Growing Gooseberries On Trellises

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

An original way to form gooseberries in the garden - gooseberries on trellises

A group of gooseberry bushes planted with tape

on a vertical trellis in the form of the letter P

Traditionally, vertical formation is used when growing a variety of climbing plants (for example, lemongrass, actinidia, clematis, etc.), and raspberries and blackberries are grown from the usual garden crops in our harsh latitudes. As for the gooseberry, it was always and everywhere grown with an ordinary bush and nothing else, since this is the way of formation, as it were, assigned to this plant and by nature itself.

However, in recent years, notes and articles about the experience of growing gooseberries (as well as red currants) on trellises have been appearing more and more often. Sometimes, it happens, even more exotic variants of formation are mentioned - elite, cordon and others, but they can already interest only incredible enthusiasts.

The classic and tapestry shaping options have their pros and cons, according to which some gardeners are inclined in favor of the classics, while others - in favor of the newfangled trellis. However, due to a number of circumstances, twenty years ago, I was forced to come up with my own method of forming gooseberry bushes, in fact, simply taking the best of the two above-mentioned technologies. Two reasons prompted me to such an innovation: on the one hand, at that time I could only take a small area under the gooseberries, but at the same time I wanted to achieve a very high yield, since the berries of this crop are consumed in our family in large quantities.

On the other hand, in those days, again, due to a number of circumstances, there were practically no assistants in my garden-vegetable garden, which means that I simply could not stop at a more labor-intensive tapestry technology. The result of the experiments was my version of shaping - a kind of "a hybrid of a tapestry and a classic".

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A gooseberry bush formed on a trellis is

strewn with berries from below and to the top

A hybrid of trellis and classics

When grown on a trellis, it is assumed that the number of branches is limited, and there can be no branches in a bush that are not vertical. As a result, the bush becomes quite flat. In principle, this is a plus, since such an arrangement of branches allows you to take a narrow strip of soil under the gooseberry, which may be interesting for a number of gardeners who have garden plots of modest size.

However, the tapestry technology has two significant disadvantages. First, you have to remove good horizontal branches, which for some reason cannot be directed vertically. And this is unreasonable (good branches must be protected). Secondly, due to the "flatness" of the bush, the yield from it is lower than theoretically it could be.

Therefore, if the area permits, it is more efficient to distribute the maximum possible number of branches (in terms of illumination and ventilation) over the entire available light space - that is, not only vertically, but also horizontally (more precisely, approximately at an angle of 45 °, which is usually obtained with the classic formation, when the bushes are fenced).

This will be a variant of the formation, which appears under the name "A hybrid of trellis and classics", in which the bushes occupy the maximum possible space - both vertically and horizontally.

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A single bush

formed on a trellis parallelepiped

Let's dwell on the features of such a formation

For the first two years (that is, at the initial stage of development), the bushes are pruned in the usual way - in other words, they form a base of strong branches. This means that all the weak, dry, sick and lying on the ground shoots (they only thicken the bush and reduce the future harvest) are cut out. In addition, the frozen one-year growths are cut off to the surviving buds (with access to the healthy part). Such pruning can be carried out both in late autumn and in spring (an exception is pruning of frozen annual growths, which is always done in spring).

In the third year, a temporary square fence is installed around the bush (or several bushes planted with a ribbon), and when several bushes are planted, a rectangular fence with a height of 30-35 cm. That is, approximately the same as that installed in the classical formation. In this case, the branches are evenly distributed inside it, if necessary, some of the branches are tied with twine (the branches should be tied with twine, and not with cotton ropes, the service life of which is very short).

In the fourth year, wooden trellises with a height of 2 m are installed inside this fence. When planting bushes with a tape, the trellis should look like the letter "P", and for bushes planted one by one, you can make a trellis in the form of a parallelepiped - a kind of additional fence located inside the main one. After that, part of the shoots suitable for the slope is tied to the trellis, trying to cover as much of the light space as possible.

In the fifth year, when the bush already has many long strong branches, a number of which slopes too low, the temporary fence is replaced with a permanent one. It is made higher (approximately 50-60 cm high) and much larger in the area of the temporary fence. Then all the branches are evenly redistributed over the fence, while checking if any of them need to be directed vertically, tying them to the trellises. As a result of such a redistribution, the main goal should be achieved - to form the maximum allowable (in terms of illumination and ventilation) number of strong branches.

It should be noted that the heights of all wooden structures are indicated more than approximately, since they depend on the height of specific gooseberry varieties and the conditions for their cultivation (in particular, the degree of soil fertility). For example, I have a gooseberry planted on APIONs (APIONs are long-term fertilizers that provide a continuous supply of nutrients to the plant roots, which allows you to use every day of the growing season with maximum efficiency). Therefore, it reaches over two meters.

Pros and cons of innovative technology

In a nutshell, let's dwell on the pros and cons of the considered option for the formation of gooseberries. The pluses include:

• a significant (approximately 2 times) increase in yield per unit area, which makes it possible to reduce the total area allotted for a given crop; of course, an increase in yield will be only on condition that all the required agrotechnical measures are carried out (spraying against diseases and pests, timely provision of food and water, etc.);
• improving the quality of berries, which are larger and sweeter as a result of better illumination of the shoots;
• the formation of a significant number of strong shoots, which already initially turn out to be more resistant to diseases and more productive.

The spectacular appearance of the bushes should also be noted - at the time of flowering and fruiting, they look at least fabulous, and all passing neighbors admire them.

Unfortunately, this technology has its drawbacks. Firstly, the considered shaping option cannot be used for non-frost-resistant gooseberry varieties, since there are no guarantees that tall bushes will be covered with snow before the onset of frost.

Secondly, in comparison with the classical approach, the use of this technique requires a certain additional time from the gardener to redistribute and tie the branches.

Also, one cannot fail to say about some of the difficulties that may arise in the process of pruning, since there are many branches, and you need to wield a pruner among them carefully so as not to be scratched by a large number of thorns.

The latter, however, is no longer so relevant today, since both high-quality secateurs and special gloves that are able to protect hands from thorns can be found on sale without any problems.