill couch and then mulch it.birds are your promblem with disappearing fruits,gooseberrys need covering with nets.hope that help
Compact BLACKBERRY varieties like Loch Ness & Loch Tay have 4 foot spacing recommended, the standard ones get 8 to 13 depending on variety and not just because of the length of their canes but so the roots are not competing if they are different varieties and one is stronger than the other.
There are probably modern options for growing them a bit diferently, by pruning the new canes somewhat so they fruit mostly on sideshoots, worth experimenting perhaps?