Hello! Has anyone grown a ground cherry before? They are like miniature tomatillos, and taste kind of like a mix between a tomato and a pineapple. They are very good, i grew them last year! But i grew them from transplants last year, and this year i want to grow them from seed. I have already sprouted them, and have little seedling ground cherry plants. I really need some advice, so if you've ever grown ground cherries, please advise me on what to do... I need to know how much to water them and when, if i should prune them, how far apart they should be planted away from each other in the garden, and anything else you think i should know. Thanks again! ~tgplp
I grew some ground cherries in my garden about 30 years ago. As I recall, they were very easy to grow from seed, and they produced more fruit than we needed. No one in my family liked them very much; so I haven't grown them again. However, they produced so much wasted fruit that I still get volunteer seedlings every year and pull them up like weeds. I let a volunteer plant grow a few years ago to see if it would produce usable fruit, but the fruit didn't ripen before the weather got cold. These volunteers sprout quite late in spring; so your early plants should have no difficulty ripening.
I've grown them as transplants, then reseeded. Mine were always from wild foraging in Florida. Physalis spp I've grown include P. philadelphica and P. heterophylla. The latter is known as clammy ground cherry for good reason. It's a little stickier to touch than the others. Leaves can feel sticky, too, not just the fruits. Like a lot of weedy things, they seem to do better with a little neglect. Make sure the medium is draining well, and water only when dry, but not wilted. They can get overly tall and topple, so you might want to stake them early, or do a tomato cage. If you've ever seen Poha jam from Hawaii, it's made from ground cherries. Some salsas are made with ground cherries. A tomatillo is a ground cherry, but not all ground cherries are tomatillos. Chinese lanterns, P. alkekengi, are also ground cherries, and edible when ripe. Like all edible solanaceae, the fruit needs to be ripe. You wouldn't eat immature tomatoes or peppers or eggplant. "Green tomatoes" and "baby eggplant" are still mature fruits, just at the earliest possible stage of being ripe. Check out floridata, a site with a north Florida gardener and plant profiles. He grows a few different ground cherries from commercially available seed. In optimum growing conditions, commercial seed might need 18" spread between plants. I wouldn't prune them, but if they get overly lanky and the stems start to break under the strain, go for it. Just clip clean a tiny bit above a leaf node to encourage new growth. I'd probably use compost to enrich the soil, but treat them as you would tomatoes for fertilizing.
Start the Cape Gooseberry in March indoors. They take a long season. Three plants should give about 16 quarts of fruit if the weather co-operates. Year 2009 was not a very productive year due to being cold and wet. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?TLTVG 1 September 2009 Aunt Molly Ground Cherry ((Physalis pruinosa) Harvesting This fruit drops off the plant under the lush vegetation. Vegetation is propped up with a stake and the fruit is picked off the ground. The fruit has been slow ripening due to cold weather. There is always numerous unripe fruit, when frost ends the season. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?PPeruviana 20 April 2009 Physalis peruviana L Ground Cherry This plant was grown in 2008. It was found to require warm temperatures, and is relatively slow growing compared to the Physalis pruinosa ( Aunt Molly Ground Cherry). The fruit tends to stay on the stems of the plant when ripe, which is a plus. The fruit is large about the size of a good sized cherry, and probably a third larger than the Physalis pruinosa. The plant require about a 3 to 4 foot cube space for growing, so I grow three or four plants. http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CapeG 26 June 2009 Physalis peruviana L Ground Cherry Common name is Cape Gooseberry. This plant is basically upright as opposed to sprawling low to the ground.
Thanks for your help, Durgan! I have no idea what type of ground cherry I'm growing... the seed packet just says ground cherry! :) My seedlings are beginning to get true leaves... yay! ~tgplp
I grow exclusively P. peruviana (Uvillas) and I love 'em. Thanrose brings up an excellent point - they're weeds at heart, and do best with a bit of neglect. This said, you can also baby them and treat them like tomatoes, and they'll do well for you. I tend to water mine when the soil is dry to the depth of my third knuckle, but then again, I'm growing them year-round, in-ground. They don't seem to enjoy being too wet, though - the only time I've ever had Physalis fail on me was during a particularly rainy winter in a particularly rainy area of Ecuador.
Last year's summer was unusually dry and hot for the Seattle area. It probably wasn't that hot for most people... :) but it was for us! I hope it is hot this summer, too. All of my vegetables will be happier if it is. Except for the... well, I'm getting off subject! Anyways, it was dry last year, so hopefully it will be this year for my ground cherries. Thanks, everyone! ~tgplp :)
I've grown ground cherrys several times from seed, we can only grow them in a green house as we are zone 3 here. Like yourself I didn't know the name only as "ground cherry" but my fruit dropped when they got ripe. I grew them in large pots 3 to a pot, and fertilized and watered them the same as I do a tomato plant. My grand children and ourselves just ate them as fresh snacks everyone liked them. Your post got me interested again so I'll grow some for sure this year.
I grew them in the top of a 6ft rockery one summer. The chickens found them so I never got many. Moderate watering, well drained soil and morning sun seemed to work. The chickens loved them. barb
My chickens did, too, Barbara. They expelled neat little seed bombs with their own brand of fertilizer. Very efficient gardeners, if a little zealous at eating anything that sprouted. I'm going hunting for some wild Physalis spp. today because of this thread. I doubt our recent frosts hurt any Physalis seeds.
I'm glad my post got you excited to grow ground cherries again, Correnta! And thanks for the info, you and Barb! What type of fertilizer did you use... I'm sorry, I barely know how to fertilize a tomato plant! It's a good thing I don't have chickens! ~Tgplp :)
I didn't use any fertilizer, that I can remember, other than what the chickens did. Maybe that was their part of the job. Now I generally use Osmocote or Miracle Grow since I now have a very little, old yard. Now the squirrels do the same job the chickens did. They also plant tomatoe seeds pre fertilized for me. barb
