Gooseberries: A Good Time To Plant

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Gooseberry belongs to such garden plants, which are best planted in the autumn season. This thorny shrub begins to grow very early, as soon as the first sun warms up after a cold winter. And therefore, with a spring planting, it will not take root well

Choosing a site for planting

Gooseberry is not a very whimsical plant in terms of growing conditions, and it can be cultivated on almost any type of soil. However, he also has his own preferences. In particular, waterlogging of the soil is destructive for him. That is why swampy areas, lowlands are absolutely unsuitable for growing gooseberries. It is also a bad decision to place plantings where there is stagnant water or high groundwater. Here you will not save your plants from frequent mildew damage. In addition, in such conditions, the bushes can be covered with lichens.

Don't waste your time planting gooseberries in the shade of trees or tall fences. You won't get a rich harvest here. In addition, in shading, the berries ripen unevenly, their presentation is worse. In shading, as well as in thickened plantings, gooseberries become more vulnerable to diseases. In order for the bushes to be at ease, for development between plantings, you need to measure a distance of at least 1.5 m.

If, when buying a summer cottage, a gooseberry was already growing in the garden, and it was planted compacted, here you can still achieve good yields with one simple trick. To do this, it is necessary to thin out the crowns of the bush through one. But planting new plants in such close proximity to each other is not worth it. Caring for them is difficult, as well as harvesting the future crop: do not forget that the shoots are covered with thorns.

Preparing the soil for gooseberries

The technology for preparing the soil for gooseberries and black currants is very similar. The main difference is that our hero requires more potassium. For fertilizing a plot of 1 square meter. use:

• organic matter - up to 10 kg;

• superphosphate - 100 g;

• potassium sulfate - 100 g.

Immediately before planting the seedling in the hole, it is filled with:

• 8 kg of organic matter;

• 150 g of superphosphate;

• 40 g of potassium sulfate.

The simplest method for propagating gooseberries is considered to be rooting of horizontal layers. But this method is available to the gardener only if he already has a 3-5 year old plant bush. To do this, in early spring, the layers are rooted in the grooves, bending to the ground. And in the fall, these shoots with their own formed root system are separated from the mother bush for transplantation to a new place.

Please note: if the seedling was bought in the nursery, before planting, after transportation, it must be placed in a container with water for a couple of hours so that the roots are saturated with moisture.

When planting a seedling, make sure that the root collar is at least 5 cm below the soil level, and the plant itself does not tilt and stands vertically in the hole. In the process of planting, watering of new plantings is carried out at the same time - it is important that the roots in the first days in their new place are in contact with sufficiently moist soil.

After planting, you need to mulch the soil. If a bright sun peeps out in the fall, it is recommended to cover the young plantings. And in the spring this must be taken care of without fail.

When seedlings appear, the soil is loosened. By the way, loosening, hilling and mulching is an important part of caring for gooseberries. If the planting was successful, the gooseberry took root, then under favorable conditions and proper care, it can grow in one place for up to 15 years. And the peculiarity of the root system of the shrub is that every year, at the base of zero shoots, new roots grow. They must be hidden under nutritious soil substrates, mulched with humus or compost.