Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry

My mother loves these. she washes and then freezes them individually and then has them as a snack. Sweet flavor and very productive. Fun to grow with kids also since they are so different. It does need a good amount of space on the sides since they spread out.

This is the fourth year I’ve grown Aunt Molly’s ground cherries. The seeds germinate well and the seedlings are very vigorous. I sowed the seeds on March 21st and many of the seeds germinated in 5 days. When I transplant them, I place them a little deeper in their next size pot like with tomato plants. The plants were getting too large for their half gallon nursery pots. When I planted them on May 24th, the main stem was as thick as my thumb. They have a beautiful green color & the plants were budding already (I take the buds/flowers off that form before planting). I grew them in south facing windows & under grow lights. There’s a lot of ground cherries per plant. We grew 3 plants last year and had a 4 by 6 foot table full of ground cherries at the end of the season.

The seeds are really tiny and the plants really took their time to grow. But once it did they got large and produced a bunch of fruit. Love the sweet flavor. Will definitely plant again & again.

Zone 5B, southern New Hampshire here. I started 2 ground cherry plants indoors this past March. They looked small and unhappy and I wasn't sure they'd make it. Flash forward to August, and those two little plants have all but taken over a 4x8 raised bed. They are flourishing, and they are SO DELICIOUS! One of the highlights of my garden this year.

This is by far my favorite find of the year. Fun for the kids to pick and I loved eating them. They had an interesting sweet/sour flavor that I very much looked forward to.

Based on the reviews I read I was expecting plants that sprawled out and grew close to the ground. So far what I have are plants that are tall and very vigorous. They actually resemble small bonsai trees. From what I've read these appear to be Cape Gooseberries and not true ground cherries. I will update as they progress.

This is my kind of garden plant - it grew vigorously to about five feet high and wide and has been very productive despite a fair bit of neglect and some damage from pests that I only controlled through hand picking. Will definitely plant again and will try to make space for a second plant next year.

Gave the ground cherries a try 2022 season and WOW!!! are they good. Very sweet and tasty. I only had 1 plant growing in a bag and although the yield was pretty small I attribute that to a late start and the confines of the bag. 2023 they will have room to "run" so I'll give an update this time next year

We have never planted these, a former gardener did, and they continue to seed themselves every year. (Each fruit is literally a bag of juice and tiny seeds, so if a few get missed, the crop is sown! We pick a place to have a row of them, and transplant from other parts of the garden to make the row. Downside is needing to pick them up from the ground is somewhat tedious, and hulling them also.
I make jam with these, usually half and half with peaches, as they have a lot of pectin. We convinced the owner of a local restaurant to make cheesecake with these-- it was amazingly good!

Grew these two years ago and they were great. Love them in a pasta sauce; they add a great flavor when they burst (olive oil in a pan, whole cherry and regular tomatoes and some ground cherries and wait for everything to burst). I did not get seeds last season because they were out of stock and I was surprised when 3 ground cherry plants sprung up around July and produced so many fruits (they must have been in the soil or somehow in the tomato seed mix). There were also plants growing in the cracks between bricks on the patio. Coming from zone 7b. Would recommend. Wait until they're yellow to eat.