Ground Cherries: Delight or Nuisance?
- Cindy
- Jan 9
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 10
Ground cherries are one of those plants that test your resolve as a gardener.
They sprawl.
They hide their fruit.
They insist on being harvested daily—usually while you are crouched, kneeling, or nearly laying face-down in the soil.
And yet—every year—they return.
I tell myself I’m not going to grow them again. Then the volunteers appear: cheerful little seedlings popping up in unlikely places. When they’re about 3–4 inches tall, I relocate them to more sensible spots, already aware of what I’m agreeing to.
Because eventually, I will crack open a jar of my mom’s ground cherry lemon jelly.
And I will remember why this plant always wins the argument.
A Brief History of Ground Cherries
Ground cherries belong to the Physalis genus, close relatives of tomatoes and tomatillos, though their habits are very much their own. Native to the Americas, they were cultivated long before tomatoes became garden staples, valued for their bright flavor and resilience.
Early growers appreciated that ground cherries required little coddling and stored well in their papery husks—an early form of pantry insurance.
They were never meant to be tidy plants.
They were meant to persist.
Fun Facts About Ground Cherries
Ground cherries are not cherries, but small fruits enclosed in a lantern-like husk
The husk protects the fruit from sun and pests
They self-seed enthusiastically
Ripe fruit drops naturally rather than clinging to the plant
Chipmunks adore them
Why They’re a Pain (and Still Worth It)
Ground cherries grow low and dense, branching in every direction at once. Harvesting means parting foliage and checking the soil beneath the plant rather than picking fruit from stems.
Once ripe, the fruit drops. Miss a day or two and ants may find it first—or rain may split the skins and dilute the flavor. Let it sit too long on the ground and the husk starts to deteriorate. Daily harvesting isn’t optional; it’s part of the arrangement.
I sometimes try to pinch back the growth early in the season, hoping to keep the plants contained. It rarely works. The branching is prolific, determined, and always gets away from me.
This is not a crop that rewards control.
It rewards attention.
When Green Fruit Falls
Not every fallen ground cherry is ripe.
Green fruit sometimes drops early due to stress, most often from:
Inconsistent watering
Sudden heat or temperature swings
Heavy rain or wind
The plant setting more fruit than it can finish
What helps:
Steady, moderate watering during flowering and fruit set
Light mulch to stabilize soil moisture and temperature
Even with ideal conditions, some loss is normal. Ground cherries are generous, not precise.
How to Tell When Ground Cherries Are Ripe
Ripeness is refreshingly simple:
The fruit falls from the plant on its own
The husk turns tan and papery
The fruit inside is golden yellow and lightly fragrant
If it’s still attached, it’s not ready. Let gravity decide.
What Ground Cherries Taste Like
Ground cherries taste like a small surprise.
They’re often described as lightly pineapple-like, gently citrusy, and more sweet-tart than sugary. That balance makes them especially well suited to preserves, where their brightness really shines.
Ground Cherry vs. Cape Gooseberry: Same Genus, Different Expectations
Part of the confusion around ground cherries comes from the fact that several Physalis species are casually lumped together under similar names, even though they behave quite differently in the garden.
The ground cherries most home gardeners grow—including Aunt Molly’s—are Physalis pruinosa. These plants are low-growing, early to mature, cold-tolerant, and well suited to temperate climates (Zones 3-8). The fruit is smaller, lighter gold, and tangy—ideal for preserves and jelly.
The larger, deeper-gold, noticeably sweeter fruit I once encountered in a gift basket were Physalis peruviana, commonly known as Cape gooseberries. These produce bigger fruit with a richer orange-gold color and a sweeter, more tropical flavor. They’re often grown commercially and prefer longer, warmer seasons (Zones 10-12).
If your garden-grown ground cherries don’t match the sweetness or size of market or gift-basket fruit, it’s not a cultivation failure—it’s a species difference.
Same genus. Different jobs.
To add to the confusion: You may also see ground cherries referred to as “strawberry tomatoes,” an old-fashioned nickname applied loosely to several Physalis species. The name isn’t botanical—and it’s yet another reason these plants are so often confused.
Self-Seeding and Relocation
Ground cherries self-seed readily. Miss a few fruits at the end of the season and seedlings will appear the following year—sometimes far from where you planted them.
Fortunately, they transplant easily.
When seedlings reach 3–4 inches tall, relocate them to a spot with:
Full sun to light shade
Average, well-drained soil
Moderate water while establishing
Rich soil encourages foliage at the expense of fruit. Ground cherries prefer conditions that are simply “good enough.”
No support is needed. The plants sprawl naturally, doing exactly what they were designed to do.
Eat Some · Save Some · Share Some
Ground cherries reward persistence—if you know how to use them.
🍴 Eat Some
Ground Cherry Lemon Jelly. Bright, citrusy, and unapologetically golden.
Snack on them raw. Sweet-tart and refreshing, straight from the husk.
Freeze them for smoothies. De-husk, rinse, dry, freeze flat, then store. A handful adds brightness to blended beverages, like Ground Cherry Sunshine Smoothie.
A note on experimentation: There was once an attempt at ground cherry pie. It failed spectacularly. We do not discuss it.
🫙 Save Some
Freeze them. Once de-husked, ground cherries freeze beautifully. I store them in Ziploc freezer bags so they’re easy to grab for smoothies.
Steam-juice the excess. At the end of the season, I take inventory of what’s in the freezer and get honest about how many smoothies I’ll realistically make. Everything beyond that goes to my mom’s house, where we spend a morning with the steam juicer. We can the juice, which makes it easy to measure later when it’s time to make jelly—no thawing, no guessing, no pressure.
This approach turns a sprawling, relentless harvest into something orderly and calm—eventually.
🎁 Share Some
Ground Cherry Lemon Jelly makes a wonderful gift—unexpected, vibrant, and just unusual enough to feel special.
Sharing fresh ground cherries in their husks is something else entirely.
Some people are delighted.
Others take one bite and spit it out tout suite.
Both reactions are valid.
Ground cherries, it turns out, are very good at sorting people into camps.
Growing with you,
Cindy
Disclaimer: I share products and techniques I genuinely use and trust in my own garden and kitchen. None of the links on this site are affiliate links, and I don’t receive compensation for recommendations.
