Gooseberries are a fuss-free fruiting shrub that are a great fruit bush for beginner gardeners. Suitable for container gardens, small gardens, big gardens or allotment patches. They are a brilliant addition to the edible garden. Gooseberries, however, have a crisis of conscience with gardeners.
Given their rugged, thorny appearance, many people are either discouraged from growing them or fail to prune them properly. Trust me when I say there is nothing to fear, and a good pair of gardening gloves will prevent any issues with those thorns!
I grow a number of different Gooseberry varieties in containers in my edible garden, and they are prolific fruiters once established. Gooseberries are great for jam, Gooseberry gin or picking fresh from the shrub with their tart and juicy deliciousness!
This guide is going to help you correctly prune your gooseberry bushes without fear of those thorns, which will help keep them producing fruit each year for your delight!
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Gooseberries fruit on 2-3-year-old wood. They tend not to fruit on soft new growth. However, over time if these older branches are left unchecked, they will soon start to produce fewer and fewer fruits over time as they come to the end of their lifespan.
This is why pruning each year will encourage fresh new growth that from years 2 and 3 can then take their place. Think of it as a never-ending cycle of older growth-producing, new growth growing, and then removing older growth once unproductive.
Pruning also helps keep your gooseberry bushes in a healthy form that is free from disease and drama. If left unpruned, gooseberry bushes tend to get over-congested. Branches may rub and cross each other, making picking fruit a hazardous task along with all sorts of congestion issues such as fungus or disease setting in due to lack of airflow.
Pruning is really simple and if done each year, takes a matter of minutes to improve fruit yields on gooseberries and also prevent disease/damage. Pruning helps focus the plant's energy on shoots that are going to be productive.
Although we are removing parts of the shrub think of it as redirecting the energy into lower shoots or other areas of the gooseberry bush.
Pruning Gooseberries has the following benefits:
In the UK, the best time to prune gooseberries is in the winter when the plants are dormant.
However, several beginner gardeners struggle to know how to select the right 'outward facing' buds for pruning until they have emerged.
Gooseberries are really tough plants, so if you're a beginner always prune in early March when the buds are just breaking.
This is because it makes it easier to see which way the new growth is facing and also identify dead wood, ie wood that hasn't budded at all and needs removing.
Before we get into the action of pruning you're going to need 3 pieces of equipment to successfully prune gooseberries.
The first thing to understand is the ultimate shape we want gooseberry bushes to be in. For most gooseberry bushes, this is the 'open goblet' or 'upward facing palm' shape. There are other ways to train them, such as cordons and wall training, but that's usually reserved for more advanced gardeners.
This guide focuses on the open goblet shape of the gooseberry bush. It's always best to have sharp secateurs to hand that are strong enough to cut through their woody stems. If your secateurs struggle to cut straight through the branches of your gooseberry bushes, they need a sharpen; follow my guide here.
Stand back and look at the overall shape & health of the gooseberry bush, Looking carefully for any dead wood, crossing, damaged or diseased branches. These branches are going to rob the gooseberry of vital nutrients and will end up getting in the way or damaging the gooseberry long term so they need removing.
Remove these first by cutting them back with your secateurs to the next set of healthy growth ie the net bud down or right the way back to the main stem if crossing over. Don't be shy, goosberries are tough so be bold with your pruning.
Stand back and check your progress as you remove each part of the gooseberry bush. This will enable you to keep the gooseberry evenly spaced and shaped. Take your time to help you balance out your pruning. If you find it's getting lopsided, even out the pruning on both sides.
We then want to remove any growth in the centre that may be preventing the open goblet or upward palm shape. This is especially true of crossing or congested growth from previous fruiting seasons. By opening up the centre we encourage airflow which helos prevent mildew and fungus from damaging our gooseberries.
Even if there is healthy growth in the very centre, the likelihood is it will send out laterals (side shoots) that will ultimately end up rubbing against the outward-facing branches and stems we are training. Be bold, by removing these, we are focusing the plant's energy on more productive parts of the gooseberry bush.
Next, we want to remove 1/3 of the very oldest wood right back to the main stem.
This is because this older wood, say 4-5 years old, will have become less productive. Removing it will spur the gooseberry on to put on fresh growth that can replace it. This helps open up the shrub giving a higher fruit yield and less congestion.
We then want to take off 1/3 of last year's growth from each of the remaining tips. Reducing them in length by roughly 1/3 of their overall size.
This should leave 3-5 buds on each of the remaining stems. We do this to focus more effort on fruit and less effort on vegetative growth. This also helps keep the gooseberry bush in a neat and workable size.
We are aiming for an 'open goblet' or upwards palm shape for the shrub. This will result in 5-7 main stems equally spaced with an open centre. This allows airflow and light to get to each part of the gooseberry shrub equally, meaning a healthier, more productive plant!
Collect your cuttings in your bucket so you don't end up standing on them by accident. They can be really sharp. I don't compost these clippings as the thorns are lethal when handling compost. So I either save them and use them as kindling or put them in my council recycling green bin.
