Contents
Construction, redevelopment of the site, heavily overgrown trees – this is an incomplete list of situations when a gooseberry transplant is required. Or maybe the place was initially chosen incorrectly, and only a few years later the owners realized this, found another, more suitable one. Be that as it may, the need to transplant bushes from place to place raises concerns and a number of questions. Is it possible to transplant an adult bush? When and how is it better to do it? Find the answers in our article.
Site Selection
Gooseberries can be transplanted in spring or autumn. Most gardeners prefer to do this in the fall, when the plant has almost completed its annual vegetation cycle, it begins to prepare for winter, that is, for the dormant period. In August and September, the beds are usually prepared for the next season; from this point of view, it is also better to make room for spring plantings in advance.
In the spring, it is more difficult to determine the time for transplantation, more precisely, it is difficult to guess it correctly. Gooseberries begin to grow very early and quickly, the very first warm days contribute to the rapid movement of juices, swelling of the buds – the plant is rapidly rushing to flowering. The end of May is usually already marked by the presence of small fruits. This means that you need to plant a bush before the start of sap flow, immediately after the ground has thawed.
In autumn, you can determine the time much easier, knowing approximately when frosts come annually. In late September or early October, after the bush sheds its leaves, when all life processes slow down, it will more easily endure the stress and inevitable injury to the roots caused by the transplant. Moreover, before frost, he will have time to take root in a new place.
It is very important to find and prepare this newest place correctly. It should be sunny but protected from strong winds. Before that, currants or raspberries should not grow on it, since gooseberries with these crops have the same diseases and enemies among parasites. If you plant a gooseberry immediately after such predecessors, it will have a hard time, most likely, the bush will hurt. He will not like it if groundwater lies close to the surface, or for other reasons the water may stagnate. Gooseberries love moisture, but not stagnant water, which promotes fungal diseases, and most older varieties are not immune to powdery mildew.
A thorny bush will take root well on non-acidic, fairly light and nutritious soil. Loam suits him best. If the soil is too light in the area chosen for it, clay can be added, if it is too heavy and dense, sand and peat can be added. The site should be dug up, cleaned of all plant debris, old roots, debris. If necessary, deoxidize the soil, you need to add lime.
It is advisable to check the acidity of the soil before planting plants for which it is important. This can be done independently, after preparing the “reagents”.
To determine the pH of the soil, you need to take a handful of currant or cherry leaves, put them in a half-liter jar, pour boiling water, close with a tight lid. After the water cools, a lump of earth is placed in it and the color change is monitored. The preservation of the green color indicates a normal level of acidity, if a red tint appears, it is too acidic, if blue, it is not acidic enough.
Transplant methods
When the place is determined and prepared (and on it you need to dig a hole with a depth of at least 50 cm and a diameter of up to 80 cm), it’s time to move on to digging and preparing the bush. The gooseberries are heavily pruned – you need to remove all the old branches, and shorten the new shoots, which will remain no more than 7, by a third. Then they dig a circle around it with a diameter of 30-40 centimeters. Usually the roots occupy the area indicated by its crown. A bush dug well to a depth of half a meter is taken out with a shovel, pitchfork, crowbar or other tools, along with an earthen clod, simultaneously pulled out by the base, and transferred to a film or cloth. On this tape, he is transported to a new place of residence. The roots are not specially freed from the ground (unless they are sick and rotten), but the visible parts are examined, cut off a little, the wounds are sprinkled with wood ash.
A couple of buckets of water are poured into the prepared pit (it should be wider than the roots), the excavated earth mixed with compost or rotted manure is poured onto the bottom, and a bush is placed on top, the roots are straightened, sprinkled with the rest of the earth. It is advisable to deepen the bush 5 centimeters more than it grew before. The earth is rammed, watered with a couple more buckets, it is advisable to make a hole or a groove with sides so that the water does not spread past, but gets exactly to the roots. After that, the area around the stems is covered with dry earth and mulched with peat or straw.
Some gardeners add fertilizer when transplanting, but this is quite dangerous for disturbed and cut roots. Most experts are inclined to believe that, in addition to compost, only wood ash can be added, and mineral fertilizers can be applied in the spring.
If transplants require not one, but several bushes, then more space is prepared. The entire large area allotted for planting gooseberries is dug up, cleaned, and the acidity or air permeability of the soil is corrected, if necessary. And then they prepare pits for each bush separately, it is advisable to leave a distance of more than a meter between them – usually it is 1,3 m or 1,5 m.
When transplanting in the spring, they dig a hole as soon as the ground thaws. It immediately becomes clear whether plantings are threatened by stagnant water. If it turns out that there is such an opportunity, you need to dig a hole deeper and make a drainage layer of small gravel or pebbles, and then pour the earth and plant a plant.
Post-transplant care
Gooseberry is an unpretentious and hardy plant. A healthy bush tolerates a transplant well. Moreover, a properly carried out transplant to a convenient and fertile place can rejuvenate it and increase productivity. Transplanting an adult plant in the fall, you can wait for the next year’s harvest. The exception is the healing transplant of a plant that grew in the wrong place, hurt. In this case, the harvest can be in a few years – from 2 to 4, depending on the degree of neglect and pruning of the plant.
After planting in the fall, the plant is watered regularly (pulling back and returning the mulch after watering to its original place) until frost. If necessary, top dressing, fertilizers are applied in the spring, when the bush has taken root and began to grow. Then urea, potash and phosphate fertilizers are applied. If there is no urgent need, they make do with seasonal top dressing, adding a little fermented slurry or bird droppings to the water.
After the spring transplant, they also monitor moisture, but you need not to overdo it, pay attention to the amount of precipitation. Further care consists in weeding, top dressing, pest control. Since the roots are shallow, it is better to remove the weeds with your hands, after watering, renew the layer of mulch.
Video “How to transplant berry bushes in spring”
This video is about how to transplant gooseberries, currants, yoshta in your country house in the spring.
