Topic: Cape Gooseberry Pineapple (Physallis)

[Georgie]

This is my third year of growing Cape Gooseberries in pots.  I have to say that this variety is the best cropper yet.  I've already had over 20 ripe fruits and the picture only shows a couple from about a dozen equally laden branches from two plants.   ;D  G x

[lorna]

Georgie It always amazes me how many different flowers/ veg you manage to get in your garden.

[Emagggie]

I am sooooo envious. Last summer we stood and munched our way through a fellow plotters harvest as his wife didn't like them and he didn't want them to go to waste, but I still forgot to add them to my seed list. ::)

[dtw]

I grew some last year, but didn't particularly like them.
They tasted a bit like cherry tomatoes, but a bit blander.

[freesia]

Georgie - This is my first year of growing the pineapple ones and they have just started to fall of the plant, so I'm ripening them now on a windowsill.  How will I know when they are ripe?  Do they go orange like the other cape gooseberries, or should they be yellow?
Thanks.

[alan42]

i am growing them for the first time as well mine have a wounderfull crop on them but not ripe yet, i have a question though do the plants die of or can they be left to fruit again next year or do i have to save seed and start again ?
many thanks
alan

[Georgie]

Ha ha Lorna, Sarah didn't call my garden the Tardis for nothing!   ;D

Emaggie, I'd be happy to save you some seeds if you want me to?

DTW.  This variety taste like Pineapple. Honest!   ;D

Freesia. The fruits dropping off the plant is normally a sign that they are ripe.  The cases should be dry and papery.  Mine are yellowy-orange when ripe but not as orange as other varieties such as Peruviana.  Hope this helps.

Alan.  They are perennials but not frost hardy.  So if you have somewhere to keep them frost free over winter just cut them back and keep them there.  But they come so easily from seed I don't bother.  I just save some seed and sow again in late February.

G x

[alan42]

many thanks for taking the time to  answear.
Alan

[Emagggie]

Yers please Georgie!!

[freesia]

Many thanks for your reply Georgie.  It sounds like mine should be ready to eat very soon.

Freesia

[fluffygrue]

Oooh, nice photo. When do yours usually start to flower, then?

I have some in the ground that seem to be sulking with the weather we've had this year.. no flowers yet and they're still fairly small plants.

[Georgie]

EMaggie can you PM me your details and I'll save you some seeds.   :)

Freesia do let us know what you think of them.

Fluffygrue.  I hate to say this but if yours aren't even in flower yet, then I suspect you are not going to get any ripe fruit this year.   :(  I didn't make a note of when mine came into flower but I'd guess it was sometime in May.  CGs take a long time to ripen in my limited experience and I always remove the leaves shading the fruits to help the process along.  Even so I'm always left with some unripe fruit at the end of the season and I'm in the South East. 

G x

[alan42]

found a few that had dropped of the plant nice and Orange colour so i tried them, all i can say is mine were eather not quite ready or something cos theres no way in the world i would say they taste of pineapple not even remotely, i could not describe the taste not unpleasant but not sweet a little tangy but nothing special. if that was what they taste like all the time it will be my first and last go at them. hope others like them better than me. dam and i was so chuffed at the size and amount of fruit i had grown oh well i tried.
Alan

[freesia]

Georgie - I tried my first one yesterday and liked it.  I thought it tasted different to the normal cape gooseberry, but not of pineapple.  It may have been because it wasn't ripe enough though, but there will be lots more for me to try again.  I certainly intend to grow this variety again next year.

Freesia

[Georgie]

Well, you like it Freesia, that's the main thing.   ;D  I think you are right though, they need to be really ripe and sun-warmed to taste like Pineapple.

G x

[Smileyk]

OOoh these sound interesting, will have to add it to my list of things to try  ;D