Cutting back Gooseberry Bush

[leoniep]

I wonder if anyone can help. We took over an allotment with two well establised gooseberry bushes, which gave us a fantastic crop of fruit this year. However, they are really wild, and I'm not sure how drastic we have to be on cutting them back. I have read it should be to 5 leaves - but this would leave them less than half of their size! Is that right. I don't want to prune them to hard and miss out on the fab fruit next year.

Thank you,

Leonie

[DavidT]

Start by taking out any dead, damaged or straggly growth. If the plants are still overgrown take out about a third of the remaining stems. Finally, cut the remaining growth back by about a third.

[paulsherwin]

All the fruit shrubs are tough as old boots once established and will stand very heavy pruning if that's what you want to do. You can cut them down to the ground and they'll still grow back. I've been trying to get rid of an old blackcurrant bush in the garden for years now but every spring it's back

Paul