Your comments and tips

11 May 12, Georg (Australia - temperate climate)

All my goose berries are being eaten inside the mantel and fall off before they are anywhere near ripe. What spray can I use to overcome this pest? We have not been able to harvest one, even though the bush produced abundant fruit! Thanks for your help! Georg.

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14 Apr 12, Ian (Australia - temperate climate)

Where can I buy Cape Gooseberry seeds for planting?

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07 Feb 12, Jackie (Australia - temperate climate)

I have a plant and it nearly died.After some TLC and lots of water it has thrived and now fruits like mad. It has also self seeded and has become ferrel.It must love the scorching Summers in this part of the world. I believe it is good for diabetics .

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24 May 13, JOSEPH (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

Yes you are quiet correct I planted a Cape gooseberry for a friend who is a diabetic and she loves eating them straight from the bush. The Cape Gooseberry is queit hardy but does love a fair amount of water to give you a really good crop. As to the people commenting about their fruit dropping prior to maturity, my personal belief is the lack of consistent or regular watering. Hope you all have success

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31 Jan 12, margaret (Australia - arid climate)

I have two cape gooseberry bushes the problem i am having that some of the branches are half green and the other end of the branch is brittle dry like hollow from inside it looks as if the plant is dying. It is not starving from water or fertilizer so what could be the reason. Both these plants are near the hedge. Thanks margaret

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19 Jan 12, Carol (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

My gooseberries has taken off and are quite large bushes. I have an ongoing battle with little cucumber beetles (I think). I have grown them in three different suburbs around Toowoomba (different plant sources) and have always got this annoying and persistent beetle making a mess of the bushes. Pyrethrum seems to keep them at bay but not eradicate them. The berries look great until I open the paper pod and there is only a tiny shriveled up thing inside. Is the pyrethrum destroying the berries or the bugs? Or maybe would there be a problem with soil nutrition? Does anyone know?

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20 Jan 12, Canh (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi Carol, My guess is your plant isn't getting enough water and/ or manure. My cape gooseberry which is now in the green house has gone wild, it's taken over the greenhouse. Not that I mind because it is loaded with fruit. Occasionally I squeeze the green husks to feel how the fruits are developing. The husks that developed in early December has fruits the size of a marble. I don't think they are going to get much bigger than that. New side shoots are still emerging just like the tomato plants and new fruit are developing with these new shoots. How I look after my goose berry is I try to get keep the soil around the plant moist but not damp if you know what i mean. Occasionally I let the soil to almost dry out but never completely dry so the root system can breathe. If you see the leaves starting to wilt from dry soil this will affect the berries in the pods. Try putting dry leaves around the base of the tree to preserve moisture. I don't need to mulch mine because the plant is so bushy it's shading the base itself!! I feed the plant with horse manure. How i do it is, I have a plastic bin about 40 litres with a cover. I put about a supermarket size bag of raw horse manure in the bin then filled it up with water, put the lit on and let it sit for about 2 weeks. I then scoop 4 or 5 cups of this mixture including the grassy bits of the manure from the bin and put into a 10 litre bucket. Fill the bucket up with fresh water, stir them together and water the plants. I feed the plants once every 2 weeks. simple as that..

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12 Jan 12, Frog (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I recently found my childhood memory cape gooseberries when revisiting Mt Tamborine. The new householder I visited did not know how precious her plants were to me, and hopefully now to her. I have some fruit, which I won't eat, as I want to plant. Do I dry them, store in fridge and plant March, as 'green harvest' mentioned or just leave whole fruit in ground, and magic happens.

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05 Jan 12, Canh (Australia - temperate climate)

How I got my Cape Gooseberry to grow from a cutting..The cutting I managed to get was about 3cm long. It was the tip of one of the branches. When I got it home after a 30 minutes car drive, I let the cutting soak in cool tap water for a couple of hours. Then I put the cutting into a small pot with 3/4 of soil. I then put 3 small stakes about 15cm above the pot level wedged around the edge of the pot. Then I use a clear plastic bag and covered the pot. I made a small hole in the bag for ventilation and also for watering the pot without having to take the plastic bag off. keeping it moist but not damped I noticed the cutting was getting bigger and side shoots began to show. When it got to about 15cm tall I transplant the gooseberry into a glasshouse. about 3 months later the gooseberry plant is over 1.5metre tall and has dozens of side shoots over a meter tall. It's like going wild in my glasshouse. And yes, the tree is loaded with fruit but not riped to pick as yet. Since my cape gooseberry took off and produced many side shoots I've been making more cuttings. Now I don't know what the hell I am going to do with all the new plants I've made. So it is very easy to grow Cape Gooseberry from cuttings as long as the cutting has a tip or a nod/ bud where branches or new side shoots going to come out of. Anyone in the Canberra area wanting a cutting or small Gooseberry tree let me know.

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26 Jan 18, Wilson (USA - Zone 4b climate)

To some that posted replies on this page... Cape Gooseberry is not a gooseberry tree, it is a ground cherry.

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