Another Gooseberry Question!

[JennieAtkinson]

I'm growing gooseberries for the first time this year and have them in (large) pots as I'm not sure whether they will overwinter this far north outside. Three bushes, to give me a harvest through the summer - an early, middle and late variety.

So........ they have been in the polytunnel, tootling away, and I have been hardening them off over the last few days outside. Quite a bit of leaf on the three branches, but they are not great plants yet.

BUT I have a number of flowers on the Invicta. Should I get it outside so that it can be pollinated? (Seen a number of bees around these last few days) Should I also get it covered with netting - will the birds have a go at the flowers? Or do they wait for the fruit?

Grateful for any advice - just looking forward to gooseberry pie!!!

PS The only fruit I have grown so far is rhubarb, so it is quite exciting!

[Flummery]

I don't net mine against birds Jennie and I've not had them attack the flowers either. And we are plagued with butch and ravenous pigeons! The only time our almost tame blackbird will have a go at the fruit is if I've missed one or two and they become over-ripe and very soft. Then she sidles into the bush and pecks away the soft centre and leaves the top bit dangling!

[Headfry]

Watch for Saw Fly......... how can I stop this without spray?
Help please!

[SueA]

Hi Jennie, I think you should be O.K.with gooseberries outdoors, I know I'm a lot further south than you but mine have always survived cold winters outside in pots.They do look as though they are completely dead for a while but then put on lovely fresh green leaves in the spring.I've never netted mine as the only problem I've had is Sawfly like Headfry, I even dug one up once & threw it away as I was so sick of losing all the leaves & my redcurrants being attacked as well.I try to pick the larvae off but if you miss a couple you've had it. Garden Organic say the last resort is to spray with Derris,but be careful not to harm beneficial insects too.
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/pc3.php

[Palustris]

We have wild gooseberries in our hedgerow. This is one of the coldest parts of England (like down to - 20c a few winters back!). Frost can occur almost any month including July! So the bushes themselves are pretty hardy. After all it is one of the very few actual native berries! The bushes are obviously neither netted nor sprayed and very roughly treated by the hedge cutting machine. Yey every year they produce a good crop. The leaves are often completely stripeed by sawfly, but they grow back agian within a few days and it does not seem to bother the plant. Only problem, mildew. In a dry year the berries are often unusable because of it. If it was a garden plant a spray with Copper sulphate would be an organic solution. Birds seem to ignore them completely in favour of our redcurrants. Pity I cannot eat gooseberries though. They are far too acid for my stomach.

[JennieAtkinson]

Thanks for the tips all. Our problem here is not so much the cold, as the wind. The continual high winds, which are salt laden can have an extremely damaging effect on most things, so I had intended to try and overwinter them in the tunnel to avoid this.

We have lots of starlings in the garden who just love to peck anything! Mainly my nasturtiums and anything green leafed (they have muched their way through a number of my nursery plants) but I thought they would probably go for the gooseberries too. Thats great news, as with the wind its always a problem holding netting down too! Oh the joys ........

[Nicos]

Jennie- I did see a Jay last year picking the ripe fruit off our gooseberry bushes- so do watch out!
It certainly needs to be outdoors for the insects to pollinate it though!

[pigletwillie]

Jays wont be a problem for Jennie as I am fairly certain that there are no trees in Shetland to speak of and they are a woodland bird.

However something birdwise eats my gooseberries if I dont net them.