How to grow and use ground cherries is an older popular blog article that is time to refresh. We included our favorite ground cherry piroshki recipe. Try it and let us know how you like it.
Ground cherries, also known as cape gooseberries, are little orange fruits resembling tomatillos, with each fruit growing inside a papery husk called a calyx. Fruits fall from the plant when ripe, that’s why they are called Ground Cherries. Other than the fruits’ shape and size, they have nothing in common with cherries.
Ground cherries are actually part of the nightshade family, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Ground Cherries have a unique, delicious tropical taste, very sweet and a bit like pineapples. Here is how to grow and use ground cherries.
How to grow Ground Cherries
Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry
Ground Cherries have very small seeds that need an early start at least 8- 10 weeks before the last frost day. Germination is often slow, so be patient. Once they are up and growing, give them a warm and sunny location. Since they are from the same plant family as tomatoes and peppers, they are very similar in care too. Read here how to start seeds indoors.
Once all danger of frost is gone, transplant seedlings into the garden or greenhouse. Choose a warm microclimate for them.
Ground cherries need at least 2 – 3 square feet (0.28 m²) of space.
They can be supported by a support cage, but I find they do best just by being able to spread along the ground. Remember they are called ground cherries. Use common sense here. If you are in a wet climate, keeping them off the ground might be crucial so the fruit does not rot. In a dry and cold climate like ours in the prairies, the warm ground helps them to mature.
Ground Cherries require full sun and fairly warm to hot temperatures to grow, very much like tomatoes and peppers. They mature 60-80 days after transplanting depending on the variety.
Ground Cherries are a nice looking plant, you can plant them in a flower garden close to the house, in a sheltered and sunny location. Or if you have a greenhouse, they will do even better in there.
Weed-control fabric can be used to cover the ground around the plants. It warms up the surrounding soil and makes it easier to gather all the fruit that is fallen to the ground at the end of the growing season.
Ground cherries can also be grown in a pot or grow bag.
Ground Cherries tend to reseed themselves. In our cold climate though they come up very late, often too late to mature.
How to harvest and store Ground Cherries
Ground Cherries are ready to harvest when the wrap has changed color from green to yellowish-white. At that stage, the cherry will be very easy to pick and even often fall to the ground.
If the growing season is over and the first heavy frost is in the forecast, but some wraps are still more green than yellow, harvest them anyway. Ground cherries do after-ripen indoors, just like tomatoes.
For storage make sure to leave them in the wrap they grow in.
To store ground cherries you need a dry, dark place, not necessarily cold. We store ours in a cardboard box in the basement furnace room.
This picture was taken at the end of January when I used the last ones. They do get a little wrinkly but taste just as good.
Ground Cherries are a beautiful, sweet treat that can be eaten raw, fresh-picked, or gathered from the plant. They can also be used in preserves, pies, or ice cream.
Ground Cherry piroshki recipe
Our favorite is Ground Cherry piroshki. Piroshki, also translated as pirozhki or pyrizhky, is a generic word for individual-sized baked or fried buns stuffed with various fillings.
Use our dinner buns dough recipe or your favorite bun recipe.
- Let the dough rise till it is about double (ca. 1 hour).
- Prepare the ground cherries and a 2-to-1 sugar-flour mixture.
- Divide the dough into egg-sized buns.
- In your hand palm flatten the bun forming a basin.
- Fill them with a handful of ground cherries and a tablespoon of sugar-flour mixture. Close tightly (see picture above).
- Let the piroshki rise until they are about double in size (about 30 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and bake for 18 – 20 Minutes
The slugger will melt and the cherries will shine with their golden color. Yum!
What is your favorite way to use ground cherries? Tell us in a comment below.
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Thanks Anna for posting this info on ground cherries. Will have to try these some day.
Your welcome Esther, Ground cherries are something you might like very much or dislike very much, because of there unique taste. But they always look nice.
These are fabulous!I just discovered them at our Farmers Market. I made a salad with a load of them, Mizuna, purslane and roasted albino beets, EVOO and a great balsamic vinegar. My guests and I went crazy over it. I’ll be growing my own plants Soon!
I will have to try to grow ground cherries this summer.
Its my first time seeing this since iam polish iam going to give them a try .i love growing plants trees
Thank you for posting…I was hoping they would reseed themselves. …I grew them in two pots last summer..
They were plentiful…unfortunately the tomato worms attacked my plants and ate much of the foliage
.
Your welcome, hopefully you have more luck to grow them next year.
Great post! Pinning it for later. I can’t wait to get my garden started!
Me too! Do not wait to long though with starting ground cherries.
I had never heard of ground cherries until I read this post! I would love to grow these. Should I look for Aunt Molly’s or something more suitable for the south (zone 8)?
