gooseberry bush

jess444_2

Hi,

I have had a gooseberry bush for 3 years and in all that time I have had 1 gooseberry:mad: It looks healthy and is netted, so I just don't know what the problem is. Any ideas would be welcome.

Jess

realfood

What sort of netting is it?

Kay_Peel

jess444 wrote: »

Hi,

I have had a gooseberry bush for 3 years and in all that time I have had 1 gooseberry:mad: It looks healthy and is netted, so I just don't know what the problem is. Any ideas would be welcome.

Jess

Don't worry. A gooseberry won't start bearing fruit until it's more than 3 years old - so your luck is about to change, maybe. :beer:

To get the very, very best crop out of your gooseberry, it needs a little bit of Tender Loving Care in the Autumn and Winter.

- No plants within 3 feet of it, ideally (I tend to break this 'rule' :rotfl:) So if you've got it in a pot smaller than a bucket - move it into a gi-normous barrel container because it needs room to feed and breathe.

- Shorten any new growth from the previous summer by a half (this will encourage fruiting spurs to develop)

- Lay some manure/humus/compost around the plant (but not touching the trunk) - the humus wil break down over the winter and feed the goosberry ready for growth in the Spring.

- A good watering around April and May (about now), if there hasn't been much rain. After a good watering (at least two watering cans or buckets) put a layer of compost around the trunk - to keep the moisture in and keep the weeds out.

After that, you will have gooseberries galore! :beer:

:beer:

forgotmyname

I planted a triple plant bought from lidl's a couple of years ago, Raspberries & gooseberries & something else, originally put in a pot but didnt do very well.
Last year i put it in the garden & got a couple of raspberries, Its sprouting like crazy now so maybe this year.

jess444_2

Hi, thanks for your replies. It is planted in a bed with a couple of rasberry bushes that were planted at the same time. They have done very well, but maybe thay are too close. I will try the water and manure and hopefully get some fruit this year. The netting is standard bean and pea netting which seems to have kept the birds off the rasberries in the same bed, so I presume that is not the problem.

Jess

Lotus-eater

You only need nets if you have fruit (and gooseberry don't really need nets anyway) you only get fruit if you have flowers, have you had flowers?

As Kay says, they do take a few years to get going.

harib0uk

This is good know I wasn't aware that they too that long... I have two in the back garden one is now 2 years old and the other one year old.. had no fruit on them, but I was down my new allotment today and noticed that my neighbours has fruit, so I was wondering why mine hadn't.

I am hoping to move them from the back garden down to the allotment to give them more space as they are pretty close together. When is the best time to move them and how should I go about doing it?

LJM

my dads bush can go a couple of years with nothing and then all of a sudden it produces like anything, loads for the freezer

jess444_2

No, I haven't noticed any flowers. Hopefully I will get a few this year. Do you know what month they usually fruit.

Jess

Farway

The flowers were about a fortnight or more ago [Hampshire] and now have small fruits showing & starting to swell

If you have none, assuming not in Outer Hebrides, then my guess is no luck this year

Thye fruit on old wood BTW, have you been "pruning"?

Chimera

I bought one from nursery last month, and it's starting to fruit.. was only £4.99, more expensive than less mature ones, but well worth it.