How to trim gooseberries in the spring - useful tips and tricks for beginners

If you do not solve the problem in time, how to cut gooseberries in spring, then soon the beautiful plant will turn into impenetrable for sun rays prickly thickets. In thickened stands, it is extremely difficult to harvest, the berry is quickly melted, there are often difficult diseases and pests are planted.

How to properly cut gooseberries in spring?

Before the beginning of work it is necessary to learn well what goals are pursued by pruning gooseberries in the spring for beginners. Having started the process of growth of bushes on their own, shortening branches without a system, one can not hope to get a beautiful, normally formed and yielding plant on the site. Worst of all with prickly varieties, a continuous forest of interlocked shoots makes the process of harvesting berries extremely unpleasant and painful occupation.

Types of pruning gooseberries:

  1. Forming pruning - the purpose of this event is to obtain a compact and easy-to-care bush.
  2. Sanitary - designed to remove diseased wood, dry and broken branches.
  3. Preconditioning pruning - shortening of the strong growth on seedlings helps to better take roots and restore to new bushes.
  4. Rejuvenating pruning - is performed on old plantations in order to stimulate a new growth.

When you can cut gooseberries in spring?

Studying the problem of how to trim a homemade gooseberry in the spring, it is necessary to determine exactly the dates of this operation. For different regions, they are set individually, based on the climate. The best result shows the pruning of gooseberries in spring in time for swelling of the kidneys. This culture wakes up early, so it should be produced immediately after the snow falls. If the cottage is located far away and there is a risk of being late with this event, it is more convenient to carry it out late in the autumn before the beginning of the snowfalls.

Rules for pruning gooseberries

There is no complicated trick to pruning gooseberries, after studying the basic rules, even an inexperienced amateur horticulturist will be able to rejuvenate and shape his bushes. If on some branches the shortening is done very strongly, the plantations in the spring will come to life and quickly resume the crown due to a new growth. We list the main stages of pruning gooseberries:

  1. The task of how to cut gooseberries in spring, start with the base of the bush.
  2. We remove branches older than 5 years.
  3. We brighten the crown to improve pollination and reduce the risk of powdery mildew .
  4. We cut off the small barren processes above the crown.
  5. Often branches of gooseberry go to the soil and take root, they need to be removed or used to bookmark new shrubs.

How to trim a knitting gooseberry?

This species includes varieties of the American-European group, forming a small number of spines exclusively at the base of the branches. Single thorns do not interfere with the care and harvesting of fruits, so the bumper gooseberry was widely distributed among lovers. Active fructification in this species occurs on 2 year old fruit trees and annual branches. Pruning of bumper gooseberries is performed in spring on a principle that in many ways resembles the formation of a black currant bush:

  1. New plants are greatly shortened to have up to 6 annual branches by the end of the season.
  2. In the future, we leave no more than 6 basal shoots annually.
  3. Center the crown as much as possible, removing the interlacing growth.
  4. By the 4th year it is desirable to have up to 25 branches of different ages.
  5. On the 5th year, you can cut up to 3-4 old skeletal shoots.

Pruning a young bush of gooseberries in spring

The correct annual pruning of young gooseberries in the spring consists in sanitary thinning and shaping the crown. It begins already in the first season at the planting stage of the seedling:

  1. The first year - the removal of excess growth in spring to 4 kidneys on strong branches and up to 2 on weak shoots of gooseberries.
  2. Spring of the second year - the old growth with thin tips is shortened to the outer kidney, we cut out weak basal shoots shorter than 20 cm. Strong shoots are cut to a length of 30 cm, stimulating branching. By autumn, it is desirable to get 3-5 shoots of the second and first order.
  3. Spring of the third year - we cut out all the extra growth that will thicken the plant, horizontally located branches. In case of poorly branching, we shorten the shoots by 15 cm.

How to prune an old gooseberry in the spring?

Correct pruning of old gooseberries in the spring has the goal of maximum rejuvenation of plantations. Perennial, drooping to the ground, twisted and sick shoots are removed. We form a new crown with the left strong root branches, we cut out the fine growth. The most radical pruning is used on old and heavily thickened plants. You can remove 2/3 of the skeletal branches, leaving the strongest shoots, or almost completely cut the gooseberry to a height of 15 cm, accelerating the growth of young growth.