Guidelines and tips for growing gooseberries in your kitchen garden

Gooseberry is a great crop to incorporate into your backyard garden because as long as you keep it well fed, well pruned, and watered it will continuously give you fruits in spans of months with little work on your part.

Growing gooseberry on our small farm has been fun as well as a source of fresh fruits that can be taken fresh or made into great smoothies when combined with mango or watermelon fruit.

This we have done effortlessly and learned…..

Cape gooseberry also known as yellow berry or golden berry is a self-pollinating plant. The flowers are hermaphrodites meaning that they have both male and female organs in the flowers.

Plants will begin to flower 4 to 6 weeks after transplanting or when the plants have formed 12 to 13 internodes.

The flowering and fruiting of Gooseberry depend on the variety and agro-ecological zone.

Tips on pollination

1. Gentle shaking gooseberry plants trained on the trellis can promote pollination
2. It has been reported that lightly spraying the plants with water can enhance pollination

Tips on growing

1. Prepare your nursery bed and sow your seeds, four weeks after germination transplant into small pots or directly into the garden.
2. Transplant your gooseberry seedlings into a well-prepared garden with lots of organic manure or compost and be sure to mulch with either dry leaves or straws to help retain moisture and curb weeds from growing.
3. Prune regularly and keep moist with an inch of water a week.

On pests and diseases, we have noted several bothering the plants. Noted are birds feeding on fresh gooseberries, Aphids, and fruit flies. Powdery mildew which looks like a white, powdery coating on the leaves on the leaves and branches has been observed. It mainly occurs when the weather is warm and humid.

Gooseberries are ready for harvesting 4 months after transplanting when the berries are yellow in color and the outer cover is brown or dry. Eat within 2 days of picking up or store them refrigerated for up to two weeks.

You can start off with a few gooseberry plants and expect a fruitful season. Fresh fruits, Fresh taste from your backyard to your table.

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