Growing gooseberries from cuttings is an easy and inexpensive process that can be done by following a few simple steps.

When to take gooseberry cuttings

Ideally, you want to take hardwood cuttings which should be done between September and October while the ground is still warm to encourage rooting.

Still, the most ideal time is just after the plants have dropped their leaves or just before.

How to take gooseberry cuttings

Cuttings from gooseberry bushes must be made from hardwood stems as this will offer a reliable means of growing future gooseberry plants. Avoid taking cuttings during cold snaps. Select gooseberry shoots from one year old and snip out the soft growth on the tip.

While preparing to re-plant the cuttings, cut the stem into sections about 6 inches or 15cm long. Make sure the top part just after the bud is a slanting slice while the bottom cut should be straight and just below a bud. You want to leave just two of three top buds and remove the bottom buds. I always plant way more cuttings than I will need and then I can choose the best to grow on once they are rooted.

How to plant the cuttings

You can plant cutting into pots, maybe 2 of 3 cuttings per point or each cutting in its own pot if using small pots, say for example 9cm. I like to use deep rose pots and put 3 cuttings in each pot. You can also plant them straight into the ground but I recommend preparing the ground with plenty of grit and compost first.

These plants grow well on a single stem and that’s why you have to strip off the lower buds. While preparing the containers for the cuttings, get deep pots and fill them with a compost mix of 50% coarse grit and 50% compost.

Now make a hole in the ground or in your pots of compost and insert the cutting and firm them down.

Remember to water your new plants occasionally to keep the soil moist but not saturated and keep them in place until the next autumn. The cuttings will have developed roots by then and you can plant them in their final positions whilst there dormant again.

You can learn how to grow them in pots here if this is what you want to do.

Once you transplant the cuttings to the garden, it will take about four years before they are in full fruit production. You will need to water the mature plants during the dry weather. It also helps to pull out weeds and also prune the plant to maximize health and ensure you get a good harvest once the plants begin to fruit.

Perform regular checks for diseases, insects and infestations to get a strong and healthy gooseberry bush since there are a wide variety of insects’ pests and diseases that usually attack the plant in its young stage and just before it begins to bear fruits.

You can learn more about when and how to pick gooseberries here and it’s also important to prune them correctly as they only fruit on growth that is 2-3 years old.

Final Conclusion

Gooseberry cuttings are a free way of creating new gooseberry plants in your garden. The chances of succeeding with this method are pretty high for even novice gardeners. Also, you can be guaranteed that the new plant will be a proper copy of the original. You can take like four cuttings and plant them in separate parts of your garden for a year. That said, come back here after a year and let us know your new plants are doing.

You can learn more about Gooseberry sawflies here which can strip all the leaves or learn more about what might be causing the leaves to curl here

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