Gooseberry bush pruning

[minmooch]

Hello all. I'm relatively new to all this. I took over an allotment 18 months ago with my son. We inherited some established gooseberry bushes that produced an amazing crop last year (in fact my freezer is still rammed full of them). I have yet to prune these wonderous (and dangerous) bushes but know I now need to. Everywhere says 'prune goiseberries now' but how much to prune? How much do I take off? Can I kill them? Are they pretty hardy?

I'm nervous as my son passed away and I promised him I would continue our allotment. I've just been brave enough to get back to it. Cut back all the raspberry canes, dug over all the beds, repairing paths, etcetera. But need to tackle the thorny bushes.

Any advice would be most welcome (and in very simplistic terms!).

The simplest advice (which comes from having a huge monster of a bush that I inherited) is remember that the shape has to be one that lets you pick the fruit.
They do grow a lot in a season, and the fruit is heavy and drgs the branches down to the ground

So, a cup shape is usually recommended so the centre is quite hollow and there aren't any branches down near the ground. So cut out extras and then shorten the long branches by 1/3 or 1/2.

TBH - the last 2 years I have picked and pruned simultaneously! It was the only way to get to the fruit - chop the branch off!
(not sure that is the correct way )

I pruned my gooseberry bush a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in several years, and it's already got lots of leaf buds and is looking much happier. I followed the instructions from an RHS book I have, but they are condensed into this point from their website
In winter, remove dead wood and low-lying shoots. Then spur prune all side shoots by cutting them back to one to three buds from the base. Shorten branch tips by one quarter, cutting to a suitable outward facing bud.
It advised making a goblet shape, as the previous poster suggested, and so far it seems to have done it good