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19 Jan 12 Carol (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

My gooseberries has taken off and are quite large bushes. I have an ongoing battle with little cucumber beetles (I think). I have grown them in three different suburbs around Toowoomba (different plant sources) and have always got this annoying and persistent beetle making a mess of the bushes. Pyrethrum seems to keep them at bay but not eradicate them. The berries look great until I open the paper pod and there is only a tiny shriveled up thing inside. Is the pyrethrum destroying the berries or the bugs? Or maybe would there be a problem with soil nutrition? Does anyone know?

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20 Jan 12 Canh (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi Carol, My guess is your plant isn't getting enough water and/ or manure. My cape gooseberry which is now in the green house has gone wild, it's taken over the greenhouse. Not that I mind because it is loaded with fruit. Occasionally I squeeze the green husks to feel how the fruits are developing. The husks that developed in early December has fruits the size of a marble. I don't think they are going to get much bigger than that. New side shoots are still emerging just like the tomato plants and new fruit are developing with these new shoots. How I look after my goose berry is I try to get keep the soil around the plant moist but not damp if you know what i mean. Occasionally I let the soil to almost dry out but never completely dry so the root system can breathe. If you see the leaves starting to wilt from dry soil this will affect the berries in the pods. Try putting dry leaves around the base of the tree to preserve moisture. I don't need to mulch mine because the plant is so bushy it's shading the base itself!! I feed the plant with horse manure. How i do it is, I have a plastic bin about 40 litres with a cover. I put about a supermarket size bag of raw horse manure in the bin then filled it up with water, put the lit on and let it sit for about 2 weeks. I then scoop 4 or 5 cups of this mixture including the grassy bits of the manure from the bin and put into a 10 litre bucket. Fill the bucket up with fresh water, stir them together and water the plants. I feed the plants once every 2 weeks. simple as that..

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