HOME GARDENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 82, 6 January 1950, Page 2

HOME GARDENS

(By J. S. Yeates, Massey Agricultural College)

GOOSEBERRIES We are now just at about the best of the gooseberry season—the berries are now at about the ripe stage—and a half hour around a bush of really ripe gooseberries is something worth while. As with other ci'ops, the best time to choose your varieties is when you can see the fruit. Most gardeners become tired of gooseberry bushes, usually because the same plants have been growing in the garden untended for many years. Time spent pruning, digging and manuring these odd does produce some result, but generally it is a poor return in quantity and in quality, because older bushes tend to produce smaller berries. My advice is to find a friend who has gooseberry bushes of as many varieties as possible, and to sample his fruit when it is ripe. Having found a bush which suits your taste mark it and arrange to take cuttings off it next autumn. I suggest growing your selected type from cuttings yourself, for the simple reason that the names of varieties of gooseberries on the New Zealand market are in a state of horrible confusion. The same name is applied to various different sorts, and the one sort goes under a whole assortment of different names. The Horticultural Department of this college is growing a wide range of these varieties in the hope of straightening out some of the confusion of names. In due course, no doubt, it will be possible to buy gooseberry plants which can be guaranteed of having been propogated from the correct type for that particular name. For the meantime, you must either be sure of your nurseryman’s varieties, or take any sort at all, or else grow your own from cuttings. The cutting should be taken in May-June, as soon as possible after the leaves turn colour and commence to drop. They are very easy to grow if you follow the instructions. The shoots of wood made in the previous summer (i.e. the foot or so of growth at the end of the branches) are cut off. A vigoorus bush is needed to give the best shoots which should be a foot or more long. Cut away the two or three inches of thin wood at the tip and discard it. Trim the base of the cutting by cutting it cleanly with a sharp knife. Secateurs are not so good as a knife, because they often bruise the bark and decay may start there. Next, cut out all the buds on the cutting except for the top three or four. These buds should be easy to identify. There is one just above where each leaf has been.

To cut and bud out, use a sharp knife an gut it out by making a small nick from each side or a shallow curving scoop cut. The reason for cutting'these buds out is to prevent the growth of suckers or branches near ground level—a ' clean stem a few-inches above ground is a help in weeding. Plant the cuttings about six inches deep in a piece of well worked ground with good free-draining Do not push a cutting into the soil or you will damage it at the base; make a slot with a spade, place the cutting in it and then firm the soil really hard around the base of the cutting by driving the heel of the boot obliauel yinto the soil two or three inches away from the shoot. Finally, smooth over the soil surface. With reasonable care in planting, and in weeding and cultivation during the following year, at least three quarters of the cuttings should give useful bushes. They can be set out in their permanent places one year after making the cuttings. The plants should be set out from two or three feet apart, or rather closer if you have in mind using them as a sort of hedge between different parts of the garden. Give them a good start by planting in early winter, while there is enough warmth to start their roots growing. Dig the ground thoroughly before planting, and work some manure or compost in, because you will not be able to get at the soil under them again. The secret of growing gooseberries is to prune and manure sufficiently to get vigorous growth. That is one reason why young bushes are 11. st. After eight or ,en years it ’s better to have some young ones coming to bear, and to grub out the old ones. *