Kitchen Garden Forum

My solitary Gooseberry bush, planted last Autumn, has been stripped by sawflies. As I didn't expect any fruit this year I didn't pay much attention to it and when I eventually realised what was happening my attempts at picking them off were too little and too late. Is there anything that I can do to encourage the plant to recover?

It might not do much more this year, but you may be surprised how gooseberries will weather a complete defoliation by sawfly. There's no point treating your bush because the sawfly will have been and gone. You bush may remain leafless until next year, and attempt to throw out a few new shoots, but mostly they tend to sit and wait it out until next year when it should come into leaf again.

I had one bush stripped by these horrible beasties two years ago to the point where I thought it was completely dead. I just cleared the soil around it and left it until the following Spring meaning to dig it up if it still showed no signs of life. It must have read my thoughts because it showed some signs of life last year and bore a few gooseberries and this summer it had so many that the branches were almost breaking under the weight. They seem to be pretty tough plants.

I'll second that Felix and Primrose. Ten years ago on a previous allotment, the same happened to mine. One day they were fine and the next, almost completely de-foliated. They recovered well the next year.

Funnily enough, the four bushes in the fruit cage haven't been affected by the sawfly beasties this year but the one in the pot which I've grown from a cutting has been attacked. Fortunately it's still small and I have squished countless larvae....it's stood in the fruit cage now.

I can't quite work out why the sawfly didn't go in there as bees get in without difficulty....mind, I'm not complaining!
Cheers.