Unhusking the Husk Cherries

Looking for an easy-to-grow fruit for a northern garden?

Here are a couple of sweet, tangy annual fruit crops that are a snap to grow. They're great for container gardens too.

As you peel back the papery husk, inside you find a round, shiny yellow- or orange-coloured fruit.

(The whole business of peeling back the husk makes them very fun for kids...and adults too!)

In this article we take a look at the ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa) and its lesser known cousin, the cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana). They're both part of the nightshade clan—in the same plant family as tomatoes, peppers, tomatilloes, potatoes, and eggplants.

But they don't taste a bit like epplant or pepper, as you'll read below.

Ground Cherries

Ground cherry plants are fast-growing and sprawling, with small yellow-and-black flowers. They're probably the easiest to grow out of the nightshade clan.

A ground cherry plant will grow up to about one metre (3') high.

The taste of the berry is sweet and fruity. Some people liken them to pineapple.

Ground cherries are called by a few different names, including husk tomato, husk cherry, strawberry tomato, and golden cherry.

Cape Gooseberries

While it's not related to the true gooseberry, the tanginess of the cape gooseberry might account for it borrowing the name.

I've also seen this fruit called by other names including golden berry, goldenberry, physalis, and Peruvian groundcherry.

Growing cape gooseberry is worth the extra wait. The fruit is slightly larger, more citrusy, and a darker colour than ground cherry fruit.

Cape gooseberry plants are larger and more upright than ground cherry plants, getting up to about 1 ½ metres (4-5') tall. The fruit is slightly larger, citrusy, and a darker colour than ground cherry fruit.

Out of the two husk cherries, I prefer cape gooseberry.

But...there's a tradeoff: It takes longer to mature. As I explain below, there are a couple of things you can do to get cape gooseberries to mature more quickly in a northern garden.

(Cape gooseberry is a perennial in warmer climates...but we grow it as an annual in northern gardens.)

How to Grow Ground Cherries and Grow Cape Gooseberries

Both of these fruits are grown as annual crops in cooler climates. They're a good fit for the veggie garden or a container garden.

To get fruit as early as possible, start seeds indoors.

Start Ground Cherry and Cape Gooseberry Seed Indoors

A tray of ground cherry seedlings. Grow ground cherry and cape gooseberry seeds the same way as tomato seeds.

Treat ground cherry seeds and cape gooseberry seeds the same as you would tomato seeds.

That means:

Plant seeds 6-8 weeks before the average last frost date for your area
Plant cape gooseberry seeds earlier, as plants are slower to mature in cold climates (I aim for 8 weeks with mine, while I plant ground cherries about 6 weeks before the last frost)
Heat from below helps to speed up germination (a heat mat, or placing seed trays on a heated floor or radiator)

One other thing to think about:

Both of these crops self-sow, meaning that fallen fruit that you don't pick up gives you lots of little "volunteer" plants the following year.

Because ground cherries grow fairly quickly, I often let some of these little ground cherry plants grow. They fruit later than my transplants, but are still worth the space. But don't bother with volunteer cape gooseberry plants in a northern garden...they need too long a season.

Grow Ground Cherry Seeds

Ground cherry with the husk peeled back. They make a great garnish!

There are a few varieties of ground cherry seeds available.

Common ground cherry varieties include:

Aunt Molly’s
Cossack Pineapple
Golden Husk

There are also lots of unnamed ground cherry seeds for sale.

When it comes to cape gooseberry, I've never seen any named varieties.

Transplanting Ground Cherry and Cape Gooseberry Seedlings

Time your transplanting as you would for tomatoes.

You can transplant ground cherry and cape gooseberry seedlings into the garden when there is no longer any danger of frost and the daytime temperature is warm. I aim for 15-20°C (60-68°F).

If you've already transplanted your seedlings and the temperature dips, place floating row covers over them to keep them a bit warmer.

And don't forget the soil temperature: Cool soil sends them into a tizzy. If it's been a late spring, and the air is warm but the soil hasn't had time to warm up, it won't hurt to wait a bit before planting them.

Choose a Location

Ground cherries and cape gooseberries grow well in a wide variety of soil types.

Avoid very heavy and wet soils.

A raised bed is a great option for the cape gooseberry plant. That's because the soil in raised beds heats up more quickly in the spring—and that extra soil heat is helpful in a short season.

How to Plant Ground Cherries

When planting outdoors in the garden, space ground cherries and cape gooseberries about 60 cm (2') apart.

As you transplant seedlings, keep the soil level the same—don't bury the stem as is commonly done with tomatoes. That's because ground cherries and cape gooseberries don't root as readily from the stem as tomato plants do.

And here's something you'll be glad you did once harvest time rolls around: Mulch around the plants so that fruit that falls to the ground stays clean.

Growing Ground Cherries

Because cape gooseberry plants have a more upright growth, they benefit from a tall cage.

With their squat growth, ground cherries don't need any support or special training.

If you want, you can keep the plant a little bit more upright using a cage—but there's really no need.

