Just checked by gooseberry bushes & all the fruit has vanished , could they have been ate ny Pheasants or pigeons ??
...or blackbirds/trushes....it is quite likely it is your feathered 'friends' that have payed visit..unfortunately..
Yup, once they get noticed, they can disappear in one day. Net early!
Quote from: Big Malc on June 05, 2011, 07:46:17
Just checked by gooseberry bushes & all the fruit has vanished , could they have been ate ny Pheasants or pigeons ??
Could have been two legged rats?
We definitely had the two legged rat variety in our allotment last year!! B#*%#$d stripped my bush and nearly all the others on the site; rumour was that there was a glut of gooseberry jam at the local car boot sale. If it happens again I'm sorely tempted to move the bushes to my garden and make room for them there. It is annoying when this happens when you have put so much erroft into growing them. >:(
Oh what a shame! Well, my little gooseberry bush didn't survive the drought, so I don't have that problem ::). Next year, you'll remember to net early.
boydzfish - what makes you think it was a person? Isn't it more likely to be a bird?
I've got one bush out of 8 that for some reason alway get robbed by blackbirds.. ??? I've stood and watched when the birds were in 'work'.. ::) Last winter I decided to some changes in lottie and that bush had to go..so far none of the other bushes have been touched.
Years ago on other plot that I had..I did have 'visitors'..that liked to pick the my gooseberry crop.. >:(..and they weren't feathered sort visitors.. >:(
I have also suffered with the 2 legged variety of thief. :-X
Yes, net once the fruits starts to develop and before it turns its ripe colour. I have found that you don't need to net fanatically, I have some just thrown over, and that seems to persuade them.
I've got CDs hanging amongst my gooseberries and currants - so far so good and plenty of birds around.
Hadn't been to the allotment for a week and most of our gooseberries are gone. We have them growing up the whole length of the plot. Must have fed all the bllomin pigeons for miles around. Was going to give our excess to cats protection lady to make her jams for the funds but had to tell her today that we hadn't got any.
If it was a bird Pigeonseed it would have had to walk off the allotment the amount of berries it ate!! Still we are quite lucky in that there isn't much of this sort of thing going on so far and this has been the only incident of this nature.
Checked my Goosegogs today and they are looking good with the red variety starting to turn, really pays to put some netting over, :)
Collared doves and cawing big black feathered rats visit me so I've had a net over. I don't know when I can pick them but mine's a red and it's blushing up.