gooseberry attacked by sawfly (I think)

andrewf75

I have a gooseberry xenia 3 years old never had many fruit as it was affected by mildew and now this year it has been absolutely destroyed by sawfly. Is it worth trying to revive or should I give up on it and plant something else?

malebolge

Not having much luck. If it's sawfly, you'd see the caterpillar-like larvae chomping away on the leaves. They're sort of green with black spots. If it's not dead, just badly stripped of leaves, I'd be inclined to try to save it. you should be able to see the hungry little sods on any leaves left - so you can either pick them off by hand and squish them, or use something like Provado ultimate bug killer. That's if you use pesticides - if not, there's a nematode I think, but probably not worth it for 1 bush. The flies lay their eggs on the underside of leaves, often in the middle, so I always give mine a summer prune to keep the middle open - I can see any eggs better that way. If you do decide to keep it - you need to start checking from April - that's when the first eggs are laid. You need to keep checking, too as the larvae mature quickly and you can get 3 or 4 waves of them. They also eat black, red & white currants too, if you have any. Sounds a lot of fuss for 1 bush, but really, for every plant, there's some bug that will eat it. Part & parcel of gardening really. If you keep it, you might not have many gooseberries next year, but it should have recovered for the year after. I noticed a few early this year, blasted them with provado and I've picked pounds off every bush. (don't know the name but they're black gooseberries) HTH

andrewf75

Thanks, I have neglected it to be fair. I don't use pesticides so I'll have a look if there are any larvae there and pick them off

sheramber

My grandmother's standby was soap dish water.