it's the middle of January and it's time
that we get our food area sorted out and
there's plenty of jobs to do within this
area and one of those is to sort out our
gooseberry bushes now we need to prune
these guys we've got eight of them along
this page here and they need it good
pruning now there's multiple reasons for
that
the first reason is to allow air flow
within the plant because that will stop
things like saufley in any diseases that
they're going to come and lay eggs or or
take over the plant if it's got good
wind flow then it's able to help to sort
of combat that they don't like laying
eggs within the center of the plant
there is no leader the second reason is
and we can help stop disease by cutting
out the cross branches and ideally what
we're looking for is an upturn sort of
gobbler shape okay so we want to hollow
out the center and create that goblet
within me within the bush
[Music]
[Music]
so the first thing that we need to do we
need to go through the plant and we need
to take out any sort of branches that
are crossing as you can see here the
branches are crossing okay so we want to
come right back here
I'm with we want to cut that out but if
I just cut this one and we'll show you
for example if I kept I want to take it
away we've still got two branches
you--that's can cross so what I'm going
to do and I'm actually going to take
this one right back down there and take
that away again so that's all solves
that problem and we go right under the
bush looking for any branches that are
crossing and if we find branches that
they go across we'll take them out this
just helps stop all the disease and
things like that within the plant now
you can't wear gloves of these be
mindful as they are quite spiky or this
particular variety is spiky all right
and so you want to watch for that and it
take this one right back down there and
I'm going to take this one is starting
to cross here so what we need to do we
need to prune it so it it doesn't rather
than cut it all away so what I'm going
to do the next step that we have within
the pruning is to kept the tips of these
bushes back by a third and if you cut to
an open bed so that will grow upwards
okay you don't want to cut it to go out
and less you want to change that now
there is your opportunity to actually
help open that shape out if you want the
branch to come out a bit and then go up
then you kept a sort of horizontal bed
that's going to take your branch away a
little bit but more often lot your your
fruit comes on these vertical growth
here so what we want to do is cut back
by a third and we're going to cut back
to a vertical growth on
all of these plans or every single
branch we cut it back by one-third and
you'll find that vertical tip and don't
be afraid like I said too if you find
that something isn't quite working for
you take it out completely let go any
day in wood guys any wood a stand a lot
though now is your time - now is your
time to take that out ok so this is what
we're looking to do here now I have a
choice to make here I've got this piece
here that's going to cross and open but
this one here if I took this one out
this branch would be ok but ideally we
want to be looking at opening up this in
a circle so what I'm going to do is
actually take out completely
both of these ones which have stopped
and this one here which will stop that
happening completely
anything that's weak takeout because
that's not what we're promoting here we
want good strong growth space
so we're looking good at this point
they say they'll go over the top just
cut it back by one food and this will
force that growth to go up now because
we've pruned back to that
upward-facing but bed we're not fast
done
there we go guys so now we have a plant
here that is much more open to allowing
the breeze through eventually we will
remove this entire one here and these
will be trained out here more which will
create that goblet shape but what we
it's always a fine balance to make sure
that you're getting that food production
and creating the shape that you want but
I'm happy to leave this one this year as
nothing is crossing it now the neck here
will cut this one right back to the
ground take it out completely and and
then we'll have other branches come in
and fill in that space so that just
leaves me no to get on with the other
six and ice essentially all we need for
this we do have a branch here that is
more or less crossing but not quite
touching so for this year I'm going to
leave those branches and if they start
touching next year we'll cut them of
them anyway that's it for this episode I
hope this was very interesting I hope it
helps you to get your goofy bushes
sorted out ready for the growing season
for myself and the rest of the seam
sealer Network
[Music]
you