My two green gooseberry bushes are laden with full size gooseberries.
They are also carefully netted so that the birds - otherwise most
welcome in the garden - don't get any.
However, I have tried a couple of the more golden looking ones, and I
find them still extremely tart, and not the texture I would expect -
hence not ripe yet.
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???

While I'm on the gooseberry subject. I had last year my first
infestation of the caterpillars of the gooseberry fly - can't remember
its precise name, but the grubs are about 2cm long, green with black
head and legs. At the time, I got rid of it by spraying an organic
insecticide - which did the trick. This year, by the time I spotted
them, they had got onto the redcurrant bush. Out of insecticide, I
used the hose to spray the branches with water at relatively high
pressure (though not that high that it would damage the leaves) - which
knocked most of the caterpillars off, and apparently stopped - or at
least slowed down - the systematic stripping by the little beggars.
Any idea whether this is effective long term, or can I expect them to
survive the (relatively) high pressure shower and come back for more?
Cat(h)

"Cat(h)" writes
My two green gooseberry bushes are laden with full size gooseberries.
They are also carefully netted so that the birds - otherwise most
welcome in the garden - don't get any.
However, I have tried a couple of the more golden looking ones, and I
find them still extremely tart, and not the texture I would expect -
hence not ripe yet.
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???

While I'm on the gooseberry subject. I had last year my first
infestation of the caterpillars of the gooseberry fly - can't remember
its precise name, but the grubs are about 2cm long, green with black
head and legs. At the time, I got rid of it by spraying an organic
insecticide - which did the trick. This year, by the time I spotted
them, they had got onto the redcurrant bush.

Are they the same ones? I thought the gooseberry ones were Gooseberry
Sawfly and specific to gooseberry.


--
Kay

"Cat(h)" writes

K wrote:
"Cat(h)" writes
nd am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???

While I'm on the gooseberry subject. I had last year my first
infestation of the caterpillars of the gooseberry fly - can't remember
its precise name, but the grubs are about 2cm long, green with black
head and legs. At the time, I got rid of it by spraying an organic
insecticide - which did the trick. This year, by the time I spotted
them, they had got onto the redcurrant bush.

Are they the same ones? I thought the gooseberry ones were Gooseberry
Sawfly and specific to gooseberry.


They are most definitely the same caterpillars, and doing the very same
damage. I read up a bit about them, and found that they are also
partial to all manners of rubuses - especially currant bushes.

Interesting, I wondered about that.

I had a good look at all my bushes yesterday evening, and I can see no
more caterpillars, and no further damage.

Strictly, they're not caterpillars, since they don't grow up into
butterflies or moths ;-)
--
Kay

Strictly, they're not caterpillars, since they don't grow up into
butterflies or moths ;-)
--
Kay

I planted a gooseberry bush in April and its since doubled in size.
Just look what these pesky caterpillars did in one day I sprayed it
with insecticide and put a cardboard collar around a base of the bush.
http://tinyurl.com/qs3db
http://tinyurl.com/lwkzm
http://tinyurl.com/lecp9


Does anyone know the best way to take cuttings from a gooseberry bush?

Martyn

Cat(h) wrote:
[...]
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???
[...]

It sounds as though you want them for dessert purposes, but of course
they don't need to be perfectly ripe for cooking. And if you want to
make wine, then IMO unripe ones give a much _better_ flavour than ripe.
If I had to choose only one fruit to grow in Britain for white wine, it
would be gooseberries without hesitation: a modest addition of grape
for quality, of course, but for most of us it's more convenient to pay
a foreigner to do the grape-growing.

--
Mike.

Mike Lyle wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
[...]
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???
[...]

It sounds as though you want them for dessert purposes, but of course
they don't need to be perfectly ripe for cooking. And if you want to
make wine, then IMO unripe ones give a much _better_ flavour than ripe.

I find the red cultivars are better for dessert purposes. Sadly this
years cold snap has allowed mildew to cause some trouble. But OTOH I
have my first serious crop of Jostaberries (3 years after planting).
Quite a vigorous bush if you have the space - gooseberry blackcurrant
hybrid with very large ovoid blackcurrant fruits. Much less topping and
tailing needed to fill a fruit pie.

Keeping the bords off them is non-trivial but they seem to crop well
even in N Yorks.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Mike Lyle wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
[...]
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???
[...]

It sounds as though you want them for dessert purposes, but of course
they don't need to be perfectly ripe for cooking. And if you want to
make wine, then IMO unripe ones give a much _better_ flavour than ripe.
If I had to choose only one fruit to grow in Britain for white wine, it
would be gooseberries without hesitation: a modest addition of grape
for quality, of course, but for most of us it's more convenient to pay
a foreigner to do the grape-growing.


I trust the foreigner and the grape *exclusively* when it comes to
wine. I have had to suffer wayyy too many samplings of Aunty Nora's
vile paint stripper home made from flowering scutch grass in this part
of the world...
I would like to be able to eat the gooseberries raw, with maybe a
little added sugar and cream, but at the very least to make fools or
gooseberry compote. I don't expect them to be as sweet as
strawberries, but right now they seem still too sour even for my
purposes.

