There are some fruits that were doomed from the beginning by name alone. One of them being the gooseberry. It really is a shame though. I have a Hinnomaki Red gooseberry bush. Mine is going on its third year and has grown to be about 3' tall and 4' wide. It is sandwiched between a Hosta and a Hydrangea so I do have to keep pruning this group.
Fruit is born on older wood so if you are going to prune existing limbs do it immediately after fruiting so it can have some new growth in the current season. Otherwise you will end up like me and accidentally prune out most of your crop. Another way is prune out the oldest canes when you have a good 5-7 canes going. The one downside to this plant is they have some massive thorns so do be careful but when these guys are ripe you will forget all about the javelin spears covering them. This is the first year I let mine truly ripen and I was shocked how good they are. Mine were ripe in mid July. The skin had a touch of tartness and the flesh is very sweet. To further condense the plant it can be grown as a cordon or espaliared against a fence.
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