Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi there
I would like to grow some goosberries and I think I can get my hand on some cuttings (saving a penny makes me ) any advice on taking goosberry cuttings would be welcome. Also ...any idea on how long before cuttings come to fruit????
Thanks in advance

Hello there, Figtree. I once knocked a shoot off a gooseberry bush by accident, stuck it in the ground and 2 years leter it was fruiting. However, if the person you are getting the cuttings from has really bushy bushes, it might be to your mutual interest to dig them up and divide them. Then his/hers would get more light and a new lease of life and you will have ready-to-fruit gooseberry bushes. That's how I increased my 3 bushes to 12 over about ten years.

mike

Many thanks Mike V for such an encourageing reply....it seems that gooseberries are just as willing to root as raspberries then.
Fig tree

Hi Figtree,
Cuttings for Gooseberry bushes can be taken as semi-mature cuttings in June to August and as hardwood cuttings from September and November.
With my Gooseberries it would be impossible to do as Mike suggests as they all grow on single stems and any ground shoots are cut out and not allowed to mature.
Gooseberries can also be propagated by using the layering technique and also with strong suckers from the ground being very carefully severed from the plant with some root.(these are called Frenchmans cuttings) I have found over the years that hardwood cuttings are the more successful of all the methods.