Gooseberries

[David Greenwood]

Could anyone give a hint as to why there hasn't been one gooseberry on my plant in the past two years?

[seasprout]

Are you getting any flowers at all..?? are they being frosted off.? Nibbled by birds..??

[David Greenwood]

Flowers? Nope none of them either - just a useless bush whose days are numbered I guess

[ophiopogon]

maybe its too hot

[ardroil]

i had one gooseberry last year of my bush, i cut it right back and so far this year there are loads on it, cant wait to try them

[chriscross1966]

Lost all my gooseberries (massive crop too) to mildew in the last couple of days.... was there Sunday and they were fine, there yesterday evening and the whole lot were white and furry..... the only thing that takes the edge off it is that they were inherited plants with the plot and it's my first year..... they do that next year and there will be harsh words.....

[Nicos]

How strange!!..is it a young plant???...maybe next year it'll flower?
As seasprout suggests- could it be frost or birds???
Try fleecing it over winter and see what happens!

[David Greenwood]

Thanks guys -plenty of food for thought - leaves have drissappeared too - guess its a has-been gooseberry

[Nicos]

It may not be dead..could be it's got sawfly now- the caterpillars can eat all the leaves within 2-3 days!!!

If you do plan to replace it- keep the new one well away from this one- if it has sawfly, the soil may be infested

[crichmond]

I would let grow as it is this year then prune about 1/3 off all over at the beginning of february to encourage new growth which in turn should promote fruiting.

[David Greenwood]

Mmm slightly conflicting advice here - if it has sawfly the soil may be infected so --- burn the lant and replace elsewhere? Or just cut back one third in Feb and hope for the best?

[bramble]

Am I missing something. I have a gooseberry bush and its about 3 year old. I have got some berries from it but not a great crop.
My question however is- does a gooseberry bush produce flowers as I have never seen flowers on mine!

[starloc]

They dont realy look like flowers, more like tiny round berries, they can be hard to see, kind of like they have already flowered and the petals have already fallen off, before they realy have

[sheena]

Our goosberry bush was infested with sawfly for about a week and it looked all set to die.
No matter how quick I was pulling the little caterpillar guys off, they would always be there again the following day. (I had fed the pulled off one's to my chicken's, and they loved them).

So I went out and bought a spray that kills sawfly (called ultimate bug killer cost about £4) spray it on the bush and keep an eye on the infestation to cease, if it don't redose the bush with the spray. (I did this a week apart, although the bottle says 2 weeks).

I now have a healthy gooseberry that is now getting the start of fruit. This will be the frst year we have had fruit from it, and our bush is 3 yrs old now.

Hope this helps

[crichmond]

Mmm slightly conflicting advice here - if it has sawfly the soil may be infected so --- burn the lant and replace elsewhere? Or just cut back one third in Feb and hope for the best?

Easy way to tell is does it have most of its leaves still, as Nicos says the caterpillar will eat them all if you have sawfly.