Groundcherrys are native to the north America also. I have found them growing wild also.
5 Likes
That is Physalis grisea. The true ground cherry Physalis pruinosa does not have native habitat north of Central America.
2 Likes
everything is relative! After our cool spring, even my groundcherry seedlings in the greenhouse have only a few leaves, it will be at least a month until any start flowering! I expect there will be volunteers outside, but those haven’t even germinated yet. I still got a decent crop last year, though, despite the shortened season.
2 Likes
i have 6 in fabric pots and 6 more leftovers still growing in the flat i sprouted them in. if i knew they would survive the trip, id send them to you.
1 Like
That’s nice of you, Steve; thank you! Fortunately, I started some of my regular ground cherries this winter, too—so I should have plenty.
True! I’m just impatient—and greedy for ground cherries! 
True, you never know. I do hope to ripen a few on these plants. If they’re even half-way decent, I’ll save some seed. It’s always fun trying out a new plant! 
1 Like
or could put them in a sunny window indoors to extend your fruit ripening window. 
going leave mine in the greenhouse this fall with a small heater with thermostat set at 60. my aunt marys and Niagara are already starting to bloom and theyre only 12in.
1 Like
Hey folks, I always hate to leave things hanging: so here’s a final “Turkish Delight” update. It’s definitely a “Cape gooseberry” (P. peruviana). Though totally neglected, the plants made upright, approx. 5’ X 5’ bushes (completely unlike P. pruinosa’s prostrate habit). They’re looking a little ragged after a hot, mostly dry summer and now a very dry autumn–but they’re still trying to produce. Ripe berries do not readily drop but hang on plant. They were slow to really get down to production, but started making a decent number of fruit by late summer: unfortunately, I didn’t get very many of them. Some insect—I suspect a moth/caterpillar that is a Physalis specialist, though I have not observed it in action—bored into most of the husks and then into the developing fruit, ultimately leaving only dried remnants and frass. This is also a problem with the native ground cherries: almost every husk I find in the wild has a little round hole in it and no edible contents! (And I guess that’s why I’ve never eaten one . . . ) Whatever the bug is, it does not attack P. pruinosa.
See those “Turkish Delight” husks? Almost all of them are empty!
The few I got were quite meaty (compared to pruinosa) and rather tart with a kind of (for want of a better adjective) “perfumey” note. They were really nothing like “Turkish Delight” candy—so the name was pure marketing. I honestly did not care for them fresh. I find the simple, sweet flavor of pruinosa much better for fresh snacking—but, of course, your palate may be totally different. They probably would make very good preserves (and I understand they’re popular for that purpose in Hawaii)—although one would need a long season (or a very early indoors start), at least several plants, and (depending on location) maybe some sort of spray program (Btk?) to prevent your berries from becoming bug chow.
Whether they’re distinct at all from other peruviana varieties/strains I don’t know: because these are the first I’ve ever tried and so have no frame of reference.
Probably won’t grow them again in the near future, but I am going to try to salvage a few berries and save some seeds. So if anyone wants any, drop me a message.
3 Likes
I have what I assume is peruviana growing in my greenhouse, I got it from @jsteph00921 marked as “poha.” He said he prefers it to the sweet taste of pruinosa, but I started them late this year and they haven’t ripened yet. The pruinosa volunteers all over my garden are still producing profusely and are quite tasty this year, much better than last year, so they liked our unusually hot/dry summer and early fall.
Does anyone know if peruviana might be able to overwinter in a greenhouse? If not, I’m hoping to get a few ripe ones soon to save seeds at least.
Also: how likely are peruviana and pruinosa to hybridize if grown next to each other?
3 Likes
My ‘Kossaks Pineapple’ seeds from @TJ_westPA made a few happy little plants this year. My mistake was not spreading them out in the pot that finally had plants take off. I learned the seeds need to be started wayyy earlier than I expected to start making fruit at a reasonable time. Also, I needed to fertilize sooner but that is part of the learning process! I’ll have seeds for next year and try again. Will definitely be spreading these around the yard, they are a fun “home foraging” snack.
