[cricketwidow]

Earlier in the summer my oldest gooseberry bush lost all of it's leaves and produced nothing this year it looks dead but I don't think it is, now the one next door to it has produced some fruit and it was very healthy but that also has no leaves now, I have 6 or 7 of them in a row and it looks like 3 of them could be going the same way, with the earlier one I thought it was sawfly after reading this site, but could that be the case now?  I live in Cornwall and it has been extremely wet. So please help as I need to know what to do to rectify this situation.

[sunshineband]

It does sound like sawfly.

Last year I sprayed my bushes with Provado Bug Killer when the leaves mysteriously disappeared from half one bush virtually overnight. It did the trick and leaves slowly grew back. This year they have escaped attack, thank goodness.

I would buy some spray and deal with them in as dry as spell as you get, imho

[Babstreefern]

Definitely sawfly - need to buy bug-killer and spray your plants (although probably too late this year).  After six years, believe it or not, I picked my first harvest of goosgogs this year.  What I did was back in April, I quickly hoed around the plant, disturbing any sawflies, then sprayed the ground around the bush, right into and around the roots with bug killer; then a month later I sprayed the bushes with stuff to kill any potential mildew.  Then at the beginning of June, I re-sprayed the bush with the bug-killer, and hey presto, at the weekend, I had the best ever crop of goosegogs ever   Probably a bit overkill with spraying, but I was determined to get something out of them.

[cricketwidow]

Thank you so much everyone for your help I will get spraying, it is raining here again today but it should be a dry weekend so they tell me.

[Mr B]

Hi All,
   Sorry to highjack the thread but my gooseberry bush had a good crop on it to start with but then the leaves turned to almost a cream colour as though it had become verigated and most of the crop dropped off unless the wind and rain knocked them off. Would this be a magnesium deficiency?
Regards,
Chris

[JayG]

It could be, although it could also be a nitrogen deficiency given all the wet weather we have had (could be both of course, or even some other trace element!)

Although products like Miracle Grow or Phostrogen include trace elements, including magnesium, I'd suggest watering with a liquid feed with the addition of a teaspoonful of Epsom salts per canful to make sure - mulching and possibly dry fertilisers are of course a better solution in the long term.

[Mr B]

Thanks JayG

[shokkyy]

One of my gooseberry bushes had sawfly two years running. I didn't spray it with anything, just encouraged the birds around there with some food, and the next year it was gone.

[galaxygirl]

Hi
I also have had problems with gooseberrys this year. My gooseberry bush in my garden which was laden with fruit last year has about 10 fruits this year. The leaves look healthy so don't know what has happened - pruned as per Expert book and fed and mulched. Also have just taken on a vegetable plot in a friends garden which also has a gooseberry bush - not a single fruit this year - leaves are slightly reddish round the edges and it hasn't been looked after so I can understand more why this is bare - any advice gratefully received.