Sickly Gooseberries

[Barbara'nTom]

Planted the bushes last year and they got attacked by something - sawfly I expect, and lost all their leaves.

I got very excited 6 or so weeks ago when from looking dead they both beagan to sprout lots of new leaves. We were even more excited when some fruit began to form. However, the berries now have mildew and the leaves seem to be getting speckled patches on them with the new growth disappearing.

Is there anything I can do short of spraying Bordeaux mixture over them and is there anything I can do next year to avoid this happenening again. I thought gooseberries were meant to be really hardy but I have had nothing but problems!!

[rustylady]

Only answer to sawfly is to spray with insecticide or soft soap. Not sure about the speckled patches, could it be weather damage - we have had a lot of heavy rain here lately which is making leaves look very poorly. Powdery mildew is usually aggravated by dry roots so a good soaking could help.

[nick the grief]

Increase the air flow through the bush will help if it's mildew. Sawfly is a real pain. Some one gave me a goosgog years ago and I put it in the soil ( it was in a pot) ... it's still there as it rooted though the pot and it gets murdered with sawfly most years but as it's near ot my bird table at home I leave it an the Tits love nibbling the caterpillars off it !

Last year and this year though it didn't have any on and it looks really healthy - might have to look after the damn thing now

[pumpkin cuddler]

Hello
I have the same problem with my gooseberries.
We looked up the probelm on the internet and it seems to be American mildew.
How we gte it here I do not know.
Anyway, it seems that the organic way is to spray with bicarbonate of soda.
I cannot tell you if it works as I am going to the allotment today to do it.
If we are both lucky this will work.
Also they say that if you keep the plant pruned in an open and airy way.
We do prune but obvoiusly not enough.
It is also a problem that then gets into your soil and I think could be airborn.
I think that it said that it can over winter on the buds and in the soil. Not sure if another spraying of the bicarbonate of soda in the winter months will help.
Anyway good luck.

[Flummery]

There is a mildew resistant variety - off the top of my head I think it's Invicta. The downside is that it's said not to have as good a flavour as other varieties. I had a couple of Invictas on my allotment but my palate is not sufficiently sensitive to detect the difference. They tasted alright to me!