Ground cherry
Fruit · warm season · also called husk cherry, cape gooseberry, physalis
When to plant
- Start seeds indoors about 7 weeks before planting out.
- Plant outdoors about 2 weeks after your average last spring frost.
- Ready to harvest about 70 days after planting out.
Fruits drop when ripe; gather from the ground in their husks.
Frost dates depend on where you live. Enter your ZIP code to get exact dates.
Dates by zone: 3a 3b 4a 4b 5a 5b 6a 6b 7a 7b 8a 8b 9a 9b 10a 10b
Growing basics
Toxic parts. Eat only ripe, yellow fruit. Unripe fruit, husks, and leaves are toxic.
Harmful to pets. Leaves and unripe fruit are toxic to cats and dogs.
- Sun
- Full sun (6+ hours)
- Spacing
- 24 in
- Soil temperature
- At least 60°F
- Time to harvest
- About 70 days
- Containers
- At least 5 gallons
- Plant family
- Tomato family (nightshades)
- Harvest per plant
- About 1.5 lb
- Seeds keep
- About 3 years
Companions
Keep apart: the cabbage family (brassicas). Cabbage-family crops and tomatoes compete and can stunt each other.
Keep apart: Potato. Potatoes share blight with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.
Keep apart: Mint. Mint spreads aggressively into neighbors. Keep it in a pot.
Keep apart: Fennel (bulb). Fennel slows the growth of most garden plants. Grow it on its own.
Keep apart: Sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke). Sunchokes spread aggressively and shade neighbors.
Pests and problems
Grow it well
Tips
- Move crop families every year. Pests and diseases build up in the soil. Don't plant tomatoes where tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or eggplant grew last year: they're one family and share the same problems.
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