Aunt Molly’s are yummy, but any would grow in zone 8. Be aware also, in zone 8 you will have to plant them once, they will reseed themselves every year. So choose a spot you want to have them forever :).
I’ve never had any ground cherries, actually! Do you think they would grow in Florida?
I do think they would love Florida 😉
Well, they look great….don’t mind the wrinkly! Actually, I have never heard of those little things before.
I am surprised how many people have never heard of them. Yes, the wrinkly look is ok if considering this was Christmas ;). Months after harvesting them.
Fantastic! I saw your post on FB and thought, “I gotta read this!”
Picked up a package of ground cherry seed for something new to try for season 5 (2014) at the Toy Box. When the seed came I wondered, now what? No idea how to grow these or what to do with them (the power of a good catalogue description!). Now I have an idea, Thanks!
Debs…..on her way to repost.
Glad you got the seeds and know now what to do with them. Growing up we always grew ground cherries, we cold them June cherries, because they were early.
Well, I’m another that has never heard of them, but I am looking to find more things for an edible landscape…doesn’t look like they’ll come back year after year since I’m also in a zone 3, but I’ll see if the catalogues carry any seed…I might be back for recipes 🙂
Yes, they will still come back, but late in season. Would love to have you back fro a recipe 😉
I will have to give these a try. I’d attempted them before, but my seed was old and didn’t sprout. I guess here in FL zone 9 I should only have to plant them once then they should keep producing.
Yes, that is true, they will come reseed themselves year after year. Happy gardening!
I’m growing Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherries for the first time here in the mountains of NH. I have them started already (this weekend) and just need to figure out where I’m going to plant them out. I’ve been wanting to grow them for years.
I didn’t think I could grow ground cherries here in Maine but it looks like the Aunt Mollie variety is what I should consider. A little too late this year, but I am already starting my list for next year 🙂
I am honored to be co-hosting the Green Thumb Thursday Blog Hop beginning this week and I have chosen this post as my Featured Post. You are welcome to swing on by and grab the “Featured” button to add to your blog.
Thank you for featuring it! Ground cherries like it warm, but we do grow them here (Alberta). It is cold here, so they grow better in a greenhouse, but on good summers they ripen outside too. It should be possoble where you are. Try it!
I have grown Aunt Molly.s ground cherries in Alberta, in a year like this one, 2020, its October first week and still picking fresh fruit, its my favourite fruit when I was a kid in India where they grow almost wild during the monsoon rainy season
I’m here in Central Vermont and one of my gardening buddies planted ground cherries in my garden about 4 years ago. They’ve come back ever since! We are all addicted to them, and this year, the little guys did come in late, so I’m very happy to know you can store them green and they will ripen off the plant. We have some beautiful ones, but it’s going to be a race to the finish line for them, as it’s Sept. 22, frost time in VT.
We love to grow & eat ground cherries but this year we have a problem. Almost half of the crop have a small white worm in each fruit! My granddaughter is so grossed out by them, she won’t eat any cherries until I cut it open to check for the worm!! The fruit doesn’t have any holes in the skin so I’m wondering if the worm is hatched from an egg laid on the blossom and grows inside the ripe fruit. Any thoughts on how to prevent this next year?? Thanks, Lynn
Oh, so sorry. I have no idea, never heard of it. The only thing I can think of is keeping the soil healthy, so healthy plants can grow. Try to add some more compost and mulching. Worms and other parasites do not like healthy plants.
Can you share your recipe for ground cherry piroshki? I would love to try it with the wild ground cherries we have growing here in Maine.
I use the same dough as the dinner rolls and form the rolls first, than I put about a tablespoon of 2 to 1 sugar flour mixture and a hand full ground cherries in it, close and bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!
These are so cool…..I need to try growing these this year!
Thanks for linking up again with Green Thumb Thursday! I hope you’ll join us this week!
~Lisa
Please do, hope you like the yummy fruit.
I had my first successful season with these last year – started a few indoors and getting ready to plant them outside this weekend…..in the pot they were in last year there is a ton of stuff coming in – I “think” it is the re-seeding of the ground cherries – but they look so different from the seedlings that I planted – does that make sense? Should they look different?
No, they should look the same. Maybe something else seeded itself in your pot. I find that the reseeded Ground Cherries come up really late (at least here in Zone 3).
I bought ground cherries and planted them on the 7th of this month and they are not coming up. I live in Minnesota and the weather is nice and warm now. I had heard that they do not do well in the northern states, is that true?.
Will I reap any harvest at all this year?.
Are there any kinda that work great in the northern regions?.
Thank you
Hi Sharalyn, I do not want to disappoint you, but if they are not up yet, you most likely will not reap any harvest this year. Still you may learn a lot and be better next year. Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry are good for the north. But any Ground Cherries need to be started early indoors to have fruit in northern climate. To grow Aunt Ground Cherries is a lot like growing tomatoes or peppers. But who knows, if it is warm now and will stay warm for a while, you might be surprised with some cherries.
