GOOSEBERRY CULTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3987, 12 August 1930, Page 11

GOOSEBERRY CULTURE.

(By

George Goddard.)

While strawberries are delicious and wholesome, especially in their natural state, and respberries take high rank, both are useless unless ripe. Not so with gooseberries. These occupy the same place early in the season, as do that of apples—both are indispensable for cooking. Gooseberry bushes are generally raised from cuttings, say, 15in or 18in long. These should ont be too thick—say about as thick as an ordinary lead pencil. All the eyes should be cut out except about three or four at the top. Plant these in the ground about 9in deep, very firm at the bottom. Sandy soil is best for rooting these cuttings. If one buys gooseberry bushes, see that they have a stem at least 9in long. Trim off any shoots to about Gin, and endeavour to leave the shoots for the head, so that one can get the open hand between these shoots. You will find that they will break all up these shoots. Now ruff of a few of these so as to leave them a few inches apart. So much for the first year. PRUNING. As the bushes attain size, pruning must be resorted to, and just as it is intelligently conducted, so will the crop be. Some bushes in the gardens of small growers are never pruned, resulting in small fruit and quickly exhausted bushes. On the other hand, pruning’ without knowledge often prevents good crops of fruit. “• ■ . If all the young shoots are cut back, a thicket of useless growth is produced. Alain branches should be allowed to extend, and the side shoots cut back within an inch of their base—thus forming their spurs—-but in addition, where there is room for a shoot to grow, it should be left, because gooseberries bear on these spurs as well as on firm yearly shoots when these are not overcrowded. A very simple guide for the prunei is to cut so as to be able to get the hand between the branches, and also to leave the centre as open as possible. CROPPING AND SUMMER PRUNING. It now remains to show the result of keeping the branches well disposed for the production of spurs which cannot form if the trees are crowded with useless growth. The young shoots that sprang out all up the shoots that were left after pruning will be crowded, and so exclude light and air from them. This evil can be averted by nipping the tops off them in November or December, leaving some about six or eight inches apart. Notice the direction in which they are growing, and if growing crosswise, nip off, leaving about two inches to form spurs. Moreover, every shoot which exceeds the boundary allotted to it should be cut off.

Gooseberries like deeply-worked stiff soil, and should not be planted too deeply. They can be near fences or sheds, or any other building, providing it is not too shady.