North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Donna, I would be a little cautious about too much shade for *all* your 
gooseberries even in Tennessee. I think a northern to eastern edge might 
suit, if possible with mulch over the roots. I do believe in sun for fruit.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Kieran &/or Donna wrote:
> Bill,
>     I don't have to go out and plant sweet cherries to keep the birds away 
> from gooseberries, they are already there.  In fact, I was planning on 
> planting the gooseberries under them.  Sounds like the only problem will be 
> the bird poop on the gooseberries.  I'd wanted for years to plant the little 
> soft squishy Russian style mulberries near the cherries to protect them from 
> birds, but the cherry trees are about too big to reach anymore, and the NW 
> slope they are on seems to ensure they freeze out most springs.  So looks 
> like I'm doing it at all wrong, but at least they should enable me to grow 
> gooseberries without too much bird predation.  Jap beetles are too busy out 
> in the sunshine on the roses and smartweed to go looking for gooseberries in 
> the shade.

[snip]