Growing Gooseberries: Soil, Care, Pruning and Harvesting the Gooseberry Patch

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: Overview

Growing gooseberries is a worthwhile fruit to grow in the gooseberry patch as they are excellent for making jams, jellies, desserts, chutneys and wine. In fact, we have about 4 gooseberry wine recipes for you to try! Gooseberries usually grow in a bush, although they can also be trained to grow against a wall or fence and commonly known as a gooseberry patch. With the various varieties of gooseberries around from plants that produce tiny, sweet yellow sugary fruits to ones that produce large, red dessert fruit one can extend the picking season from early spring right through to the end of summer.

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: Soil and Position

Position your gooseberry patch so that they will have full sun. Gooseberries love to grow in a sunny site which has well-drained soil that is kept moist. Therefore a perfect fruit to grow in a large container, as under these conditions the soil's moisture content is easily controlled. However, gooseberries will really grow in any type of soil, as long as it has been enriched with well-rotted manure and composting material.

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: How many Gooseberry Plants do you Need?

One mature gooseberry plant will usually suffice for a typical family, as you should get about 3.5 kg of fruit off it during the year. However, if you want more gooseberries, then you will have to plant more of them.

When growing gooseberries the plants should be planted out in the autumn, with spacings between each plant at 1.5 meters. Mulch well with well-rotted compost around each plant to retain the moisture content in the soil and water well, never letting the soil dry out. Repeat the mulching process every spring.

In mature plants remove any shoots that appear at the base of the plant less than 9 inches off the ground.

Growing gooseberries also means a free invitation to the birds in the neighbourhood to dine! If you find that you are loosing too much fruit to the birds, you may have to cover the bush with netting to keep them out.

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: Pruning

Your gooseberry bush will need to be pruned in summer and in winter. In winter make sure that any dead wood has been removed. Summer growth shoots should be cut back to one half to two-thirds to a bud. Wait for it to bud, so that you can see where to cut. Finally remove any weak shoots and prune so that sunlight will be able to reach the centre of the plant.

In summer you can prune the side shoots back to about 5 leaves to encourage fruit buds to form.

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: Harvesting

If you don't thin out your harvest when growing gooseberries you will end up with lots of small berries. However, if you want to increase the size of your berries you can start to thin them out when they are big enough to use to 1 inch apart. You can do a second thinning so that they are 3 inches apart. This will give you a smaller yield but a larger berry.

GROWING GOOSEBERRIES: Pests and Diseases

Occasionally gooseberries in your gooseberry patch will suffer from mildew and are attacked by caterpillars and other chewing pests. See our page on Natural Pesticides for organic spray recipes to control these problems.

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