I weeded the other day and found five in my garden. I am super excited. However the small garden next to my house is not doing so well, but I didn’t put enough effort into making sure the soil was amazing because I decided to do it short notice.
If I have five that have sprouted already, would it be safe to purchase the Aunt Molly’s and plant right away when I get them to include in this harvest this year,or should I just wait till next year?.
Last question too, if all of my five ground cherries bare fruit, what do you think I am looking at for fruit quantity,like for one plant,how much can you normally get fruit wise?. My initial goal was to have enough to make some jams. Thank you.
Oh good, that you have some ground cherries now. I would not seed any for this year anymore, except if your season is very long. It is hard to tell how much you would harvest from one plant. I would say maybe 3 cups if the plant grows well. But do not pin you down to that.
We live in northern Minnesota about hour from international fall buy mine from green house and they do great this year however the last month had been cool at night 55 to 60 degrees lots of green one so will have to ripen inside. The deer also love these things
Good to know that deer love them. I have been wondering about it. I think my plants are taller than ever this year.
Love these so far! This is my first year trying Aunt Molly and so far they are doing great. I live in Mn. so I started them inside with a grow light well before the last frost then moved them to the garden plot (I had prepared one away from my main garden so they could take over) now in late July I see the paper husks popping up all over the plants. They are doing great and I will say that the trick is just to start them early indoors. Mine took so long to germinate I almost lost hope so be patient! Yes they will grow in MN 🙂
Agree, you have to start them early indoors. Glad to hear yours are doing so well.
So glad you posted in this, I grew several plants in my greenhouse, but they don’t seem to be ripening, and even those that fall are still green inside. Can I pick them and let them ripen indoors? Thanks in advance for any advice about this, don’t want to lose all my cherries! ????
Hi Tina, I would NOT pick them before they are yellow, wait till they fall (if all of them do). Normally they only fall when done. Maybe you have a green variety? Anyways, I do not pick them, just gather the ones that are done (Or at least have a good size). And yes, I do find that they ripen indoors. Hope this helps.
First time growing ground cherries, love them!
My friend gave me some ground cherries in the husks, still. What’s the best way to plant them? Should I plant the whole fruits directly in the ground right now, or should I take the seeds out and save them for when it’s closer to Spring?
Forgot to mention I live in Wisconsin. Suppose that’d be a helpful bit of info!
It totally depends on your weather. If you have long warm summers, you can plant now and they will come whenever the weather is right. However, if your summers are short, it is better to start them inside, just like you would start tomatoes. Otherwise they will not ripen before the season is over. Hope this helps.
Goooseberry jam on a bran muffin is heavenly. I have a large bush in my garden (cape Town).
That sounds so yummy! My still need to come up for this years garden.
What is the best way to germinate ground cherry seeds?
The seeds are very small, so I haven’t tried to sprout the seeds first. I just plant them and wait. It takes some time.
Great post, thank-you!!
My seeds are up and in third leaf (they germinated beautifully with bottom heat). Since it’s time t transplant them, I’m just wondering if there should be a few seedlings per 4″ container (for now) or one per container? Are they finicky to transplant? I have about 15 plants, so I am going to try half in my greenhouse and half in my full sun Alberta garden!!
By the way, I can’t wait to try your ground cherry piroshki recipe!
I would plant one per container. These plants do get big. In the greenhouse, they will reside themselves and you will have ground cherries forever ;).
We have a lot of ground cherries still on the vine.10/2016. Can we bring the vine into the house to ripen?
You can. There is a danger however to bring in lots of bugs too. I usually just pick all those that are full (good size) and let them after ripen this way.
I just harvested a few from a neighbor. Im wondering if I should plant them now (fresh) so they will lay dormant until spring, or keep them inside until they dry out and plant them next year??
How fun, you will love them. The planting depends on your weather. If you you have an early spring and a long growing season, plant them now. If your spring is late, it is better to start the seeds early indoors along with peppers.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I live at Philadelphia suburb, USDA 6b/7a. If I grow ground cherry, when should I start? Direct sow seeds or start seedlings-then transplant? Thank you for any advice.
Start the ground cherries as you do your peppers. If you can direct sow them you can also ground cherries. Just keep in mind that ground cherries often need more time to germinate. If I would be you, I would try to plant some just before winter, so the seeds can germinate whenever they are ready. Worth a try. Good luck!
Hi Anna: Thank you for your advice. Your blogs and your gardening success in Hardiness Zone 3a are great inspiration to everybody who loves gardening and nature.
Just loved your article on ground cherries. I plant some every year, and we always eat them raw. I must try some of your recipes to. Thanks!
