Lovingly tended gooseberry bushes bend under their sour-sweet burden. Half-ripe fruits can now be harvested to relieve the branches. We'll tell you here why it makes sense not always to wait until they are fully ripe.

Intended use determines the time of harvest

Plump, fully ripe gooseberries are rarely found in stores because they cannot be stored. Hobby gardeners enjoy the privilege of nibbling on the juicy, sweet fruit from the bush they grow themselves in July and August. On the other hand, fully ripe gooseberries are less suitable for storing by boiling, as they hardly contain any pectin. A high dosage of gelling agents would be necessary in this case.

For this reason, experienced hobby gardeners start picking greens from the end of May. At this point, the berries have reached a third of their possible size and are still mostly green in color. Consumed raw, these gooseberries would bring tears to the eyes of even die-hard fruit lovers. However, they are ideal for preparing jam, juice or compote.

Proper picking reduces painful scratches

In order to get to the objects of desire on the thorny gooseberry bushes, many a scratch has to be accepted. To reduce the pricks, do the following when harvesting:

  • wear long-sleeved clothing and pants
  • Put on work gloves or two pairs of rubber gloves on top of each other
  • grab a single twig in your hand and lift it up
  • pick the gooseberries with the other hand

Anyone who wants to take the wind out of the sails of the well-fortified gooseberry bushes while planting can train them on a slender spindle right from the start. In this case, the plant has a single main shoot attached along a stick. Only a few side shoots remain, which are trimmed twice during the summer.

tips and tricks

Gooseberries are self-pollinating, so even a single bush will provide a tasty harvest. Yield and taste can be significantly increased if you grow at least two different gooseberry varieties in the garden.

GTH

Category:

Vegetable garden