GOOSEBERRIES GRAFTED ??

After a few years of (more or less) neglect, we're getting the fruit patch back into shape.
Rasps, blackcurrants and blackberries doing very well, but the gooseberries, despite feeding and mulching, only have tiny little goosegogs (size of peas), although plenty of them.
Theyre about 15 - 20 years old. Cant remember which, but we bought 2 different ones.
The bushes are very big, make good healthy growth.
Q:  Are gooseberries grafted ? (in which case would my bushes now be just suckers?), or am I doing something wrong?
I gave the whole fruit patch quite a good dose of wood ash last winter.
Thanks for any advice.

I don't think gooseberries are normally grafted, it would be a waste of time since they strike easily from cuttings.

Are your gooseberries ripe? or are they just late developing?  I would thin out the berries a bit and see how much the rest swell and ripen.  If they do not develop the only answer would be to grub them out and plant new bushes of a different variety somewhere else. 

I don't think you are doing anything wrong - in fact you seem to be pampering them.  If you decide to keep them a hefty winter prune would be in order.

Cheers,

Gillie

They wouldn't happen to be deep red gooseberries would they?
There is a variety that is resistant to a lot of the viruses etc that can affect the mainstream varieties. I had a few of them.

The bushes were resistant but they had thorns on that stopped me getting at anything, also the fruits were small and round, about 6-7mm diameter.

I don't think that most bushes are grafted but they can be grafted as I have 2 bushes that are half standards adn are about 1 metre high. Not sure what they are grafted on.

There are a huge number of gooseberry varieties, some green and some red as well as hybrid berries like the Worcesterberry.

I believe attempts were made to breed a thornless gooseberry, but I don't think they were very successful.

We grow the variety Invicta which is disease resistant bearing green to yellowish fruit of a decent size.  It too has got out of hand and will need a severe pruning wearing heavy gloves.  Gooseberries can be trained into espaliers or cordons which makes the picking somewhat easier if you can be bothered to do it.

The RHS garden at Wisley has a vast display of gooseberry varieties, all trained as vertical cordons.

Cheers,

Gillie