I bought one each of Hinnonmaki Red and Hinnonmaki Green from Aldi maybe 3 or 4 years ago. They actually both turned out to be Red but whatever. The sawfly found them in the first year and every year since. I have them in pots due to lack of space in the ground. I think this year is the earliest I've seen sawfly on them. I knew they were there and had picked off a few leaves with tiny caterpillars on, with the intention of spraying the plant with neem and soap before they got out of hand. Then a few days later they've gone from looking really healthy and covered with foliage, to skeletal and almost leafless in the photo. There's also scale insects on some branches.
I don't really like gooseberries that much and they're difficult to handle due to the spikes, but the flowers are good early forage for bees.
Can anyone convince me to keep these gooseberry plants before I chuck them in the green bin?
Now most of the gooseberry leaves have gone they're dropping off in search of more food. They've decimated a few of the lettuce plants in the raised bed next to the gooseberry pots. Think I've made my decision now, to the green bin they go!
My only advice is - if you don't like something, get rid of it - even if its gooseberries.
I've just checked my plants and they seem to be sawfly free, not been a problem here for a few years. By the time there's fruit on the bushes, they're usually out of sight in the undergrowth and I forget to pick them!
The Moneyless Chicken says:- Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
I only have a couple of gooseberry bushes purely for P. If they keeled over or had sawfly I'd not be too upset, can't stand the things, although the Hinnomaki red taste sweeter than some others. I'm all for binning them.
I don't dislike gooseberries, just don't really like them that much either. They're a pain to harvest and prune and if this pest is guaranteed to defoliate them every year and potentially damage other, more important crops then they're not worth the bother. The larvae were even putting holes in the onion leaves! There's an allotment site about 200 metres away from our garden so I presume that's where they've come from.
The scale insects I really don't want to spread elsewhere, I've only just finished cleaning them off the poorly potted bay tree.
Anyway both plants are in the green bin now so problem solved!
I love gooseberries-those big yellow ones from my grandmothers garden were perfect!
I only had an issue with sawfly once.... it was the pigeons and blackbirds that caused me the most problems . It was only me who liked them. Not worth the space they took up - i dug my row up to plant dahlias.
Bin them, not worth the effort, to difficult to harvest with the thorns and if they are bringing in sawfly infestation all the more reason for getting rid of.
I had gooseberries a few years ago and gave up on them after a few years my hands and arms were in bits harvesting and pruning.
Coffee keeps me busy until it’s acceptable to drink whiskey.
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. I don’t like gooseberries either. 
