Allotments 4 All

Several people are saying problems this year with gooseberries. This is a plant I bought last year so this is it's first year of cropping. I have already thinned some fruit and have had to tie the branches up to keep the fruit off the soil. I did buy from a fruit nursery so they were dug one day and re-planted the next.

They look fabulous, what an amazing first crop 

They look good Laurieuk.   I wish mine looked like that! 

I have mine under netting this year so the birds cannot eat them all, but the gooseberries are not very big.

Well done that man.......

On the thought of problems with gooseberries this year, I see that two of my bushes are heaving with fruit but a third has only three or four berries. Very strange to see so little fruit on it. No idea what any of the varieties are but they are all established bushes.

Mine never get that big! Still I have a lot of fruit, I have just netted my bush, sorry birds!

They look super.  Mine are about a month behind yours. Super crop.   

Wow they look fantastic!

Pigeons got lots of mine - caught me by surprise this year. Am sure the remains will be lovely- please can I have minimal June drop! :)

I just netted mine this afternoon, they are groaning with berries. I want to bottle some this year so must get myself organised. When do you expect to start picking?

I have already had 2 pickings ,as I am thinning them to get better fruits. I had had one picking when I took the first photo.

We were at our plot on Monday. The chap next door but one said he didn't realise wood pigeons ate gooseberries until he saw 4 on ours. Thank you WP. Gooseberryless now. New fruit cage being planned.

That is amazing mine have taken several years,  but this looks like being the year of the gooseberry for me.

What do you feed them on?

When I planted I used root grow to help form a good root system, I mulched early this year with some good rotted manure left from last year and also gave them some Vitax Q 4 that I use on my daffodils.