Cat(h)

"Cat(h)" writes

Mike Lyle wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
[...]
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???
[...]

It sounds as though you want them for dessert purposes, but of course
they don't need to be perfectly ripe for cooking. And if you want to
make wine, then IMO unripe ones give a much _better_ flavour than ripe.
If I had to choose only one fruit to grow in Britain for white wine, it
would be gooseberries without hesitation: a modest addition of grape
for quality, of course, but for most of us it's more convenient to pay
a foreigner to do the grape-growing.


I trust the foreigner and the grape *exclusively* when it comes to
wine. I have had to suffer wayyy too many samplings of Aunty Nora's
vile paint stripper home made from flowering scutch grass in this part
of the world...

Yorkshire Country Wines (I think they're called) do excellent fruit
wines. You couldn't get further away from paint stripper. Gooseberry,
elderberry, elderflower, damson, etc.
--
Kay

Well, there is always the gooseberry drink that was featured on tonights Gardeners World - allotment special programme. If I recall, it was:

A load of gooseberries, liquidised and strained (looked about half a litre), some (a tin) condensed milk to sweeten, about half a large tin of stout, vanilla, and a dash of rum. Was there nutmeg in there as well? Maybe?

Seemed to go down well.....

Cat(h) wrote:
I would like to be able to eat the gooseberries raw, with maybe a
little added sugar and cream,

What variety do you have? The more "traditional" ones are a bit tart,
most of the golden or red/pink ones are sweeter. The catalogues
appear to use the expression "Culinary" and "desert" as code for "need
stewing with sugar" and "can be eaten straight"

When I had gooseberries I grew Whinhams, but it's too damp round here
and they got horrid mildew. Recent climate changes may persuade me to
try again.

Mustang wrote:
Well, there is always the gooseberry drink that was featured on tonights
Gardeners World - allotment special programme. If I recall, it was:

A load of gooseberries, liquidised and strained (looked about half a
litre), some (a tin) condensed milk to sweeten, about half a large tin
of stout, vanilla, and a dash of rum. Was there nutmeg in there as
well? Maybe?

Seemed to go down well.....

Gasp!

Cat(h)

wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
I would like to be able to eat the gooseberries raw, with maybe a
little added sugar and cream,

What variety do you have? The more "traditional" ones are a bit tart,
most of the golden or red/pink ones are sweeter. The catalogues
appear to use the expression "Culinary" and "desert" as code for "need
stewing with sugar" and "can be eaten straight"

Hmmm. I see what you mean. Regrettably, the bushes were planted two
years ago, and the labels have been lost.


When I had gooseberries I grew Whinhams, but it's too damp round here
and they got horrid mildew. Recent climate changes may persuade me to
try again.

I think I will leave the fruit on the plant for another while, and then
harvest and stew with *sizeable* amounts of sugar...

Cat(h)

K wrote:
"Cat(h)" writes

Mike Lyle wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:
[...]
When can I expect to harvest gooseberries, and am I naive to expect
they might get *just a little* sweeter???
[...]

It sounds as though you want them for dessert purposes, but of course
they don't need to be perfectly ripe for cooking. And if you want to
make wine, then IMO unripe ones give a much _better_ flavour than ripe.
If I had to choose only one fruit to grow in Britain for white wine, it
would be gooseberries without hesitation: a modest addition of grape
for quality, of course, but for most of us it's more convenient to pay
a foreigner to do the grape-growing.


I trust the foreigner and the grape *exclusively* when it comes to
wine. I have had to suffer wayyy too many samplings of Aunty Nora's
vile paint stripper home made from flowering scutch grass in this part
of the world...

Yorkshire Country Wines (I think they're called) do excellent fruit
wines. You couldn't get further away from paint stripper. Gooseberry,
elderberry, elderflower, damson, etc.

There's many a culinary sin committed behind closed doors, particularly
when the priority is to generate something home made and boozy... I
have no doubt very good alcoholic drinks can be made from fruit. It's
just not what I expect from wine.
But don't mind me :-)

Cat(h)

Cathy,
A trick you could try to reduce the instance of gooseberry sawfly is as
follows.
In the autumn, remove all leaves detritus from under the bush, then
remove around 1/2 inch of soil from under the bush. The aim is to
allow the winter weather and birds to get at the soil and kill any over
wintering pests.
Come spring replace removed soil with a good covering of well rotted
garden compost and feed.
I found this out as it is a practice for raspberries

I have a Lancashire Lad as a cordon in a pot which suffered from
sawfly repeatedly until I tried this. It does not stop it, you still
have to be vigilant, but touching wood for the past 3 years I have had
no problems. Have had to rub some off Junifer redcurrant but otherwise
trouble free.

As for taste - somethinh live Leveller can be very green and tart yet
left to mid July will go golden yellow and soft - you can feel the
change in the fruit - some may even split.

The flavour changes as they ripen - I prefer a bit of tartness - just
to anounce it is a gooseberry. In my mind its like a Bramley not
having an edge or rhubarb being over sweetened - looses its flavour.
Each to their own as always

Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire