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28 Dec 17 Brad (Australia - temperate climate)

Have a cape gooseberry going on 3 summers now. Not much fruit in first year, bucket load in 2nd summer, now bucket loads in 3rd summer. Red spider mites would attack it from about March through to start of winter, but we just cut it back to about 20cm from base and the spider mites disappear heading into the winter. Noticed about a month ago after the hot weather hit, that alot of new flowers would just fall off at the slightest touch. Put this down to lack of water, so we placed sugar cane mulch to about 6 inches thick and out to a radius of about a meter, then stretched shade cloth over the mulch and pegged down (to keep the blackbirds from destroying the mulch). Under the mulch cover we also placed weaper hose and had this going for a few hours each day, and problem soon resolved with loads more flowers and setting fruit.

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