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Gooseberry bushes
Penny19
Posts: 53
in Fruit & veg
My gooseberry bushes were stripped bare this summer by gooseberry sawfly (I think). Will they recover next year from this and is there anything I can do to help them get over it?
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Penny19,use a winter wash with jayes fluid in January, follow the instructions on the container,but make it a bit weaker because it's very strong. It works for red and white currants too. Black currants are not affected.Spray the ground as well.
Last edited: 12 October 2016 21:31:20
Hi Penny,
I use a spray of diluted neem oil .... it is totally organic. I've had no gooseberry sawfly problems for the last 6 years ... and great crops of berries.
See this link for further info.
http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-oil-insecticide.html
and this one for how to make it.
http://www.discoverneem.com/neem-insect-spray.html
I use it as soon as growth starts in April and I drench the foliage. Any spare solution goes onto the soil below as the earthworms are supposed to love it. I repeat spray every few weeks.
Neem is best used preventatively .... but will work on pests that have already arrived. It does not hurt beneficial insects. Only chewing and sucking insects are affected. The main reason is that insects need to ingest the neem oil to be affected, and beneficial insects don't eat your plants. However, you can still kill beneficial insects if you smother them with neem oil, so I tend to spray late evening to be safe.
It does stink a bit ... but is easy to mix up and apply.
I got mine off ebay .... wasn't expensive for a big bottle which will last ages. At room temperature it is solid, but goes liquid again within a couple of hours in the airing cupboard.
Worth a try .... also seems to work well for lily beetle and aphids.
Bee
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
@$" but they came faster than I could remove them!!
please do not use jeyes fluid, it is NOT a plant wash, insecticide, soil sterilizer or anything other than a glass/plant pot sterilizer (and I wouldn't use it for that anyway when you can use washing up liquid as effectively).
Clear the ground around and below the bushes of dead leaves and other detritus and mulch with compost/ well rotted manure
this will help prevent the pests from overwintering there.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Fortunately (!) no dead leaves to clear. They ate the lot!!
Last edited: 17 October 2016 13:52:45