A Detailed Guide to Cape Gooseberry Planting Methods and Cultivation Techniques

The cape gooseberry was originally a wild plant. Because of its sweet-and-sour taste and high nutritional value, it has become popular, and many people have started growing it. So how do you grow cape gooseberry?

1. Raising Seedlings

Seedlings must first be raised in a greenhouse; before raising seedlings, prepare a suitable seedbed and nutrient soil.

Seedlings are mainly raised in plastic greenhouses or medium tunnels. The seedbed should be set in a place with higher terrain and good drainage, and choose a plot where solanaceous vegetables have not been grown in the previous crop. Each hectare requires 80-200 sq m of greenhouse or medium-tunnel seedling-raising area.

Seedbed: field soil that contains no pathogens or pests, is rich in humus and available nutrients, is neutral in chemical reaction, has good structure, is loose and not compacted, and has not been treated with long-residual herbicides. The bed soil should be thoroughly turned and sunned, the fertilizer should be thoroughly decomposed, and the fertilizer and soil should be evenly mixed.

Nutrient soil: biological organic fertilizer (special fertilizer for cape gooseberry) mixed with garden soil at 1:1 or 2:1. If the soil is heavy and clayey, add 10% fine sand, mix evenly and sieve, seal with formalin solution to sterilize and kill insects, open and sun-dry for 48h, then pile up for later use.

The bed soil of the sowing bed is generally 6-10 cm thick, and each sq m of seedbed requires 100-125 kg of nutrient soil. The bed soil of the transplanting bed is generally 12-17 cm thick, and each sq m of seedbed requires 150-200 kg of nutrient soil. Mix 70% dexon and 70% thiophanate-methyl at 1:1 evenly, dilute with water to a 1000-fold solution, and evenly spray the bed soil until moist.

2. Sowing

After sprouting, sow at the appropriate time. After sowing is completed, cover with a layer of soil and add plastic film.

Before sowing, seed soaking and germination acceleration are also required:

Seed soaking: usually scald with hot water at about 50°C for 12-15 minutes, then place at room temperature. During soaking, change to warm water at about 30°C once every 8-10 hours, and rub with your hands to remove the sticky substance on the outer skin, soaking for 20-24 hours.

Germination acceleration: place the water-swollen seeds at a suitable temperature to promote seed germination. For cape gooseberry germination acceleration, because the seeds are small and the amount used is small, the fine-sand mixing method is generally used. The amount of fine sand is about 8-10 times the amount of seeds (the fine sand needs to be sterilized with boiling water). Wrap the seeds well with a wet cloth and accelerate germination at 28-30°C. Turn them twice a day and rinse with warm clean water to release a large amount of respiration heat, take in oxygen, and remove carbon dioxide. After rinsing, continue germination acceleration. They will sprout in 5-7 days.

Sowing should preferably be done on a windless sunny afternoon. Water the bottom water thoroughly on the leveled bed surface (the paper-tube nutrient soil should be watered through). The depth of the water-seepage layer of the bottom water is about 6-8 cm. After the water seeps down, spread a thin layer of nutrient soil on the bed surface or in the paper tubes, then dibble the pre-germinated seeds, 3 seeds per hole, then cover with fine dry soil 0.5-1 cm. Covering with soil should be timely and even. After covering with soil, add a layer of clean plastic film to raise temperature and preserve moisture, and remove it when the seedlings push through the soil.

3. Field Management

During the seedling growth period of cape gooseberry, field management such as temperature, water, and fertilization should be done well.

Among these, for fertilization, all agricultural fertilizer and chemical fertilizer to be applied should be used as base fertilizer, applied by breaking the ridge and tucking fertilizer in when ridging, to meet the cape gooseberry's later fertilizer needs. There are 3 benefits: 1 is that it takes effect quickly; 2 is that formula fertilization has complete nutrients; 3 is that it is not prone to excessive vegetative growth and delayed maturity.

4. Field Planting

Once the fruit seedlings have grown to a certain extent, they can be field planted.

The row spacing for field planting is 1×1 m, and the planting holes are 40 cm deep and 40 cm wide, with 5 kg of farmyard manure applied per hole. When planting, place the seedling in the hole, with one person lifting the seedling and one person banking soil, firm it down, and water thoroughly. After planting, the hole surface should be required to be 8-10 cm lower than the ground so as to maintain moisture during the growing season. After planting, special attention should be paid to strengthening soil management, removing weeds, timely irrigation in dry weather, and fertilizing 2-3 times each year. Each year in mid-to-late October after leaf fall, bury the soil to protect against cold, with a soil-burying thickness that just does not expose the branches.