Small, but very pleasant to the taste of fruits of gooseberries is not in vain called the northern grapes, because behind a clumsy shell with a hidden hidden treasury of various "utilities" - vitamins and trace elements. But if you want to get your own bush of gooseberries, then be ready to regularly spend time on it pruning. Without it, quickly enough the bush will turn into a impenetrable cluster of very prickly branches, and its yield will drop to almost zero. In how to properly cut gooseberries in autumn after harvesting and whether you need to do this at all, let's understand together.
Is it necessary to cut gooseberries in the fall?
As already mentioned above, it is necessary to trim the gooseberry thoroughly and regularly. But at what time is it better to do it: in the summer, in the spring or in the fall? Of course, the best time for trimming almost all crops is the early spring, when the plants do not yet have time to wake up from the hibernation. Cropped before active sap movement, bushes regenerate faster and yield better yields. But the problem is that wool starts to wake up very early, when many of the gardeners still can not reach their sites. Therefore, most often gooseberries are cut off in the autumn, before the onset of stable frosts. But in summer it is not recommended to cut gooseberries in the heat, as this can greatly "bleach" the bush and even cause its death.
How to properly cut gooseberries in autumn?
Let's take a closer look at how to properly cut gooseberries after harvest:
- First of all, during autumn pruning, all the dead and diseased shoots are removed, as well as shoots growing inside the bush.
- Shoots and branches, the ends of which are a victim of powdery mildew, are cut off to the first healthy kidney.
- During the first summer after planting, a lot of root shoots form in the gooseberry bushes - only 5-6 strongest shoots should be left in autumn pruning. The left radical shoots are shortened in half.
- On the second and third after planting years, the operation to select the strongest root shoots and trim them in half is repeated.
- Beginning with the fourth year of the life of the bush, for the autumn they leave only sanitary pruning.
How to trim an old gooseberry?
Old very overgrown bushes of gooseberry can be tried to rejuvenate with the help of radical pruning. Moreover, along with the diseased and dead branches, the weakest shoots and the entire root shoot are cut out. Leave usually 5-6 skeletal branches, but the bush should not decrease by more than two thirds.