Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry
Physalis pruinosa
Certified Organic
Grown on Our Farm
This homegrown snack is still around because Molly was a seed saver. Her nieces and nephews must have loved their Polish Aunt and her easy-to-grow, tropical-flavored husked fruits. Each comes pre-wrapped in its own natural 100% compostable papery husk. These tomato relatives can be eaten raw or prepared in jams, jellies, pies, and sauces. They can even be dried. The flavor of ground cherries defies description. We've heard pineapple, mango, even peanut butter! Grow this uncommon heirloom that's hard to find anywhere else but in your own garden.
Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry is part of Slow Foods US Ark of Taste, a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting, sowing, and growing Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
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Growing instructions
Product Details
| Days to Maturity | 70 days |
|---|---|
| Days to Germination | 7-14 days |
| Width at Maturity | 24" |
| Height at Maturity | 24-36" |
| Sun Conditions | Full Sun (8+ Hours Sun) |
| Planting Depth | 1/4" |
| Row Spacing | 36" |
| Plant Spacing | 24" |
About the artist
Art by Lynne Friedman. Lynne's painting captures the prolific nature of this variety, with its tangled vines and husked fruits. Just like this work of art, the sprawling plants form a deep sea of green that saturates your garden and golden fruit that saturates your palate.
Love my Aunt Molly ground cherries! I’ve been growing, harvesting and enjoying these for the last 2 or 3 years now! Low maintenance plant that yields fruit for at least a month here in zone 7a but ripens later if you direct sow. I’ve been direct sowing and it’s worked well. The plants like lots of sun with some shade. Heavy rains seem to adversely affect fruit. Bees love the pretty the little flowers. The fruits are sweet and delicious but toxic unless ripened to golden yellow. I’ve been canning delicious ground cherry jam and everyone loves it! I’ve also sun dried some fruits on my windowsill and they’re quite amenable to this and tasty! Enjoy!
Seeds were slow to start, cause even in the greenhouse the temperature was too low (would have been nice if the packaging said it needed warm temperatures to sprout - had to figure this out via internet research when the seeds weren't sprouting). But, as soon as temperatures hit 70° in the greenhouse, they all sprung up! In every pot, have had at least 2/3 seeds sprout, in lots of them all three seeds sprouted.
Tldr: good germination rate, but needs warm temperatures to sprout.
I bought one seedling of this plant at the Beacon Farmer's Market this past spring. I planted it in a clay pot in full sun and have been rewarded with a steady stream of delicious, pre-wrapped fruit for months. It's late September and it's still producing fruit. This is a really fun plant!
It's literally like candy coming straight out of the plant. Delicious!!!
I started these from seed last year and they germinated well. I planted two in my garden and they grew and fruited like crazy! They go crazy like a cherry tomato plant. The fruit is delicious and I have so many volunteers in the garden I didn’t have to start new seeds. Love them!
The art was delightful on these seed packs!
Another waste of time and money. This one was planted two different times. Virtually no germination either time.
Thank you so much for ordering seeds from us!
We are very sorry to hear that you had poor results from the packs you purchased and we would like to send out replacements. We will be contacting you directly to resolve your issue.
I’ve never had a ground cherry but with the description of the flavor I couldn’t resist attempting to grow them. Tried to start them inside twice with absolutely no luck at all. Threw a few in random sunny spots in the garden to see if anything would happen… nothing UNTIL we hit temps in the 90s and now they are springing up all over! Even the compost pile where I threw out my duds. Can’t wait to taste them!
I sowed directly and it seemed like nothing germinated. I let the bed alone go a few weeks and when they finally germinated they went gangbusters. Pretty yellow flowers followed by a big harvest of almost tennis-ball sized fruits. Very interesting taste that I'm not sure what to do with other than just cut them up and eat them. Worth the trouble for a new experience. I am from Concord, MA.
Vigorous growth
Almost 100% germination without heating mat. Great bushy growth and getting covered in fruits. Would recommend.
They have sprout ed
Beautiful little guys! I am so excited!
No germination
Was really excited to grow these but none of them sprouted even with heating. I've tried multiple times since all of my seed packets came with no success, really disappointed and won't be purchasing through here again.
Hello, Thanks for your review! Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any problems with your seeds germinating. You can email us at mail@hudsonvalleyseed.com or call us at 845-204-8769, and someone will take care of it by either refunding you or sending out a replacement. -Team HVSC