4 Likes
my cape gooseberries started indoors in may fruited from early sept till todays 25f frost that finished off the plants. they werent a improved cultivar but i liked them. they were a little tarter than my aunt mollys and niagra ground cherry but not in a bad way. not as productive but was nice to have the bigger fruit. i enjoyed eating all of them. would bring a bowlful to my 3 yr old niece that loves them as well. so far bugs havent found them here. im sure im going to have a bazillion volunteers in my greenhouse next spring from the fruit i missed.
3 Likes
How much bigger are they compared to what Jeremiah and I just shared? These little guys pack some good flavor but I’m not planning on growing them to feed an army, more of a novelty based on this year’s experience. I’m hoping that under better conditions in ground that they have solid production. They can certainly fill in the gaps in the mulch to limit the growth of (OTHER) weeds where a groundcover hasn’t been established yet.
2 Likes
the groundcherry are about the size of a reg. marble. the cape goose is a little larger than a nickel, some quarter sized. if they were productive like my b. currants id grow them again but i can use that space for something better. ill leave a few volunteers next year to snack on.
2 Likes
Yes, the seeds are very slow to germinate and slow to grow if kept in small pots. I start them in March and they are tiny plants when I plant in ground. Once the soil warms up though, they really take off. Insanely productive plants for me. They can start ripening in late July if I plant them mid May after frosts are done and will keep going through October if watered well during dry spells in summer. The fruits freeze well. I froze a lot last year and used them in different desserts.
Unfortunately, my plants were a disappointment this year due to worms eating the fruits from the inside. Likely the Subflexus Straw Moth (Heliothis subflexus). I didn’t see any worms or holes in the fruits last year, but this year it seems like half of them have a worm in them. They don’t always have an obvious hole when infected either, so I didn’t feel safe sharing them with people. That just made them not worth the hassle of dealing with them while letting that moth population increase, so I ripped out the plants in August. There’s no way I’d spray to control them, that sounds like the most annoying thing in the world to me due to how they grow. Maybe growing them under a row cover would help. Or only growing them every other year.
Interestingly, I found some native groundcherries pop up on my property this year (likely why the moths are here in the first place). The species I found are the Clammy Groundcherry ( Physalis heterophylla). Cool little plants and the fruits are apparently edible and tasty. Not sure if they will be able to ripen fruits this year since there are only a few that I found and they don’t seem close to ripe yet. That species is perennial though so maybe they will next year. The leaves feel velvety and somewhat sticky (hence clammy name) due to the many glandular hairs covering the plants. Here are some photos of them:
4 Likes
Very cool find! Disheartening that they are probably the source of your pest challenge though…
3 Likes
Yeah that was a bummer, but I try not to get too upset with native wildlife. I may rotate the groundcherries with melons each year since they both are susceptible to hibernating insects (striped cucumber beetles with the melons). Between that and using row covers I will hopefully have less pest issues.
1 Like
Aha! So that’s the culprit. I figured it was some sort of physalis specialist lepidopteran!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen them damage the pruinosas (Aunt Molly’s, Cossack Pineapple, et al.) but they really wreck peruviana and the native ones (which I think are P. virginiana—but I need to take a closer look)
I’ve found that if you hit your cucurbits weekly until very late in the season with neem (or neem + karanja) and/or spinosad (after dark, of course, to minimize impact on bees if plants are still blooming), you can put a serious dent in your overwintering cuke beetle population. Of course, it may be less effective if you’ve got a lot of neighbors growing, too.
1 Like
My unnamed pruinosa volunteers have such low pest pressure that I generally leave them on the ground for a week or longer to let them sweeten, and just go around picking up the oldest, driest looking husks for snacking (mostly by my one year old, who could eat only groundcherries all day if offered).
The presumed peruviana came up in a corner where I discarded the seed tray soil after none germinated in a couple months, but it’s definitely more upright than the pruinosa:
4 Likes
Funny thing. When I was turning over a bed for fall planting I found yet another variety of ground cherry. This one has rounder leaves with no serration. This might be an even larger bush than the variety I gave you. I’ll let you know how it does this winter in the greenhouse.
My yuzu are now ripening so I can send up those sudachi and ichandrin seeds. Also have some flying dragon fruit if you want those seeds. I’ll email you directly.