gooseberry

[annie8]

Looks like my gooseberry is putting out runners. There are a couple of new shoots appearing a bit away from the main plant. Can I do something with them or should I just pull up?

[ameno]

You could make more plants from them. They've probably rooted, so cut them from the main plant and dig them out.
I had an old, congested gooseberry bush which I dug out, and it turned into about 8 plants in the process. The original bush split in two, so I had two plants right there, and then it had layered itself over the years, creating half a dozen new plants.

[Nicos]

More gooseberry plants! Fantastic!
You can never have too many gooseberry plants!

[ameno]

More gooseberry plants! Fantastic!
You can never have too many gooseberry plants!

I have too many gooseberry plants. Or at least too many of the same variety. I have four Hinnonmaki red, and so they all ripen all at once every year. Picking them before they go over is a real ordeal. Eating them all can be somewhat challenging, too. I still have some in the freezer from last year.

[Snadger]

Gooseberiries layer very easily. I just put a brick on a branch to hold it in contact with the ground and it will root.
I have a couple that I have treat as half standards which makes them very easy to pick.

[Nicos]

You know something?
I have never seen fresh gooseberries for sale here in France!
Nor frozen ones gone to think of it!

[mrbadexample]

You know something?
I have never seen fresh gooseberries for sale here in France!
Nor frozen ones gone to think of it!

I never see them in the UK either (not that I look very hard).

I pinched a couple of unknown variety from my mate in Norfolk - they grow huge in his garden and this year I should get my first proper crop so looking forward to it.

I'll probably be speaking too soon, but I've normally spotted sawfly by now but nothing yet this year.

[ameno]

Gooseberiries layer very easily. I just put a brick on a branch to hold it in contact with the ground and it will root.
I have a couple that I have treat as half standards which makes them very easy to pick.

I've got one trained as a half-standard, too. Well, I say "trained". It was one of the aforementioned self-layered plants, and it just sort of ended up like that. It's certainly appreciated, though.

I never see them in the UK either (not that I look very hard).

I always see them in Tesco every year for a few weeks in June. They're cooking gooseberries, mind, not desert ones.
They were everywhere when I was in Poland last year. Evidently, the Polish love gooseberries. Blackcurrants, too. If anything, they love blackcurrants even more than we do.

[Plot70]

I just let the weight of the fruit pull the branches down to the soil. They just spread like strawberries.