sawfly

[ashleighParticipant]

hello, i have a whitecurrant and a gooseberry bush that i have been eagerly awaiting planting this winter, now that we have land. however this summer they have both been attacked really badly by sawfly. despite pulling off what i thought was all the caterpillars more than once, still all the leaves ended up getting eaten.

i will be buying more fruit bushes to plant on the land, so should i keep these two away from the land? they are growing out of their pots in the yard now, so should i dispose of them? or is there an organic way to make them sawfly-free? and how bad a problem is sawfly – it didn’t affect the berry yields this year, but will it kill the plant eventually?

[charlesModerator]

I suspect that the sawfly are performing their time honoured duty of clearing weak growth (due to root restriction) to make way for healthy growth. It sounds as though your bushes need potting on asap and could recover, then should fully recover when planted out. The "organic way" is to plant them in fertile soil. No guarantee of zero sawfly next year but I would be surprised if it decimated them again.

[ashleighParticipant]

oh great, ok. that makes sense and i’m glad i’ve now got room to take better care of them!

[Author]

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