Growing Cape Gooseberries

Because a cape gooseberry bush has a more upright growth, it benefits from a tall cage—or even from staking so that it doesn’t bend over on a windy day.

How to Grow Ground Cherries in Containers

Grow cape gooseberry and ground cherry in containers for an earlier harvest.

Container growing has two advantages in a home garden:

Warm Soil: The soil in containers heats up faster than the soil in the garden
Heat: You can situate containers for maximum heat and sunlight to speed up harvest (e.g. next to a warm wall or on a warm driveway)

Cape gooseberry plants benefit from extra heat in cool climates with a short season. This black sub-irrigated container has warm soil, and gives constant soil moisture.

Consistent soil moisture, warm soil, and well-fed soil give the best results.

To maintain soil moisture, consider a sub-irrigated pot (self-watering pot.)

Find out how to make your own sub-irrigated pot.

Harvesting Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

The papery husk turns from green to a tan colour as the fruit inside ripens. The colour of the ripe fruit depends on the variety, ranging from light yellow through to a pale orange.

Ripe ground cherries drop off the plant; ripe cape gooseberries remain on the plant.

If the fruit is still green, it's unripe. Don't eat it. That's because, like it's nightshade kin, the stems, leaves, and unripe fruit contain things that can upset your stomach.

Don’t eat green fruit, they contain toxins that cause stomach upset.

If you leave fallen ground cherries on the ground for a while, sometimes all that remains of the papery ground cherry husks is a fine netting—and you can see the golden fruit inside.

Store Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

Plants continue to grow and flower all season long. So when the first fall frost threatens, you'll have green, unripe ground cherries and cape gooseberries.

Pick these green fruit and let them ripen indoors. When spread out to ripen, many of them will ripen. I put mine on a tray, in a cool room in my basement and enjoy them for weeks after the first fall frost.

Save Ground Cherry Seeds

Each ground cherry fruit is full of many small seeds.

Save and dry ground cherry seed for for the following year. They can stay viable for a few years.

I simply smear some of the seed-filled flesh onto a paper towel. Once it's dry, I put it into an envelope and label it.

Save cape gooseberry seeds in exactly the same way.

Eating Ground Cherries and Cape Gooseberries

Emma shows off a ground-cherry-blueberry crostata she made.

I was once in the Lac St-Jean region of Quebec and found locally made ground cherry liqueur. It was divine—a rich yellow colour, both sweet and tangy.

Fresh ground cherries and cape gooseberries are so tasty that we don't often have a lot left for other uses.

Wondering how to eat ground cherries? There's lots you can do with them:

Ground cherries as garnishes (peel back that papery husk and they look quite attractive!)
Ground cherry jam
Ground cherry cobbler
Ground cherry crostata
Dried ground cherries

Ground Cherry Pests

Three-lined potato beetle larvae enjoying cape gooseberry leaves. Easy to solve with soapy water.

Ground cherries and cape gooseberries are about as trouble-free a crop as you'll get.

If you have a problem, the most common is one of the pests that go after other nightshade crops. They include:

Tomato hornworms
Cutworms
Colorado potato beetle
Three-lined potato beetle

In a home garden, hand pick hornworms and colorado potato beetles. When three-lined potato beetle larvae start making holes in my cape gooseberry leaves, a soapy-water treatment solves the problem.

Prevent cutworm damage by using a newspaper collar around young plants as you transplant them into the garden.

One year a raccoon took a shine to my cape gooseberries...and I'd find empty husks on the ground around the cape gooseberry plants. Toronto has an unusually high density of raccoons, so I don't expect this will be an issue for most people. If it is, a simple solution is to physically exclude the raccoons. Cage the plants. It's what we do with our melons.

**Find Out What Types of Fruit are a Great Fit for Cold-Climate Gardens!**

Covering more than 20 fruits, the focus is easy-to-grow fruit suited to northern gardens. Fruits include cherry-family crops, currants, cane fruit such as raspberry and blackberry, elderberry, serviceberry and saskatoon, haskap, plum family, medlar, melon, husk cherries...and more! Find out more here.

FAQ

Can you grow ground cherries indoors?

There is no need to grow your ground cherry plants indoors, even in a northern climate. That's because you can get a sizeable harvest even where there's a short growing season.

These are nicely branched ground cherry plants. They can get up to about one metre high.

If you really want to grow them indoors (I've never tried) the key would be a light setup suitable for indoor growing. A windowsill over the winter would not be bright enough.

Do ground cherries grow back every year?

The plants die over the winter, but ground cherries often "volunteer," which means new plants grow from seeds left over from prior years.

Are tomatillos and ground cherries the same thing?

No.

Tomatillos (a.k.a. husk tomatoes) produce larger fruit than ground cherries. And unlike ground cherries, the fruit completely fills its husk at maturity, and actually bursts open. While ground cherries are consumed as a sweet, tomatillos are usually picked green for use in savoury dishes.

How many ground cherries do you get per plant?

More than you can count!

How do you overwinter ground cherries?

You don't. Start new plants each spring.

Do ground cherries ripen after picking?

Yes. As the first fall frost approaches, pick green cherries that are almost full size but still green. They will continue to ripen.