Ground Cherry

Ground cherry is one of the most underplanted crops in the home garden, mostly because no one knows what to do with it. The fruit is a small golden berry that grows inside a papery husk — like a miniature tomatillo — and when ripe, it drops to the ground. You do not pick ground cherries so much as collect them from the mulch every few days. The husks protect the fruit from rot and insects, and a fallen ground cherry can sit on dry ground for two weeks without spoiling. It is the closest thing to a self-harvesting crop that exists in a temperate garden.

The plants sprawl. A mature ground cherry can spread three feet in every direction, flopping over itself and sending new stems up through the tangle. Most gardeners who grow them wish they had caged or staked them like tomatoes — the plants produce more fruit and take up less bed space when supported. Without support, they tend to smother nearby plants and make weeding under them difficult by midsummer.

Start seeds indoors six weeks before your last frost. Ground cherries need a long warm season — typically around ten weeks from transplant to the first ripe fruit — and they sulk in cool soil the same way tomatoes do. Transplant one week after your last frost, once the soil has warmed to at least sixty degrees. A plant set out into cold soil in late April will sit and do nothing for three weeks; a plant set out in mid-May will catch up and pass it.

The flavor is divisive. Ripe ground cherries taste like a cross between a pineapple, a strawberry, and a tomato — sweet, tart, tropical, faintly resinous. Some people love them raw; others find them cloying or strange. They make a distinctive jam, and they hold their shape when baked into pies or tarts. If you grow them for the first time, plant only one or two — the novelty wears off quickly if you do not like the taste, and a single plant produces hundreds of fruits.

The main risk is overgrowth. Ground cherries reseed aggressively if fruits are left to rot on the ground, and in warm climates they can become a persistent volunteer. In cooler regions, this is less of a problem — the seedlings do not survive frost — but in zones 8 and warmer, you may find yourself pulling ground cherry seedlings for years after a single planting. Harvest the fallen fruit regularly if you want to avoid this.