Lastly, each Autumn, it's a good idea to give your gooseberries a good thick mulch of peat-free compost. This will help feed them, especially if you're growing them in containers. Mulching is the gardeners' secret weapon against weeds and illness. It also makes your plants look really neat as a thick black layer of lovely mulch surrounds them.
Mulching gooseberries helps them:
It's really simple to prune gooseberries this way and keep them productive for years to come. Most pruning of gooseberries takes as little as 15 minutes once you have your confidence, and it's a great way to improve your overall garden pruning skills.
You should aim to prune your bush gooseberries once a year using the guide above.
This means that each year, you're taking out the oldest growth and keeping your gooseberry bushes productive and creating a cycle of new growth to replace the oldest growth each year.
If, during the year, your gooseberries get damaged from severe wind or a stray football, then prune back the damaged areas immediately. Don't wait for winter, as damaged branches lead to infection and poor plant health.
If you're just maintenance pruning them and there's no damage, always wait for winter. Pruning in summer often cuts off the buds that will turn to fruit, so by pruning during the gooseberry growing season, you can actually stop the plant from fruiting that year!
Most gooseberries fruit in June here in the UK. You'll see the fruits emerge from April onwards, and the biggest problem is getting to them before the birds do.
You can cover your gooseberries to prevent birds from stealing them. However, I find birds only pick them when they're ripe. There are green or red gooseberry cultivars, so don't wait for red ones to turn green or vice versa. Look up the cultivar you have, and then use the guide below to know when they are ripe!
You can tell when a gooseberry is ripe as they should be slightly soft to the touch. If they are hard or firm, they are not ripe yet. From the end of May, I check mine every couple of days. Then, when they feel soft, I harvest them quickly. I may leave a few for the birds so they don't miss out completely!
Gooseberries make wonderful jams or fools. Given their high sugar content, they work really well for sweet desserts. I make jam with mine using an equal part of the fruit to jam sugar. Jam sugar contains pectin, which helps the jam set. By making jam, I can enjoy gooseberries all year round and even add them to the centre of cakes for a sweet and tangy treat!
I like to give my jams ridiculous names just for fun.
Stewing gooseberries for a fool is the quickest way to prepare them. I put my gooseberries in a pan, and add sugar to taste and a splash of water. Simmer for a couple of minutes, and then take off the heat. When it's cooled down, it turns into a lovely fruity syrup great for ice cream, to have with yoghurt or your morning porridge!
Gooseberries make great container plants for balcony gardens, small urban homesteads or limited-space gardens. They are really tolerant of many aspects, including shade in a garden. When planting gooseberries in containers, use a rich peat-free compost like this one. Top dress at the end of each year and give a good liquid feed during fruiting, such as home made organic comfrey tea.
The best way to stop birds from eating your gooseberries is to use a fruit cage. A fruit cage is a lightweight structure that has a net over all sides. Your gooseberry bushes are then grown either in containers or in the ground in this cage. It stops birds from being able to steal the fruit but still allows insects like honeybees into the cage to pollinate the gooseberry flowers which then become fruits.
Gooseberries are delightful fruit-bearing plants, but they are not immune to a variety of pests and diseases that can impact their health and productivity. As a dedicated gardener, it's crucial to be well-informed about the following common gooseberry pests and diseases to ensure the well-being of your plants:
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So there we have it, the easiest way to keep your gooseberries healthy and full of fruit each year. Meaning you can enjoy delicious homegrown organic fruit each year. Be the envy of your neighbours and maybe make some gorgeous preserves to gift to friends and family.
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Happy pruning!
Lee Garden Ninja
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It is a great advice to prune your gooseberry immediately to prevent serious problems rather than wait for the winter!
Thanks for easy to understand assistance on growing gooseberries and when to prune…
Cheers. Franklt
Hi I am complete newbie to growing anything planted our purple gooseberry bush back end of summer last year and now we are getting a fair bit of flowers. My question is how would I know which way to snip the branches away from the buds I am someone who will do this wrong
Hi Andrew, Thanks for your comment on gooseberry pruning. Not to worry about being a newbie! The easiest way is to see which side of the stem or lateral the bud is facing. You want to cut above the ones facing outwards not on the inside or facing inwards. Hope that helps! Happy Gardening. Lee
Thanks for the easy step by step instructions, very helpful. I just repotted a baby plant and look forward to some berries this year.
I have a newly bought (this year) Invicta Gooseberry bush in a container, some of the new fruits have a white appearance to them. |The stems seem in good order, can you suggest what may be wrong with the plant.
Hello we have had our gooseberry Bush around 4years hasn’t really done anything thank you for explaining Where’s best to cut I will do that this winter 😀 x
Hi Joan.
Sounds like mildew which is caused by heat stress. It slows down the growth of the plants and fruits by reducing photosynthesis. Make sure it’s well watered and fed. That should help. Happy gardening. Lee
You’re welcome I’m glad my gooseberry guide is useful! Happy gardening. Lee