Star gooseberry tree for sale – Easy plant to grow with edible fruits, grow for medical uses, ornamental fruits and for the leaves, planting season in spring to summer and in tropical all year, better to buy plant or another option to start from seeds yet more challenging.
Growing information: perennial plant, growing hardiness zone: 10+, water needed – average amount, light conditions – full sun, height: 2-10m, 6-30 feet.
Blooming in the spring in cross shaped flowers that appear in pink to red color.
Fruit harvesting in the summer in round shaped fruits that appear in yellow color.
Alternative name: Otaheite gooseberry, Malay gooseberry, Tahitian gooseberry, Country gooseberry, Star gooseberry, Starberry, West India gooseberry, or simply Gooseberry tree, Phyllanthus acidus
Uses – the fruit juice is used to prepare sauces, syrups or other drinks. The fruit is eaten when cooked or canned. The fruits are also used in jam, condiment, macerated in vinegar or pounded with salt and chilli. When cooked, the fruit changes color and becomes red. It is also used to make arranged rum. In India and Indonesia, cooked leaves are eaten. It is also used in traditional medicine, the leaves are used to make a poultice to treat sciatica, lumbago and rheumatism and to reduce fever, the seeds are used as cathartic and the fruits stimulate appetite, purify the blood and treat digestive disorders. The roots are an active purgative. The bark is used as a tanning agent.
Soil – Well-drained, fertile soil with a pH between slightly acidic to slightly alkaline
Temperature – around 20°C (68°F)
Watering – Water regularly during the growing season
Propagation – Seeds are the most common way of propagating. It may bear in 4 years. Budding, greenwood cutting and air layering are other methods of propagation.
Pest and diseases – be careful with spider mites, mealybugs and aphids.
