Oops the cape gooseberries, and I just googled, they are native to South America! Ha, learn something new every day
@sct2020 Yeah, those are also called husk cherries or ground cherries, that was my guess. After looking at the two closer it looks like the spikes/serrations on leaves are more pronounced on the husk cherries and less on the tomatillos
I only know about them because I grew purple tomatillos and recognized the leaf shape, flowers and husks when I was in the woods one day. Dug up a few and started growing them in pots and googled pics to find out what they were. First time trying one was a little scary lol, I was about 75% sure they were safe. Now I have a nicely established population behind my house.
Mmmm I love cape gooseberry, also called ground cherries. I have a few varieties we plant every year, and we recently moved to 20 acres with some remnant prairie on it that had native ground cherries. They are so delicious and good for you.
I prefer the pineapple variety and aunt mollyās 2nd.
They are all good tho. Not to be confused with horse nettle(poisonous), also has no husk.
Good guessing on tomatillos. I love growing them also. Best salsas!
Nice contest @BillyBobb
True OGer!
I think the latin name for them is physalis, or close to that.
There can be many variations in leaf shape depending on cultivars. But all are distinguishable.
There are multiple types? The ones I found taste like pineapple and mildly of tomato, its an interesting flavor for sure.
Yeah. You can buy them from seed distributors, sort of. Most have a limit to how many orders you can place per day due to the hype of gardening from covid. Iāll find a couple links for you.
https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/ground-cherries
These ones are great, but
https://kitchenbotanicals.com/products/ground-cherry-pineapple
Are my favorite!
Havenāt tried those strawberry ones tho.
I purchased strawberry husk ground cherry this year from bakers creek to try. Aunt Mollyās always gives me a hard time germinating. Got any germ advice for ground cherries?
Cold stratification! It works! Iām a lazy gardener, so I usually over plant and under weed. It works tho. Also, if youāre in an area like me,make sure to plant extra for the wildlife, that way you get some too.
I always plant at least 25 percent extra, squirrels like to help them selves and the bull got into my garden last year
I will put my pack in the fridge as soon as they arrive.
I can see bulls loving those. Hahahah.
I might suggest putting the seeds in some soil, or sand, and get them a tad damp then fridge them. That would be the pro way to stratifiy. I think just putting a pack on n the fridge should be okay, but itās been a long time since weāve done that, other than storage. Just my 2 cents.
Love the idea of this . Gardening is something I do it brings back childhood memories with the grandparents.
Thanks for the advice, I will stratify in promix hp most likely.
Nice! We just use soil from the backyard. Iām sure promix will be better! Good luck. Gonna have to try those strawberry ones. Make sure to save the bad ones for seeds for next year!
Assuming they germ for me I will of course save some seeds I love sharing seeds of all sorts and some of those I save will have your name on it!
You should see the card catalog we have full of native seeds from our area. My better half heads that front, but I love it just as much as her. Iād love some strawberry ground cherries, but I may just order some to have them going this year too. Where did you get yours from?
Also, this time of year we are cleaning all the native seed weāve collected, so there are bags and bags and tubs of things littering our living room waiting to be cleaned.
We dubbed the prairie in our backyard, Blazing star prairie, as weāve never seen such a population of them as prolific as here. We have 3 types and they are just everywhere.
https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/ground-cherries/ground-cherry-strawberry-husk-tomato
If you want to order I wouldnāt hesitate everyone is selling out already of stuff this year.
Iām on it. Just gonna order all the varieties they offer.
Just realized what thread were in. Its only partially relevantā¦ Hahah
Sorry @BillyBobb for blowing your thread up here Iām sure as a gardener you understand how we can get when we start talking veggies with people with similar interests