Baldy goosegab bush!

[Scottyboy]

Hi there, it's my first post here hope you can help.

I planted a gooseberry bush last year. I didn't really expect any fruit in the first year. It grew well for a while but kept going baldly. Some one told me it was probably the white fly (i think) but I dont know how to treat it this year. It grew loads of fresh leaves but then seemed to be eaten by something, just the fresh leaves though, not the stems. Any ideas guys?

[Scottyboy]

[.]

Hi,
  My guess would be the nefarious guzgog sawfly

[Scottyboy]

Yes, thanks, that was it, but what do i do about it? Funny i never saw any flies! see what I did there. ahem!

[grawrc]

It's the larvae that do the damage. They look like small green caterpillars. I just pick them off.
Oh and welcome to A4A Scottyboy.

[skintnbitter]

I have had the same problem for a couple of years now.

Read somewhere recently that the larve fall off into the soil and hibernate while the following year and attack the bush again.

According to the article I read, it said to dig the soil around your bush to bring them to the surface for the birds to eat, so will be trying this once the soil has deforsted.

[Scottyboy]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice, ill keep a close eye  on it this year as I could never see anything on the bush last year and Ill dig up soil round it too. Cheers!

[STEVEB]

Scottyboy..get bored with the homewine making site?