Cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) is a plant that presents fruit with high aggregate value and expressive levels of beneficial components to the human health. However, the lack of knowledge of the phenological phases limits the expansion of the crop under subtropical conditions, especially in open field production, despite it is a typical tropical plant. This research aimed to evaluate the phenological stages related the growth and the production of cape gooseberry cultivated under subtropical environment in an open field production system. The phenological stages were determined by the evaluations from the plant’s emerging date until it is senescence. The cape gooseberry cycle comprised 254 days with a total of 3,843.6 °C day. Cape gooseberry reached a maximum of 173 leaves, 193 cm height, and 1.16 cm stem diameter. The plastochron at the vegetative phase was 15.7 °C day node-1 and at the reproductive phase 20.6 °C day node-1. The fruit reached the harvest point with 3,045.3 °C day, corresponding to 179 days from the sowing or 100 days after transplantation, and the production period was extended for 60 days. Under the edaphoclimatic conditions (subtropical region), the production was 151.2 g per plant with estimated yield of 1,007.8 kg ha-1.

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the number of stems and row spacing on cape gooseberry growth and yield in the open field. A completely randomized block design was adopted in a three-factor arrangement (number of stems × spacings × evaluations). The spatial arrangements used were the spacing between rows of 3.0 and 1.5 m, keeping 0.5 m between plants. The formation pruning consisted of maintaining 4, 6 and 8 stems per plant. The evaluations were carried out weekly from the pruning until the plant senescence. The height and diameter of the stem showed gradual growth and the number of leaves decreased with the beginning of production during the plant cycle. Plants conducted with four stems showed a larger stem diameter and a greater height in the 1.5 m spacing between rows, while the number of leaves, fruits and yield increased as the number of stems increased. The largest number of fruits and the highest estimated yields were found in the 1.5 m spacing between rows, regardless of the number of stems, with an average value of 621 thousand fruits ha-1 and yields of 2.15 t ha-1 for fruits with calyx and 1.70 t ha-1 for fruits without calyx.