yes, you can cut it way back and it wont resent it much. the unripe fruits if far enough along will ripen of left attached to the stem. The quality is usually somewhat diminished, but not too badly.
did you actually taste the Shoenbrun fruits? Some physalis retain a green coloration when ripe. I even have eaten some native ones that look entirely green on the outside, bjt were orangeish inside and tasty.
We’re still about a month from a frost so I’ll leave the Schoenbrum outside to see if I can pick something more ripe. Right now pretty yuck.
I read about taking Physalis cuttings now which I’ll try with my cut back and potted Lucie’s Golden.
It would be great if, instead of starting from seed on heat mat under lights in March, they could be wintered over as plants and/or cuttings!
I’ve already got my next year’s bed picked out for 5 plants. Will become a staple if it all works out!
cool. yeah, cuttings work well. so does layering. Any stems that touch the ground usually erupt with roots.
I ordered them, they arrived, and they’re starting to sprout. I hope I can keep a pair alive long enough to see fruit (some of my other solanums either damp off or dry up in the early stages.
While I’m interested in crossing it with the malinalco one (already flowering for me), if it’s particularly good and distinct, I might prefer to keep the varietal line separate as well.
Vanilla Tomatillo seedlings:
Malinalco Tomatillo flowers:
Im fairly positive now that this Physalis pest is a fruit worm. I removed one from a fruit tonight that is pupating. It has some silky stuff around it. It looks very much like pictures of cherry fruit worm and cranberry fruit worm. Perhaps its a lesser known fruit worm? I gather I can chill it and fool it into thinking its spring, which I may try. I wonder if the state entomologist or the local extension agent who deals with “small fruits” would be of any assistance?
I found some very tasty and decent sized haws last weekend and noticed many of them had almost identical entry holes and seemingly identical wriggling larvae. Perhaps Ive found an alternate host.
Wow- you’re right about cuttings springing to life! These are from Lucie’s Goldenberry put under a mist tent for 2 weeks. And digging up the original monster didn’t seem to set it back that much either.
Because of the ease of starting cuttings, I’m giving Schoenbrunn Gold a second chance next year. As seed-started, they’re still a month behind Lucie’s and not fully sweet. But since they are about a third larger, they might do better with a head start. Lucie’s on left, Schoenbrunn on right.
A small harvest of Malinalco Tomatillos.
I might enjoy them in a salsa, but I didn’t like them fresh. I don’t like to eat fresh tomatoes. I found the flavor profile to be about 70% Tomato, 20% Pepper, and 10% sweetness. Lots of potential for recipes, but not the greatest fresh unless you like tomatoes.
Any updates on geltower? Is it true it tastes more like peruvianas?
Sadly my Geltower damped off early last year so I’m going to try again this year.
I’m wintering over cuttings of Lucie’s Big Goldenberry and Schoenbeunn Goldenberry. Plan to give them some
heat-trapping modifications in order to advance their fruiting. P Peruviana have become my favorite in the straw/blue/black berry category!
Thanks for the update!
I had dug up the peruviana that volunteered in a garden bed and put the roots in the ground in the greenhouse earlier in the fall, and just stuck a bunch of cuttings in a community pot. Looks like 100% are rooting, and the root ball is growing vigorously.
I know…nothing like immediate gratification!
I’ve started one more pruinosa, ‘Geltower’, from seed. If its fruit size is much larger than Aunt Molly and just as tasty, it might be a good early physalis.
My Lucie’s Golden and Schoenbrunn cuttings will go in the garden in the spring. Last season it was a race against the climate clock with Schoenbrunn, so will see if I get a head start with cuttings. Seattle weather should be perfect for both.
The Lucie’s and Scheonbrunn I dug up are already monsters in 5 gal pots. Hope they hang in there.
Anxious to get on with it, but can’t really plant these out till tomato weather…another 5 months to go!
So would this likely be some kind of moth? Maybe a bit of bug netting over the plants during the night, removed during daylight for bees, is the trick. I think I’m going to give it a shot this year.
Yes, I believe so. It may even be cherry fruit worm, or more likely I think, a close relative. Everything checks out, including the silk encased pupa, which Ive observed. Hawthorn is listed as an alternate host for. cherry fruit worm, and this fall I ate haws that had identical looking entry holes with identical looking larvae inside as on my Physalis.
If cherry fruit worm is anything to go on, covering at night may not suffice:
Im at a bit of a loss for potential remedies. It seems systemic pesticides may be the only solution. Maybe its time to bust out some crazy JADAM Asimina leaf brew ?
Hmmm, gonna be tricky. I guess I can uncover in the mornings on weekends.
One thing I remember from the early days of my interest in and growing of Physalis, which may or may not be useful or meaningful:
The first wild Physalis I found and consequently grew out came from around the foundation of an old house I worked on. The house bad stone flagging all around the back side against the house and extending out maybe 6 ft. Underneath the stone flagging was thick landscape cloth topped by maybe 4-6” of crushed stone. The ground cherries grew prolifically in that spot, and seemingly pest free. I didn’t actually eat any directly from them, but I returned a couple of years later and the owner of the house had taken to eating them after Id pointed out to her what they were. Up until then her husband had been waging war on them, unsuccessfully. I suppose ripping them out year after year might have prevented them fruiting and so interrupted the life cycle sufficiently, but I cant help but wonder if there was something particularly advantageous about where and how they were growing that prevented fruit worm pressure in the first place. I will say too those were the happiest looking native Physalis Ive ever seen.
My experience is similar. I’ve seen a fair number of the native ones growing in pure river sand, especially higher up on some of the steeper parts of the banks. Granted, it might just be that the seedlings are what prefer that pure mineral soil and the adults are mostly just benefiting from the direct full sun in those spots. Hard to say.
Thanks to this site for introducing me to Chupon de Malinalco! Wonderful pepper flavor with hint of citrus.Yum!
Will try giving it more water since it looks pint-size compared to others on this site.
Due to heat-challenged PNW, I have my one plant in hoop house with peppers. It’s already a monster! Definitely will dedicate a sizable space for more of these next year.
Looking for some botany understanding here. Please chime in.
I have 1 Chupon de Malinalco ( Physalis philadelphica subs. ixocarpa) planted among a Schoenberg Gold (Physalis peruviana) and a Lucie’s Golden Berry (Physalis peruviana).Blooming times overlap and the peruviana fruits are seeded but the Chupon is seedless.
Does that mean the P.philadelphica fruiting had no pollination relationship with the P.peruviana? Is P.phildelphica self-fruitful but needs another P.philadelphica to get seeded fruit?
Many/most Solanums are self pollinating and self fruitful. Tomatoes are said in many cases to shed pollen before the flowers even open, thus tomatoes being relatively easy to grow true to type. That said, I covered my native Physalis with remay for a month or so for pest control reasons and they set no fruit.
It may be (my assumption) that the flowers are receptive to their own pollen, but need bees or other pollenizers to mechanically transfer the pollen.
In the case of Physalis, Ive read that ploidy (number of sets of chromosomes) prevent many crosses, especially with ixocarpa. Ive tried crossing philadelphica with peruviana and peruviana with native types without success. I was using crude and casual open pollination so not conclusive.
