Hello:

I haven't had much luck with the green varieties. Most turn out too mushy and lack tartness. I like the big red varieties as they are very tart and firm. Where are you located? I have some seed available.

I grew Cape Gooseberries last year and they did quite well. This year I', trying Aunt Molly's & Cape Gooseberries.

I'm looking primarily for fresh eating, with jelly and jam a consideration only if have too many, so I'm not worried about tartness or firmness at all. I'd rather they be sweet more than anything.

The wild species that grows around here would suit me fine except the yield is very low.

Booberry thanks but cape gooseberries are physalis and not what I'm looking for. :)

Northspruce, just a thought.

Do you have access to some of the wild gooseberries? Do they sucker?

If you dug up and replanted some of the wild ones and babied and fertilized them, do you suppose you'd get a higher yield?

Not quite the same, but for years I thought our raspberry bushes were doing fine, but last year after giving them some fish emulsion just for the heck of it, and of course, it rained a lot last year, we got far more berries than we usually do.

I've never eaten gooseberries so I don't know if this suggestion would work for you or not. =:)

We grow both the red and the green varieties. The red, I think the name is Hinnomaki, seems to be sweeter. The green never gets a lot of fruit on it. Last year we weren't getting a lot of the red ones and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. One day I went out and saw a red butt sticking out of the bush. Our little red aussie cleaned off all 3 bushes! Never thought a dog would eat gooseberries. Marg

Marg, that's interesting about your dog eating the gooseberries ... mine just get so filled with those damned worms that I've given up on growing them, as I'm not gonna be bothered spraying or having to place a row cover on them.

I don't know if anyone has tried it, though gooseberry / raspberry jam is absolutely delicious!

Terrance

We had the worms you are talking about one year but we sprayed with Safers End All. It's a great product. I thought it had been banned but it's still on the shelves at nurseries. Since then we haven't had any probably because we have tons of birds here. When we moved in we put up feeders and birdhouses and let them take care of a lot of insects. Rosie must be able smell the higher sugar content of the red gooseberries. It's a wonder she didn't get sick tho. My other aussie leaves them alone. He tried them and decided he didn't like the taste, or thorns!Marg

My sister's dog will eat her blueberries if he can get at them. He is some sort of brainless Australian sheepdog cross. Northwoodswis

A lot of dogs eat blueberries! I've seen them stripping a bush, leaves and all. When we were young, we had a dog who used to come picking with us. He discovered that it's a lot easier to pick out of the filled baskets! LOL

My dogs eat anything, I have to keep my vegetable garden outside their fenced area. They especially steal raspberries and green peas. You'd think I don't feed them.

My dog also loved the raspberries and green peas ... oh, and she ate the saskatoons also :)

We had a dog who loved to chew on beans and broccoli leaves. And potatoes. She tried to help us dig potatoes one year but she kind of scratched them up as she was digging. :)

(Major thread drift, eh? LOL)

I guess I can't help at all then, Northspruce. We don't have a dog or gooseberries, ha, ha !

We do have an indoor cat and raspberries though =:)

Can I stay?

>mine just get so filled with those damned worms that I've given up on growing themTerrance, I have the same problem, I grow some, not sure what the are
they get kind of purple when ripe, just loaded but most fall off, the one's what have been bothered by pest, I spray with soap water a bit, somewhat it helps, neamoil or whatever it's called I want to try next.
The same happens with black and red currants.

I planted some seeds I received in a trade that were marked golden gooseberry. The plants are doing well but the bloom is a light lavender color, not the yellow I see in stock photos. Everything else about the plant looks the same but the color. I am new to gooseberries, is this a different variety? I grow raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and boysenberries so far.

Thanks!

Best check with your area, this is the far north cold zone, we're very
limited to what we can grow, post a picture with fruit in the fruit & orchard forum.

I ended up buying a nice healthy looking gooseberry bush today, it's Hinnonmakis Red like Marg recommended. Hope it's hardy, I'm seeing zone 3 to 4 but sometimes they're way out to lunch. It's got little gooseberries on it already, I know I should remove them at planting but I can't make myself do it. ;)

My Hinnomaki has gooseberries forming already. DH is looking forward to geting some this year and then he saw Rosie had already found them. She didn't touch them because they're still green, that's why I think it's the higher sugar content she smells ---- and likes! DH looked at her and threatened to cage the bushes this year. Marg

How big does the bush get Marg? I'm trying to decide where to put it - probably AWAY from the dogs...

Heh, reviving a very old thread. I planted gooseberries years ago but ripped them out when the sawfly larvae appeared. Decided to try again this year. Growing two red (purple) types... a European variety (Black Velvet) which is either thornless or not too thorny (can't recall) but is only rated to zone 4; and an American variety (Poorman) that is rated to zone 3 but is unbelievably thorny.

Bought both as potted plants with flowers on them this spring. This years production will obviously be small berries and may perhaps be different in other ways from established plantings. That said, Black Velvet has both sour/sweet characteristics and lots of flavour. Poorman has less prounouced sour and sweet characteristics and is tasty, but less so than the European variety. When I say "sour", be aware that I am a sour-wimp... these are less sour than sour cherries, more like a red raspberry.

Been picking fruits from both as they ripened, but picked the rest of the Poorman today (dime in there for size, the fruits should be much larger once the plants are established):

That's a good yield for a new bush, Don! I ended up getting a Hinnomaki a couple of years ago. The first year it got defoliated quite a bit by the sawfly larvae, but this year I experimented with neem oil on it and there were none. Not sure if it was the neem or just a low year for sawflies.

I got a decent fruit set this year but the bush is still quite small. The fruit was a good size and tasty - just what I was looking for.

I planted three gooseberry bushes this past spring. So how does one prepare the berries for use in a pie or cobbler. Do you pinch off that thorn, slice off the top of the berry with a knife, or what? The wild ones by us are covered with short fuzzlike coverings on the berries. Does one just eat the fuzz? Northwoodswis

Northwoods, I've always just eaten them as fresh-fruit. Pinch off the residual flower-bits at the blossom end, and enjoy!

That's ok when you have a couple of handful but when picking a couple of pounds sometimes with my albol currants, some pixwell gooseberries [similar with tail] I put them unaltered into my breakfast cereal.

This post was edited by konrad___far_north on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 12:55

So that is not a thorn? The wild ones by us have a large wicked-looking thorn sticking out of the berry! I thought the domestic ones did, too. Well, then I will look forward to eating my black velvet and Hinnomaki reds next summer (hopefully). Northwoodswis

Northwoods, I know what you mean... what I believe are wild gooseberries around here have fruit that is covered in thorns. The domestic ones don't have any thorns on the fruit but have the remains of the flower attached to each fruit (see my pic of Poorman gooseberries higher up in this thread). I've always picked it off which requires treating each berry. Konrads option of just eating the berries with the flower remains and all is probably the best way to go.