Ribes uva-crispa, Ribes hirtellem are members of the Saxifragaceae (saxifrage) family.

Gooseberries are derived mostly from two species: the European gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa), native to the Caucausus Mountains and North Africa; and the American gooseberry (R. hirtellum), native to northeastern and north central United States and adjacent parts of Canada. So-called "European" cultivars are pure species, but almost all so-called "American" cultivars also have European genes.

The gooseberry bush has thorny, arching branches giving the plant a height and breadth of three to five feet. Flower buds are born laterally on one-year-old wood and on short spurs of older wood. Each bud opens to yield from one to four flowers, depending on cultivar. The flowers are self-fertile, and pollinated by wind and insects, but usually not honeybees.

Gooseberry fruits show a wide range in characteristics. At one end of the spectrum are cultivars whose fruits have sour pulp and tough skins; at the other end are those whose tender skins envelope an aromatic, sweet pulp. There is similar diversity in appearance of the fruit. A gooseberry might be green, white, yellow, or shades of red from pink to purple to almost black. In size, the spectrum runs from cultivars producing pea size fruits to those whose fruits are almost the size of hen's eggs.

Use. Gooseberry is one of the few fruits commonly picked full-size but underripe, at which stage it is used for cooking into jams, pies, and a classic gooseberry dish, a "fool," which is cream folded into the stewed fruit. Fully ripe fruits of cultivars such as 'Poorman', 'Whitesmith', 'Hinnomakis Yellow', 'Achilles', and 'Whinham's Industry' are excellent eaten fresh. The flavor of the gooseberry was considered more like grapes than any other fruit in seventeenth century England, to the extent that gooseberries were raised commercially for fermenting into a delicate summer wine.

Gooseberries are a popular fruit among northern Europeans. The fruit is little known in America because the plant was blamed for spreading the disease white pine blister rust, so a federal law passed in the 1920s banned the growing of Ribes over much of the country. Gooseberries are, in fact, relatively resistant to the disease. The federal law was lifted in 1966, and there is now renewed interest in America in these fruits.

Climatic Requirements. Gooseberries will tolerate extremely cold winters (minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, depending on cultivar), but not extremely hot summers, especially those that are also extremely dry.

Cultural practices. Gooseberries thrive in cool, well-drained, fertile soils. In warmer regions, bushes will grow better and produce better fruit in heavier soils, which retain more moisture and keep cooler. An organic mulch is beneficial, both to protect the shallow roots and to keep the soil cool and moist. The bush will thrive in full sun or in partial shade. In warmer summer areas, plant the bushes in partial shade or on a north-facing slope.

A gooseberry bush has a moderate need for nitrogen - excessive amounts promote disease, especially mildew - and a high requirement for potassium. The symptom of potassium deficiency is scorching of leaf margins. Deficiency can be avoided with an annual dressing of a half-ounce of actual potassium per square yard. Gooseberry plants also have a fairly high requirement for magnesium, so when liming the soil, use dolomitic limestone, which adds magnesium as well as calcium.

Plant gooseberry bushes four to six feet apart. The precise distance depends on the vigor of the cultivar and the richness of the soil. Do not plant the bushes close to one another as a continuous hedge, or the arching, spiny branches of adjacent bushes will interlace, making pruning and picking difficult. Since gooseberry plants leaf out early, set bare root plants in the ground either in the fall or as early as possible in late winter or early spring.

Pruning. Gooseberries usually are grown one of two ways: on a permanent, short "leg," which is a trunk about six inches long; or as a stool, where the bush in continually renewed with new shoots arising at or near ground level. The advantage of the leg is that it holds the branches up off the ground, keeping fruits clean, and facilitating weed control, picking, and spraying. There is risk of losing the whole plant should that single leg be damaged. Stooled plants live longer and bear more (though smaller) fruit.

No matter how the bushes are trained, all wood on which fruit is directly born should be less than four-years-old. Also, the shape of the bush should be consistent with the planting site. For instance, in sunnier, warmer areas, the many long branches of a stooled plant provide leaf cover to protect fruits from sunscald.

If you choose to grow a plant on a short "leg," begin training the plant by pruning during the winter after the plant's first growing season. Cut off all but three or four vigorous branches pointing upward and outward. Then head these branches back to six inches in order to stiffen them and induce further branching. The following winter, similarly head those secondary branches that grew the previous season - there should be a half-dozen to a dozen of these, and they will be the plant's permanent "leaders."

In subsequent years, head back the leaders each winter by about a quarter of the amount they grew the previous season, more where growth was weak and less where growth was vigorous. Fruiting and age will slow leaders' growth, so that eventually all that they will need will be a light tipping or nothing at all. Each of these leaders will be more or less permanent, though after a number of years, a leader might need to be replaced with a new, vigorous, young shoot. Keep on the lookout for, and snap off, any branches that form along or below the six-inch leg.

Off these leaders will grow lateral branches, which can be left to fruit along their whole length, or shortened to make fewer, but larger, fruits. At the very least, cut away any laterals that are crossing, drooping, or otherwise misplaced. Another approach is to shorten all laterals in early July to about five inches, and then during the winter to cut them further back, to about two inches. This close pruning has the benefit of cutting away some mildewed branch tips, and keeping the bush open to air, sun, and sprays. Such plants also are easier to pick.

