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Gooseberries gone !

IvyhouseIvyhouse Posts: 102
in Fruit & veg
Just admiring my gooseberries yesterday, absolutely laden. They are a purple variety but a fair way off ripe. Imagine my amazement this morning when every single one is gone. Who or what would have cleaned up a few kilos of unripe green berries without a sign of anything happening ?
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  • pansyfacepansyface PEAK DISTRICT DerbyshirePosts: 20,164
    Birds.

    Or badgers...

    Just behind the Viewing Mount is the Wisley collection of fruit trees and bushes. After the remarkable arches of apples and pears, long netted enclosures hold the RHS Plant Collections of currants, berries and, most impressive around 150 varieties of gooseberries.

    The gooseberry enclosure is the most secure. It is not just surrounded by thick, black netting it also has a low electric fence around it. Mirinda was a bit mystified by the electric fence, thinking it was to keep small children off. Though, as I pointed out, the gooseberries were pretty much impossible to get to without the fence.

    Mirinda stopped a handy gardener with a wheel barrow and asked her.

    She told us it was because of the badgers. Apparently, badgers love gooseberries. The small electric fence is designed to keep them away. They also eat other berries but given the gooseberry collection is very important, the RHS staff want to protect them.


    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
  • tlchimeratlchimera South WalesPosts: 51
    My mother watched a female blackbird dedicatedly go back and forth her gooseberry bush one morning last year, and left her to it figuring one bird couldn't do too much damage and perhaps she had chicks to feed. By the time mum went back outside the bush had been completely stripped! 
  • IvyhouseIvyhouse Posts: 102
    Living in suburban London I’ve never seen a badger and suspect they would inflict a bit of damage. Ne’er a leaf has been harmed here. Don’t wish to be mean but I hope whichever bird it was has severe stomach ache now.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Scariff, County Clare, IrelandPosts: 7,444
    Can you smell gooseberry jam being made anywhere close at hand??  Gooseberry thieves have been known to have 2 legs...
    "The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life."  Rabindranath Tagore
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Billericay, EssexPosts: 8,559
    Pigeons?
    They decimate any fruit they can get to in my garden
    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • IvyhouseIvyhouse Posts: 102
    Liriodendron said:
    Can you smell gooseberry jam being made anywhere close at hand??  Gooseberry thieves have been known to have 2 legs...
    It did cross my mind but some of them were still only the size of peas.
  • IvyhouseIvyhouse Posts: 102
    Pete.8 said:
    Pigeons?
    They decimate any fruit they can get to in my garden
    That could be close. They already turned my sweet corn to ribbons and saw off my fledgling Brussels.
  • barry islandbarry island Posts: 1,469
    I have my gooseberry bush covered with a wooden frame and wire mesh because ordinary bird netting doesn't keep the blackbirds off, I was amazed that I think it was both Beechgrove and Gardeners World this week showed gooseberries without netting, wouldn't it be nice to have a plot where netting, fleece and insect mesh wasn't needed.
  • bertrand-mabelbertrand-mabel Posts: 1,517
    Thankfully the birds do leave our gooseberries alone but they take the red and black currants.
    What does cause an issue for the gooseberry is the sawfly which decimates the leaves.
    Not happened yet!!!
  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener EssexPosts: 1,189
    Mine have gone to crows this year. Never happened before!
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