How to care for gooseberries in the fall: main rules for fertilizing and pruning

Berry bushes need special attention in the fall to ensure that they overwinter well in the garden and produce a good harvest next season. Of course, this also includes gooseberries.

Floristics Info explains how to take care of the plant properly. Basically, the work comes down to proper watering, pruning, and applying the right fertilizers.

Watering

This berry bush is drought-resistant and feels good even in the hottest summer. However, it is important to still water gooseberries from time to time. Not only when it is ripe, but also when it is preparing for winter. During this period, the plants lay the buds for the next year, which is why proper moisture is so important.

Autumn watering of gooseberries begins in late August and continues until mid-October. At this time, you need to add 40 to 60 liters of water to each bush in 2-3 doses - the amount depends on the weather and the size of the bush. The soil around the plant should be at least half a meter deep - this is the depth of the gooseberry root system.

Fertilizing

Gooseberries need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to make them sweet and flavorful. You should also enrich the soil under the plant with organic fertilizers. However, it is better not to apply nitrogen and organic fertilizers in the fall, as this provokes an increase in green mass, which is not good in the autumn season. Instead, before the onset of cold weather, you should fertilize the bush with phosphorus and potassium. Such mineral fertilizers are applied every two years in the fall months. You need to take 50 grams of superphosphate and 30 grams of potassium per square meter of the plot. Ash can replace potash fertilizers. For proper fertilization, you will need 100 grams of dry matter per meter of the plot. If the soil in your garden is sandy or sandy loam, increase the dosage of potassium by a quarter. Spread the fertilizer evenly on the ground, spill it, and work it into the soil to a depth of 10-12 cm.

Pruning

This berry shrub is characterized by intensive growth, and its shoots are prickly and tough. In order to keep the plant under control, it is important to remove all unnecessary parts in the fall. Pruning begins, of course, with the removal of dry, diseased, and damaged branches as they simply take away resources in vain. Properly pruned gooseberries should receive sunlight evenly throughout the entire volume of the bush.

You also need to remove all thin branches - they are not suitable for fruiting. Old shoots that have degenerated and stopped producing crops should be cut off as well. But if the bush is very old, you should not remove more than a third of such branches - this can be dangerous and will harm the plant. Just before the frost, you should get rid of those gooseberry branches that interfere with the growth of others too. Large cuts that are thicker than 7 mm should be treated with pruning paste.

Additional care

In the fall, make sure that no pests remain in the gooseberry bushes for the winter. To do this, treat the plants with a one percent Bordeaux liquid. Copper oxychloride or captan also have a similar effect. The procedure should be carried out after pruning, but not immediately. You should do it in a week or two when the bush recovers a little and the cuts heal.

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