
Berries · Warm
Cape gooseberry
Solanaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 60 cm
- USDA zones
- 6a–11b
- Frost-sensitive
- yes
- Growth duration
- 20 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:raised-bed mixsandy
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Pre-culture recommended
Start indoors / cold frame first, transplant into the raised bed later.
Stachi's tip
Physalis (Cape gooseberry) is heat-loving like tomato, annual in temperate climates. The golden fruit in the paper husk is ripe when the husk turns yellow.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
No fixed companion partners — easy to mix.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
No known conflicts.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
Sources
- LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
- Bingenheimer Saatgut – Hauptkatalog 2025/2026 (EN) (https://info.bingenheimersaatgut.de/dateien/downloads/2025-2026_Hauptkatalog_EN_web.pdf)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Spacing
- Traditional recommendation. Rarely studied under controlled conditions — treat it as experience, not law.
- Companion planting
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Crop rotation
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage · Bingenheimer Saatgut – Hauptkatalog 2025/2026 (EN) (https://info.bingenheimersaatgut.de/dateien/downloads/2025-2026_Hauptkatalog_EN_web.pdf)
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.