Gooseberries

Sorry but unlikely although you may get a few :cry: but why not have rhubarb crumble instead it is THE BEST!

Rhubarb plant will get you edible sized stalks faster. As for light, they mostly prefer sun but will grow in almost anything except full shade.

Will gooseberry canes produce fruit in their first year in the ground?  I love gooseberry crumble.

They won't. Some fruit in year 2 and more after, but let that not deter you if you like them, quite trouble free and will produce for many many years.

Me too,gooseberry Sawfly catterpillars are something else.

I didn't go to my plot for just 2 days once,and every single leaf was gone on the bush.

I got them last year too but caught them in time and a dose of Derris sorted them out.

I've just lost all the leaves on my new gooseberry bush to the *.
 :cry:

Will it recover?

Cheers,

Adrian

I used to have gooseberry bushes in full sun on the exposed brow (top of where it began to slope) on a plot, never had to do anything to them and they produced excellent berries year after year, and I never heard of gooseberry sawfly.  

Then I grew a gooseberry bush next to a fence in my back garden.   I got one crop out of it and the following year, it was devastated.  Leafless.   I chopped it back and had the same problem again the following year, and then finally found out about gooseberry sawfly.   So this year I was checking and picking every sawfly caterpillar off it at least once a week.   Nonetheless it was so weakened and leafless from the continuing infestation, that the berries were rubbish.   I let the plant go to pot.

Moral of the story?   Full sun and a windy spot (the sawfly are not very good at flying in the wind).   Or don't leave any litter around the base, so that the birds can find and eat the overwintering grubs.