Lovingly cared for gooseberry bushes bend under their sour-sweet weight. Half-ripe fruits can definitely be harvested now to relieve the strain on the branches. We'll tell you here why it makes sense not to always wait until it's fully ripe.
When and how should you harvest gooseberries?
The optimal time to harvest gooseberries is from the end of May, when the berries are still green and half ripe, to use them for jam, juice or compote. Wear long-sleeved clothing and gloves to avoid scratches.
Intended use determines the time of harvest
Plump, fully ripe gooseberries are rarely found in stores because they cannot be stored. Hobby gardeners enjoy the privilege of snacking on the juicy, sweet fruits from their home-grown bushes in July and August. However, fully ripe gooseberries are less suitable for storage by boiling as they hardly contain any pectin. In this case, a high dosage of gelling agents would be necessary.
For this reason, experienced hobby gardeners carry out green picking from the end of May. At this point, the berries have reached a third of their possible size and are still largely green in color. Eaten raw, these gooseberries would bring tears to the eyes of even die-hard fruit lovers. They are ideal for preparing jam, juice or compote.
Correct picking reduces painful scratches
In order to get to the objects of desire on the thorny gooseberry bushes, many a scratch has to be accepted. To reduce the pricks, proceed as follows when harvesting:
- put on long-sleeved clothes and trousers
- Put on work gloves or two pairs of rubber gloves on top of each other
- grasp a single branch with your hand and lift it up
- picking the gooseberries with the other hand
If you want to take the wind out of the sails of the defensive gooseberry bushes when planting, train them on a slender spindle right from the start. In this case, the plant has a single main stem attached along a rod. Only a few side shoots remain, which are trimmed twice during the summer.
Tips & Tricks
Gooseberries are self-pollinators, so even a single bush produces a delicious harvest. However, yield and taste can be significantly increased if you grow at least two different gooseberry varieties in the garden.
