Cape Gooseberry (Golden Berry) Seeds

Cape gooseberry gives you a fruit the shops charge a premium for: glossy orange berries, each wrapped in its own papery lantern. Physalis peruviana, also sold as golden berry, is a South American relative of the tomato, and the fruit tastes like a sweet cherry tomato with a sharp, almost cranberry finish. Eat them from the husk, add them to fruit salads and jams, or dip them in melted chocolate. It crops well in a large pot on a sunny patio or in a greenhouse.

Sowing and growing

• Sow indoors February to April at 18 to 21°C, about 0.5 cm deep.
• Germination takes 7 to 15 days in warmth, sometimes longer.
• Plant out 30 to 40 cm apart after the last frost, or keep in a cool greenhouse, in full sun with support for the lax stems.
• Water well, but go easy on feed: rich conditions reduce flowering.
• Grows to about 70 cm to 1 m tall and 45 cm wide; a 30 cm pot is the minimum.
• Fruit ripens from late summer into autumn, roughly 90 to 120 days after sowing.
• Tender perennial, usually grown as an annual in the UK.

What you receive: a packet of about 125 seeds from Piccolo Seeds, with growing instructions on the back.

Browse our full range of fruit, herb and flower seeds, give the seedlings a warm start with our propagators and seed trays, or explore more exotic edible plants.