Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All,

I am in the middle of transferring to a new allotment in a different town. I can do this quite leisurely.

While it is fun buying in new plants, trees and bushes, I have a well-established Pax gooseberry bush, which has been in situ for more than five years. It is a great cropper and doesn't have thorns.

Is it possible to move it to the new site? In doing so, would I get a crop out of it next year? If not, I might leave it where it is and buy a new one.

Any thoughts?

Barry

Right time of year to be considering it and the larger the undisturbed ball of earth on containing the roots the higher the chances of success.

Totally agree with Peter. with the additional wording of waiting until the gooseberry appears devoid of leaf.

Any decent sized gooseberry bush without thorns is to be treasured, I reckon. I''d get the new hole dug ready for it, wait until it has dropped its leaves and prune it if necessary before digging it up. I have relocated gooseberry bushes in late autumn/winter before without them seemiing suffer any hardship and still had a crop the following year. Just avoid moving and replanting when the ground is frosty.

Would the same advice be true for a blackcurrant bush? I have one of these which regularly produces tons of fruit, and I'd quite like to take that with me, too. Ditto a jostaberry.

Most things move if you are careful. The only downside is you lose a season while a replacement gets going if they die. If they struggle give up. Whilst moving also take cuttings, they establish remarkably quickly.

As Geoff has suggested, most fruit bushes will relocate OK if you move them in the right season. If you have several things to relocate, just prepare the ground in their new location carefully and take as much root ball soil with them as possible.