I didn't buy seeds, so I don't know which kind I'm growing, but my mom bought ground cherries at her local farmers market so I knew they could grow here. I saved seeds from some of those ground cherries. I started the seeds inside with no grow light in April and these spindly tiny things came up and got super leggy but the leaves never got bigger. Starting inside was a huge fail. Grow light would've worked I bet.

I put some seeds in the ground where I planned to grow them, I had tiny cages set up for them. The seeds sprouted and grew nice leaves on shorter stems, very hardy. I dug up one sprout and replanted it a little further away so I let two plants grow.



A little after that, I saw something called "golden berries" in the grocery store and they reminded me of ground cherries. I looked it up and they are related. I planted some seeds of that and started a golden berry plant. That one sprouted about the same, though it was started so late, I don't have berries yet.
All the plants grew



The golden berry grows straight up more or less, and uses the cage. The ground cherries sprawl and don't need the support, though I use it to tie branches out of the way because it is in the walkway. I didn't give them nearly enough room.


They grow a ton of fruit! They just yellow as the husk gets dry and fall to the ground. You pick them up, unwrap and enjoy.


The golden berry plant has just started making fruit. You can see the husk on those has the purple all through it, unlike the ground cherries which are solid green. I can't wait to see what the full, ripe husk is like. Here is a golden berry flower:


Ground cherry harvest:

I guess I will have to add some of those to my small garden come Spring, thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

Hi. Robyn 😎
Got my seed catalog dogeared 4 ground cherries allready. I planted purple tomatillos direct on april 3rd. Leafs look like your pic. With da small leaves. Dont taste like tomatillos. Kind of sweet an tart. 8foot tall.but not big producers.only a few so far.i just wonder if there same as yours! In johnnysseed cat. They have some called goldie.says dar prolific.sweet an a little wild taste. Eat em raw.dried like raisins.frozen.canned.4 preserves.cooked pies.and desserts !? If mine start doin much im gonna try dryin some !!!



Sticky little devil's. Are yours ?
Now ! You got me wonderin how to
dry em 😕!!! You.u.u.u! Troublemaker !
Ohs swells ! Watch out Google !!!! Hears eyes comes#!!! 😎😎😎 Ttfn !

Philipwonel said:Hi. Robyn 😎
Got my seed catalog dogeared 4 ground cherries allready. I planted purple tomatillos direct on april 3rd. Leafs look like your pic. With da small leaves. Dont taste like tomatillos. Kind of sweet an tart. 8foot tall.but not big producers.only a few so far.i just wonder if there same as yours! In johnnysseed cat. They have some called goldie.says dar prolific.sweet an a little wild taste. Eat em raw.dried like raisins.frozen.canned.4 preserves.cooked pies.and desserts !? If mine start doin much im gonna try dryin some !!!



Sticky little devil's. Are yours ?
Now ! You got me wonderin how to
dry em 😕!!! You.u.u.u! Troublemaker !
Ohs swells ! Watch out Google !!!! Hears eyes comes#!!! 😎😎😎 Ttfn !

Wow, those look interesting! Mine are a kind of gold/orange color when ripe. They start out green like tomatoes. I should get a picture up of what the berry itself looks like. Yes, tomatillos are related as well. They are all related to tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. In fact, the colorado potato beetle gave my little ground cherries a bit of an issue this summer even though they largely ignored my potatoes and tomatoes. They just really preferred the ground cherries. I picked off the adults and checked for eggs now and then, it wasn't too bad.

Here's a picture of an immature golden berry pod. Note the purple lines in the pod that the ground cherries don't have.


I'll come back with a picture of a ground cherry berry.

Philip that's not a ground cherry that's a tomatillo

Just tasted these for the first time last week at the farmers market .
They were interesting
I may try some next year.
Wish I had the forethought to save some seeds.

I had to look this up to see if it was a "common name" issue. It's not! Tomatillos and ground cherries are two different types of Physalis .

Are ground cherries the same thing as what they sell at grocery stores called "Golden Berries"?

If so, I should try growing them. I love their tart and slightly sweet taste.

And they're rather expensive at the grocery stores.

Yes they are the same, that's just a name used for marketing them.

jeffphx said:Are ground cherries the same thing as what they sell at grocery stores called "Golden Berries"?

If so, I should try growing them. I love their tart and slightly sweet taste.

And they're rather expensive at the grocery stores.

Not quite. Same family. Golden berries are also sometimes called cape gooseberries. The plant it very similar and the berries ripen in a husk to a golden orange color. Golden berries are a little bigger and just a little less sweet. The plant, at least the one I'm growing, is less sprawly and works better with a small tomato cage. The stems aren't as pin striped as ground cherries and the leaves and stems are fuzzier.

ediblelandscapingsc said:Yes they are the same, that's just a name used for marketing them.

here's a ground cherry husk growing:



The husk is solid green and the flowers have yellow on the outside and a purple ring on the inside. The stems are heavily striped. The husks dry to a solid creamy tan.

Here's a golden berry husk growing:


And the flowers:


The flowers have the purple ring on the inside and the purple extends in the crease to the end of the flower. The resulting husk has the purple all the way through it. The plant is more upright and sprawls less, and the stems have a less obvious striped pattern. (That picture above has a ground cherry stem tied out of the way right next to the golden berry stem and you can see the difference.) The leaves are MUCH fuzzier and often look silver in the mornings compared with the ground cherries leaves.

Their tastes are similar, but ground cherries have a more sweet/tart taste while golden berries have a more complex and interesting flavor, though still tart/sweet. I've never had them dried like raisins though. Golden berries can also be called 'cape gooseberries'.

Thanks do you know the 2 different Physalis species names? I've heard ground cherries also be called cape gooseberries.

ediblelandscapingsc said:Thanks do you know the 2 different Physalis species names? I've heard ground cherries also be called cape gooseberries.

Well, a lot of the Physalis plants have 'groundcherry' in the name. Interestingly, the golden berry - physalis peruviana - is one of the few that typically doesn't. (Although a rare name is peruvian groundcherry - or Inca berry)

The typical ground cherry that we mostly know - the kind sold under the seed name "Aunt Molly" are Physalis Pruinosa.

Thanks Robyn You learn something new everyday!!

ediblelandscapingsc said:Thanks Robyn You learn something new everyday!!

I've been trying to look up a diagram of the family tree, it would be interesting to see. I know they are close enough to the potato plant that the Colorado potato beetle was more focused on my ground cherries than the potatoes. As the summer nears end, the ground cherry leaves have yellowed and gotten a little ragged in places. I'm not sure if that is something like tomato blight or just general age. . Or maybe a call for more fertilizer. They keep producing at an incredible rate though so I'm not too worried. I just hope that golden berry gets mature enough to give me viable seeds before frost.

Robyn, how are you using the ground cherries? Fresh eating, or did you preserve some. My neighbor when I was a kid, used to can them in a light syrup. They were good that way. Maybe they would be good dried too. I haven't grown them in years.

With just two plants, we haven't had enough to try anything to preserve them. Production just now is getting up to maybe 10-15 cherries per day so we may end up with enough soon. I haven't done any canning other than we recently pickled some zucchini and that was really good! I would like to try making some ground cherry jam.. or maybe as pie filling? They are OH so good just raw though. I toss about 4 of them in with my lunch each day The bowl is out in the kitchen and we all just eat them whenever we walk in. I think I might have to hide the bowl if I want enough to preserve.