Kitchen Garden Forum

I need to move four goosberry bushes I inherited when I took on my allotment 4 years ago. I have no idea of their age but they are fruiting well. Would it be O.K. to move them (when dorment) or should I start again with new bushes? Regards to all. Allan(Doddy)

My allotment neighbour gave me four of his small bushes which he'd grown as cuttings; they were a couple of years old. He dug them up at the end of last year, I pruned them back pretty hardand stuck them in with lots of water. They are now growing strongly and have a fair bit of fruit on them.

He did say however, that he took a load of cuttings and just stuck them in the soil in a row to see what happened. Every one of them struck which is why he had these spare. Seems too easy really.

Hi Doddy,
A couple of years back somebody else wanted to do the same thing and I advised them at the end of the season to dig the holes at the new site before you dig up the plant with a large root bowl and a quick up transfer and plant and the plants didn't even know that they had moved house. Do this plant by plant and I am sure they will be fine. Take the opportunity to incorporate something like Hoof and Horn in the new planting hole.
The person came back and said that they were fine.
Incidently now until the end of September is the time to take Semi-ripe cuttings and in October and November you can take Hardwood Cuttings so perhaps as an insurance you could take some cuttings.

the general principles i use when moving anything are ,take as big a lump of soil and roots as possible, prune hard to reduce water loss from the leaves whilst the roots are recovering, take cuttings from the prunings pot them or stick in the ground in a spare corner, keep the area surrounding the transplanted bush moist, dont add fertilizers to the planting hole they will encourage leaf growth before the roots can supply enough water to sustain it.

Hi Richard,
If you do as you say and lift with a large root ball at the end of the season eg,when the plant has died down, there is no need to prune hard or for that matter even water them. When the plant has lost it's leaves it is not taking up water any longer.
The plant is at rest and when it wakes up the following Spring it will carry on as normal.

hi johnboy, we are on top of a hill with about 4 inches of clay based soil. if we transplant shrubs without pruning some of the topgrowth the shrub will die from drought the next summer. we have found its far better to prune hard to give the roots time to establish themselves. i will accept it may be different in one of those boys gardens they show on tv where you can actually double dig with a spade

Thanks to all for your advice. Hope you are well John, had a few medical problems of my own this year but now much improved. Thanks again, Allan (Doddy)

Gooseberries are one of the most amenable plants both for cuttings and for thansplanting, but they aren't very good on rapid growth. Therefore my advice is go for it in the dormant season, They won't die but you might take the opportunity to open up the bush somewhat in the interests of making the fruit easier to pick and also hand-picking the gooseberry sawfly. Any prunings can take their chance as cuttings.
I don't suppose you can identify the variety, a green-fruited upright growing cooking one is most likely to be Careless, not usually planted these days as it is replaced by Invicta which is less prone to mildew.
Allan