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FAQs
You can grow different gooseberry varieties as bushes or along a fence by training and shaping the plants into cordons.
Feeding your gooseberry bush in early spring can benefit your harvest, especially if your soil lacks nutrients. Use an organic fertiliser high in phosphorous and calcium, such as the Bonemeal Fertiliser. Avoid fertilisers with high nitrogen levels, as this can cause gooseberry mildew. If mildew does occur, refer to our guide on tackling mildew.
Ideally, you want to plant gooseberries anytime between late autumn and early spring. This is when the root systems are dormant and the most common time that bare rooted gooseberry bushes are sold.
For a gooseberry bush, you want to trim back the current season’s growth to around five leaves from the main stem in summer (June to July). Gooseberries bear fruit on the previous season’s wood, so you won’t lose any fruit when you do this. Always prune after fruiting.
Then, in winter, while the plant is dormant and leafless, you want to remove any dead wood and cut back each of the side shoots to within three buds from their base. Always trim your branches to an outwardly growing bud.
For gooseberries grown as cordons, your main pruning time will be in winter. Just cut back each spur so that there are around three buds left between the tip and where the spur attaches to the main stem.
Gooseberry bushes should generally be pruned twice a year. Once in summer to trim back around half of the new growth, and then again in winter, after all the leaves have dropped, to reduce the length of the side branches or spurs.
Your gooseberry plant should produce fruit in its second year after planting, especially if you plant bare root gooseberries and buy your gooseberry in the UK. This is because gooseberries generally fruit on two to three year old wood.