Gooseberry funeral

[Snailfox]

Good evening folks.

I was just wondering, (and i suspect I know the answer to this one but thought I'd consult your collective wisdom)

I planted two bare-root gooseberry plants late last year, and one has produced loads of leaves and looks full of life , whereas the other is displaying none of the above. I'm assuming it should be looking promising by now. Should I dig it up or give it just a little longer?

[fishpond]

Scrape a small bit of bark off the stem or uncover part of the root and have a shuftee, but your title seems to have summed up the situation so I would prepare yourself for the worse.
The good news is that taking Gooseberry cuttings for propagation is easy

[iGrow]

Also very easy to propagate by layering.

[AllInContainers]

I had a Jostaberry (Gosseberry crossed with blackcurrant) snuff it a short while ago. Thankfully it was new enough for me to approach the nursery I bought it from, and they agreed with my thoughts and that it wasn't my fault, and they replaced it with a healthy one three times the size

I don't like scraping bark off plants in case they are/were healthy, but the key indicator for me was there was no flexibility/spring in the branches. I actually kept the original to one side once the replacement had been sited just in case, but when I picked it up to inspect it this morning the whole thing snapped off at soil level shoing a well rotten cross section.

I'd take cuttings anyway, check for spring/flexibility in the branches, and give the plant a little more time before you write it off (my blueberry bushes are all progressing at very different rates this year - one is in almost full bloom, whilst another only has two baby leaves)

[Snailfox]

Thanks for the tips folks, I'll update next weekend when I'm down the allotment next

[Kirk]

You could just prune one of the branches a bit and see if the cut is completely dead/dry across the cut. They usually look pretty dead when they are, there seems no sort of looking dead but isn't.

[BUFFS]

how did you manage to terminate a gooseberry, i trimmed all mine after fruiting last year and threw the cuttings on the side of the heap, i went past there the other day and 3 or 4 of the cuttings have rooted as a little bit of soil covered the bottom ends, i am talking a spoonful covering those cutting ends, it doesn't seem to take much for them to thrive...

[sparrow100]

I had the same thing with one of 4 gooseberries I bought through Blackmoor. They were brilliant and sent me a replacement after I sent a photo with the deadlooking one and the other 3 which were by then in full leaf. Sometimes they die for no reason you can think of. It's worth contacting the place you got them from.

[Snailfox]

Thanks Sparrow, I might give that a try. When I was down at thelotty on the weekend, I had another look, and there is one tiny tiny tiny bud at the very base of the plant, so I trimmed all the other branches back, and am hoping that it rejuvenates from the base. Fingers crossed. Regardless of the outcome, i'm guessing that it will be a while before I see much progress with my gooseberry ambitions. Still, at least my Invicta is looking rampant..

[Snailfox]

Double checked today, and it's definitely alive. a little bit of growth from the bottom, but I'm definitely not expecting a gooseberry fool anytime soon.

[fishpond]

Good news & Gooseberry fools are bad for you---IF YOU HAD ANY.