Why are my Gooseberry bushes not producing fruit?

Is your soil very dry? Gooseberries need a good bit of water to swell. Its probably too late for this year but you could try mulching them with something to keep the moisture in the ground. They are fairly easy going so either you have poor bushes or they are in too-dry soil. They fruit on last couple of year's wood, so you could try cutting out all the oldest branches and just leave newer growth, take them back by about a third. Mulch well with organic matter, and see what happens. Books recommend fertilizer - tomato feed I think - when the fruit is swelling, but they will usually grow quite happily without. Mulch and water are the main things.

Is it possible you have been seeing small gooseberries then the birds have taken them before they got big enough to pick?

Crows completely stripped a mature apple tree last year of every single fruit overnight. Literally, one day there was fruit, a lot of it, rather small but ripe, the next day there was none. Meanwhile an adjacent apple tree that had lots of fruit but it wasn't worth picking it was so indifferent in flavour, very small, tough skins etc and they completely ignored it.

Other than that it may be better to cut your losses and buy a couple of new bushes - most families would find two bushes enough. They really are hardy and easy, they should not be such a disappointment.

I inherited a very old, huge and madly overgrown gooseberry in the garden of the house I have moved to. It wasn't fruiting at all - but it was barely visible under a pile of briars and nettles. It was cut very hard back last year, leaving just a few likely looking branches but the rest was down to almost ground level. It has come back with loads of new growth and a good crop of gooseberries on the old branches.

Can anyone tell me how to know if they are ripe?

If you want to just eat them, get a dessert gooseberry. The cooking gooseberries are not worth waiting for, lovely for a pie or stewed to eat with icecream. But well grown dessert gooseberries - mmmm -cross between a good plum and a grape, eat them off the bush!

A mulch is just anything that covers the ground, keeps in moisture and discourages weeds. It can be something like pebbles or weed membrane, or organic stuff like leaf mould, wood chip, grass clippings or even cardboard. If you have well rotted compost that would be good, grass clippings - though I prefer not to use thick masses of grass clippings, an occasional thin layer has chance to dry out and break down a bit. Commercial wood chip is probably the easiest. Whatever you use don't put organic material piled up against the stem or trunk of the bush, leave a little space round it.

😀 No thanks needed - gardeners just LOVE spreading wisdom - and cuttings and seeds and spare plants!

Are the blackberries out already? I missed them last year so I must get out this weekend to have a look

If you just want to eat them buy dessert gooseberries. Finished gooseberries aren't worth the wait. They're great for pie or stewed with ice cream. But well grown dessert gooseberries are mmm something between a good plum and a grape, eat them off the bush!

There seems to be an echo round here?