To grow a gooseberry instead as a stooled plant, begin by cutting away all but about four of the previous season's shoots during the winter following a plant's first season in the ground. Do the same after the second winter, so that the bush then has four one-year-old and four two-year-old shoots. Following the third winter's pruning, the bush will have four each of one, two, and three-year-old shoots.

In the fourth and subsequent winters, cut away all four-year-old shoots and all but about four of the shoots that grew up from ground level the previous season. The bush then has four each of one-, two-, and three-year-old shoots. Except for lanky shoots, which need shortening, all pruning of stooled plants is done by cutting away branches at ground level. An excessive number of canes may lead to reduced fruit size and quality and increased susceptibility to powdery mildew.

Pests. American gooseberry mildew can be a serious disease of gooseberries, ruining the fruit literally overnight if weather conditions are conducive to disease spread. The disease makes its presence first known as powdery white patches on new leaves, and these leaves subsequently become stunted and deformed.

Many cultivars are resistant to mildew, including American cultivars such as 'Poorman' and 'Glendale', the Canadian 'Captivator', as well as German cultivars such as 'Resistenta', 'Perle von Muncheberg', 'Robustenta', 'Remarka', 'Rokula', Risulfa', 'Ristula', and 'Reverta', and the Finnish cultivars 'Hinnonmakis Yellow', and 'Lepaa Red'. Mildew is favored by succulent growth and plants deficient in potassium, so correct fertilization, especially with nitrogen and potassium, helps limit the disease. Powdery mildew also can be controlled with fungicide sprays.

Leafspot is another common gooseberry disease, first causing spots on the leaves, then causing leaves to yellow and drop. (There actually are two "leafspot" diseases, anthracnose and septoria, similar in effect and similarly controlled.) If defoliation occurs late enough in the growing season, the next season's yields are not significantly affected. Since the disease overwinters in old leaves on the ground, one control is to rake up the old leaves in the fall or smother them under a mulch. As with mildew, cultivars vary in their susceptibility to leafspot disease. Most of the German cultivars previously mentioned as resistant to mildew also are resistant to leafspot. Leafspots also can be controlled with fungicide sprays.

The imported currantworm is an insect pest that becomes active early in the season, chewing at and quickly stripping a plant of its leaves. One insecticide spray applied when damage is first noted - and this usually occurs down in the center of the bush - controls the pest. Thorough control early in the season lessens the damage and may eliminate the need for spray applications to control subsequent broods later in the season.

The gooseberry fruitworm is an insect pest that damages berries rather than leaves. Just before fruit ripening, this insect burrows into a berry, eats the pulp, then exits and spins a silken webbing joining fruits and sometimes leaves together. Damaged fruits change prematurely to their ripe color. Control this pest with one insecticide spray, applied as soon as you notice the webbing.

Propagation. The ease with which gooseberries propagate from cuttings depends on the cultivar. Generally, American cultivars are easier to propagate than are European cultivars.

Take hardwood cuttings in fall. The presence of a few leaves actually enhances rooting, so cuttings can be taken in the fall before all the leaves have fallen. The presence of leaves does require extra precautions to prevent dessication. Make the cuttings about a foot long, but do not include tip growth.

For bushes to be grown on legs, remove all except the top four or five buds so that no shoots grow from near or below the ground on the resultant bushes. Alternatively, since the presence of buds enhances rooting, it may be advisable to leave all the buds on a cutting. Later, when you lift the plants for transplanting, pull (do not cut) off all the bottom shoots and buds.

Tip layering and mound layering are more reliable methods of propagation, but a single bush furnishes far fewer tip layers than cuttings and mound layering sacrifices the crop that season. With either type of layer, roots form where the stems are in the soil and the small plants will be ready for transplanting either by the first fall or, with difficult to root cultivars, the following fall.

Alexander Eppler Ltd., P.O. Box 16513, Seattle, WA 98116-0513

Edible Landscaping Nursery, Rt. 2, Box 77, Afton, VA 22920

Internation Ribes Association, c/o Anderson Valley Agricultural

Institute, P.O. Box 130, Boonville, CA 95415

Plumtree Nursery, 387 Springtown Rd., New Paltz, NY 12561

Raintree Nursery, 391 Butts Rd., Morton, WA 98356

Southmeadow Fruit Gardens, Lakeside, MI 49116

Tolowa Nursery, 360 Stephen Way, Williams, OR 97544

Whitman Farms Nursery, 1420 Beaumont NW, Salem, OR 97304

Baker, Harry. The Fruit Garden Displayed. Cassell Ltd., The Royal Horticultural Society. 1986.

Darrow, G. and S. Detwiler. Currants and gooseberries: their culture and relation to white-pine blister rust. U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmer's Bulletin No. 1398. 1924.

Reich, Lee. Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention: A Gardener's Guide. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA 1991.

Blackberries, Currants, and Gooseberries. Cooperative Extension Publication No. IB97. Distribution Center C, 7 Research Park. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Galletta, G. and D. Himelrick (eds). Small Fruit Crop Management. Prentice Hall, West Nyack, NY. 1990.

Antonelli, A. et al. Small Fruit Pests - Biology, Diagnosis, and Management. Publication EB 1388, Washington State University Agricultural Communications, Pullman, WA. 1988.

Lee Reich, PhD is a horticultural consultant and writer based in New Paltz, New York. He has been a fruit researcher for both Cornell University and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Reviewed by Dan Barney, 12/2/91

Reviewed by Paul Vossen, 12/20/91

1/7/91