Cape Gooseberry - Physalis peruviana

I've bought some of these seeds online with a (perhaps vain) hope to grow them on our windy allotment, as the fruits are delicious! Does anyone have any experience of these, or advice they can give about growing? I understand that with winter protection the plants can be grown as perennials.

 

the best ones I ever grew was in the greenhouse , the edible ones I always planted new seed each spring , mine never survived over winter .

Spruce

 

Oh, I guess there's not much hope of me keeping them alive over winter then, if even a greenhouse wasn't warm enough!

How were your plants with pests and diseases and the like?

 

Just been looking at a thread on an american forum about those (They were calling them Tomatillos, rhymes with Armadillos)

Looks like they need to be pollinated so you need plants close to each other.

They grew outside in my Aunt's garden when I was a child, but I wouldn't know what variety that was (There is a poisonous variety too)

 

Grew them in the polytunnel about 5 years ago and got a reasonable crop from two plants. Haven't grown them since though as I reckon I can use the space for more useful crops.

 

I grew these years ago , watch out for slugs is the big one , they did actually grow the following couple of years , self seeded . But that all stopped when I changed the soil in the greenhouse border.

Spruce

 

After growing them from seed many years ago I still get plants self seeding on the allotment each year.
They are very easy to grow and overwinter if grown in a pot.
In fact you get a better crop the second year as the plants are fairly slow starters.

You can have ripe fruit from August onwards outside in a sunny position.
The get tall, about 4ft or more, so a bit of support is needed.

They are self fertile so just the odd tap of the flowers sorts out pollination, just as in tomatoes.
If we didn't have cold winters I could easily see the plant becoming a weed.