Your comments and tips

17 Jul 17, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

They're frost sensitive and will die over winter unless you keep them in a greenhouse.

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06 Jul 17, GARY THOMPSON (South Africa - Semi-arid climate)

are gooseberry seeds for sale available, or can one simply re-plant a ripe fruit to restart new seedlings? I just happen to have discovered a few plants on the property I'm currently renting.

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28 Jul 17, Berney (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate)

You can sow seeds from the ripe fruitm

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04 Jul 17, Bea (Canada - Zone 6b Temperate Warm Summer climate)

I've been growing ground cherries for a few years in Halifax. I bought the seed from Annapolis Seed. It is a milder, paler version of cape goose berries. They are good but not as tasty as CGBs. It grows in a husk exacty as CGB but the fruit is very pale, not at all orange like CGB. This past winter I bought some CGB fruit from Pete's fruitique and kept the seed from one berry. It germinated and grew VERY well. Today, July 3, I have a ground cherry and cape gooseberry growing in pots side by side. The CGB has darker green leaves and is a larger plant. The ground cherry has lots of flowers and a few emerging husks. Haven't noticed flowers on the CGB yet. Keeping my fingers crossed they will appear soon and bear lots of fruit. As far as I'm aware, both of these plants are annuals, not perrenial. As is the Sunberry (called Wonderberry in UK). I got this seed from Annapolis Seed too. My first time growing it, but supposed to be similar to blueberries. The plant is only about a foot tall but bushy with lots and lots of flowers.

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26 Sep 20, Monica (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)

I grew sunberries a few years ago. Quite prolific. Birds ate a lot, and a lot self seeded and troubled me as weeds for several years... I am a bad weeder! They are no match for a real wild blueberry as I'd hoped. I grew tomatillos, and ground cherries in different years. Could not eat the tomatillos fast enough, and we had other garden items that tasted better! But the ground cherries didn't produce much and we liked them. Go figure. I know they grow around here, northern Nova Scotia. I am going to try cape gooseberries.. looks like a strong and productive plant. Thanks to all for info posted here.

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15 Mar 18, Christie Chaplin-Saunders (Canada - Zone 6a Temperate Warm Summer climate)

I have 36 tiny Inca berry seedlings emerging from little peat pellets as of today (March 15). I wonder how large they are likely to get before I can transplant them to a cold frame in about eight weeks? In particular, what size pots should I buy for them? Advice will be appreciated!

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28 Jun 17, Jack (Australia - temperate climate)

Growing up during the Forties gooseberries along with tomatoes grew wild in scrub country just off the road near our town. Did not seem to have pests in those days. My mother used to make jam and gooseberry pie. The pie was my favourite, absolutely delicious. I am having another go at growing again with one plant in the ground and another in a pot. Will have to protect from frosts and insects.

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17 Jun 17, Colleen (South Africa - Semi-arid climate)

We have a healthy plant with loads of fruit which never ripen. In a planter that gets afternoon Sun. Why do you think the fruit doesn't get ripe ?

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10 Jun 17, James (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)

Very curious about these. I had an apartment in New Brunswick and I am absolutely sure that these were growing behind the building in an unkept grassy area. I did not know what they were at the time. A large patch of them appeared every spring and they grew very short, only about a foot or two high. They bore a lot of fruit. In the winter they were covered with snow and ice. They still came back every year. I think this is evidence that gooseberries will grow in Canada as a perennial without any special tending. I purchased some gooseberries at a grocery store awhile back. In late March, I took some of the seeds and planted them in pots. I now have a 2 foot high plant that will be planted in my garden in a few days (June). Of course, these fruit were imported from Peru and might not like the climate. Maybe this fall I will go pick some of the variety growing behind my old apartment!

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10 Jun 17, James (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate)

After further research I have found that the husked plants I saw were "ground cherries" a close relative of the cape gooseberry that grows natively in Canada! The cultivated variety is "Aunt Mollys" and you can buy seeds from Veseys. Wild ones are considered a weed/pest by farmers. I have also read that if you eat them before ripe, they are poisonous.

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