Why are my Gooseberry bushes not producing fruit?

Bricriu

Anyone got any ideas why my Gooseberry bushes are not producing fruit?

They have been planted for 6-7 years, and all they have produced were tiny gooseberries not worth picking.

I feed them, and I have also moved two bushes to a part of my garden which is has acidy soil, with no improvement.

Go raibh maith agat.

looksee

Is your soil very dry? Gooseberries need a good bit of water to swell. Its probably too late for this year but you could try mulching them with something to keep the moisture in the ground. They are fairly easy going so either you have poor bushes or they are in too-dry soil. They fruit on last couple of year's wood, so you could try cutting out all the oldest branches and just leave newer growth, take them back by about a third. Mulch well with organic matter, and see what happens. Books recommend fertilizer - tomato feed I think - when the fruit is swelling, but they will usually grow quite happily without. Mulch and water are the main things.

Bricriu

Looksee - thanks.

No, the soil is not very dry, and all general vegetables are very successful in the same vegetable patch as the gooseberry bushes are in.

looksee

Is it possible you have been seeing small gooseberries then the birds have taken them before they got big enough to pick?

Crows completely stripped a mature apple tree last year of every single fruit overnight. Literally, one day there was fruit, a lot of it, rather small but ripe, the next day there was none. Meanwhile an adjacent apple tree that had lots of fruit but it wasn't worth picking it was so indifferent in flavour, very small, tough skins etc and they completely ignored it.

Other than that it may be better to cut your losses and buy a couple of new bushes - most families would find two bushes enough. They really are hardy and easy, they should not be such a disappointment.

Living Off The Splash

My Gooseberries were very poor this year. I have about 6 bushes. Barely got a punnett out of the lot.

looksee

I inherited a very old, huge and madly overgrown gooseberry in the garden of the house I have moved to. It wasn't fruiting at all - but it was barely visible under a pile of briars and nettles. It was cut very hard back last year, leaving just a few likely looking branches but the rest was down to almost ground level. It has come back with loads of new growth and a good crop of gooseberries on the old branches.

looksee

Aaannnd...after all that, I went to have a look at the gooseberry - its a bit out of the way - and NO gooseberries. Not a one. The birds have had all of them. Dratted crows.

Harris8855

Can anyone tell me how to know if they are ripe?

Jim_Hodge

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117635945#Comment_117635945

For jam you pick them firm and green around now. For eating they need to be much paler and quite soft.

looksee

If you want to just eat them, get a dessert gooseberry. The cooking gooseberries are not worth waiting for, lovely for a pie or stewed to eat with icecream. But well grown dessert gooseberries - mmmm -cross between a good plum and a grape, eat them off the bush!

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638989#Comment_117638989

You mentioned mulch in previous posts, could you kindly tell me what makes a good mulch?

Thanks.

looksee

A mulch is just anything that covers the ground, keeps in moisture and discourages weeds. It can be something like pebbles or weed membrane, or organic stuff like leaf mould, wood chip, grass clippings or even cardboard. If you have well rotted compost that would be good, grass clippings - though I prefer not to use thick masses of grass clippings, an occasional thin layer has chance to dry out and break down a bit. Commercial wood chip is probably the easiest. Whatever you use don't put organic material piled up against the stem or trunk of the bush, leave a little space round it.

Brendan Bendar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117751527#Comment_117751527

Thank you for that.

appreciate your time

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117753473#Comment_117753473

😀 No thanks needed - gardeners just LOVE spreading wisdom - and cuttings and seeds and spare plants!

Living Off The Splash

Very very poor return on our gooseberries this year. Also our blackcurrants.

We were out foraging for blackberries last weekend. Made a few pots of jam that is really lovely. Kept some of the blackberries back for mixing with the yogurt but very bitter. Of course lots of sugar in the jam helped.

MacDanger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117756661#Comment_117756661

Are the blackberries out already? I missed them last year so I must get out this weekend to have a look

loyatemu

my cultivated blackberry bush that I planted in the spring produced a good few berries over the last few weeks but is finished now.

the, shall we say, less cultivated brambles growing in the garden have loads of fruit on them but it's not even red yet. When I was down in Cork last week the wild brambles there seemed a good bit further on, some red, some black.

(incidentally we had a good crop of gooseberries this year, and for once managed to pick them before the birds got to them. unfortunately I've now realised I don't really like gooseberries 😐️)

Maxxx17

If you just want to eat them buy dessert gooseberries. Finished gooseberries aren't worth the wait. They're great for pie or stewed with ice cream. But well grown dessert gooseberries are mmm something between a good plum and a grape, eat them off the bush!

Living Off The Splash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117774996#Comment_117774996

Yes. There is some sort of early variety that produces large berries. The normal or common variety seem to be still green and barely red. I hope to get out again this weekend and get a kilo or two. That will keep us in jam until next year.

We have also been foraging cooking apples.

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775114#Comment_117775114

There seems to be an echo round here?