Why are my gooseberries so small?

[rikka]

Any ideas? The bush is about 4 years old, and has had the best crop so far in terms of quantity, but the berries are very small.

[WendyC]

My guess would be lack of water. I give mine a good mulch of compost or manure just as it's warming up in spring. If the crop I plentiful but small berries you could try thinning them to get fewer but bigger berries.

[rikka]

Thank you, I'll try your suggestions

[rustylady]

Welcome to the Vine Rikka.

Good luck with your gooseberries next year, mine this year were superb. In fact I still have more to pick.

[Farmer_Gyles]

I've just ripped myself to shreds picking 10lb of gooseberries - size is almost certainly down to the waterling - mine are well established plants, most of the berries (especially the red ones) are tiny this year - I didn't water at all until about 2 weeks ago (I laid a soaker hose)

Further along the same bed I have loganberries and raspberries - the first ones were big, fat and juicy - then it got hot and dry, the berries were smaller - since I laid the soaker hose, the berries have again been big, fat and juicy