Healthy Gooseberries

Hello all, I'm on the search for growing healthy gooseberries. I bought three earlier this year, planted two in the ground and one in a pot (will go to the back of the garden when I get a chance to sort it out).

Anyway the one in the pot grew fantastically! The winds knocked off quite a few new branches but since then it's grown very well again.

The two in the ground however... one sent one branch upwards and done not much else, the other grew lots of leaves but not grown any bigger.

Now I'm guess the ones in the ground are not happy as they are in a shady spot, get sunlight everyday but shady in the morning and late in the day. Also whilst I dug down quite a bit and replaced the clay soil with some better stuff it still won't have perfect drainage.

I think they would be better suited to the back of the garden. However I have not gotten this ready yet so they wouldn't be put in there until next year.

Do I ...
Leave them where they are and move them next year?
Dig them up at the end of the growing season this year and move them into pots?

Next year when the back of the garden is ready can I move them to their new home?

Also does anyone have any ideas how to make them happier where they are?

Many Thanks All!

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Colin Robinson on July 31, 2012 at 20:52

If you're going to move them anyway I'd be inclined to dig them up this autumn and put them in pots. Then when they are ready for their final positions they are less likely to suffer root damage if you can plant the entire root ball. When you transplant them add some bone meal or other phosphate rich fertilizer as this is good for promoting root growth.

Apart from giving them a balanced liquid feed as a tonic there's probably not much you can do to make them happy in their current position.