I bought a ground cherry baby plant and planted it in a huge pot and it became huge and provided many handfuls of delicious berries, which I eat in yogurt. I am unclear how self seeding works. Can I just let fallen fruit sit on top of the soil in the pot, or should I bury them? I live in central south. Its now early July and growing seasons goes through october.
Self seeding means the plant ‘does it’ all by itself. With ground cherries there are always some that we miss and those come up next spring. Not sure how that would work in the pot, but technically it could be the same if you do not totally empty the pot. If you are someone that likes to keep things all cleaned up, there might not be any left, so in that case it might be best you pant one ripe cherry in the fall, or take it in and dry, and you have seeds for next spring.
I have been growing ground cherries in pots for many years. I have never had an issue with them until this year. My leaves have large white blotches on them, are turning yellow and falling off. The fruit husk is turning yellow and dropping as well. But the strangest thing is, that the husk itself has receded back over the fruit, so the fruit is poking out through the end. It’s like the husk has shrunk back from the fruit. I have done nothing different this year. And like I have mentioned, I have been growing ground cherries in pots for about 25 years. Any idea what is going on here. This is a mystery to me.
Sorry, I don’t know what causes it nor how to help you. If this happens every 25 years, I would just ignore it and hope for a better result next year.
We’ve been growing these on our rooftop for years and at this point they’re like a welcome weed. While I do reseed annually, I find myself culling huge clumps of volunteer cape gooseberries where late season fruit was missed and buried.
Another benefit I’ve found with them is that birds seem to ignore them (at least here in Vancouver). I have yet to see a bird bothering our plants or fruit, even once its fallen to the ground. The only pest I’ve ever had to content with were aphids, and strangely they only bothered them one year.
Yes, aphids love them. But mostly I find that the fruit is still not affected.
One more question, as I mentioned in my other comment I get self seeding each year. Do you know if there is risk of the fruit being compromised if there is cross pollination with related plants? For example, in addition to cape gooseberries I grow tomatoes and tomatillos every year, in close proximity, and both of which are closely related.
As I understand, this is a risk with peppers. While the current year fruit is true, anything produced from their seeds the following year is likely to be a cross.
I think they have to be not just from the same family, but the same species. So different ground cherries varieties would cross with each other, but not tomatoes and ground cherries.
We love ground cherries! Though we call them husk cherries (not sure why?). They usually thrive in my mother’s garden, but she didn’t plant them this year. In years past I have tried growing them in containers with no results, this is the first year I have had success. They are in my new raised beds and we’ve already harvested a handful. We grow them specifically for my almost six year old, who loves them! We’re in NH, so zone 5. I’m hoping they reseed themselves and we have happy surprises next year!
I’m so happy about your post. I have had these things come up in my pot for years, at first I thought it was a weed and kept pulling it out! Last year I saw the little lanterns on them but never paid attention to them since they are in a pot with irises. This year, I have more than ever and was determined to find out what this flowering weed was. Know that I know, I will have to pay more attention to them and try them out!
They were new to me this summer. Absolutely love them. Added them to tossed salads, pasta dishes, and they make an amazing salsa!
This is this my first year growng ground cherries. Is there some companion plants to keep them healthly? TIA
Ground cherries are very much like tomatoes, from the same family. You can grow them with the same companions as well.
I bake them in a pie. I remember my grandmother bringing this type of pie for Sunday dinner. I’m pleased to be able to do it as well.
I grew ground cherries for the first time last year, just one plant. This year I have over 30 from that one little plant reseeding itself! (I live in Virginia and it is much warmer here).
We love them in a fresh garden salad, or as a snack all alone. With as many as I will have this year I’ll have to try some baking with them!
Yes, they love to reseed. Ground cherry jam is another great option to use them up.
We are in a zone 3 and have a lot of difficulty getting many to the cherries to full ripeness. However I love them so much that just the few we manage to get to ripen is enough to have me try them each and every year. The plants grow huge and are always loaded with fruit but our season is just too short. We grow from our own seed. Definitely eaten raw is the way we love them.
They after ripen indoors just like tomatoes if the fruit is formed. It is worth it to harvest all that is there.
This is a great post, especially for those of us who have never heard of ground cherries! I’m excited to try growing them and the recipe sounds delicious. I’m looking forward to seeing what other creative uses I can find for them. Thanks for sharing!
They are definitely a fun plant to grow. I hear they also make a delicious jam.
Do you can the ground cherries? How, size jar and time. Thanks
I haven’t canned the ground cherries. I’m sure you could. Maybe make jam, or can as you would cherries in a sweet syrup. Find a cherry recipe you like and use ground cherries instead.
We’ve reached fall and the ground cherry plant in our garden is still loaded. Would it continue to produce if we potted it and brought it indoors?
The danger to also bring in bugs is real. I would recommend harvesting them all. They do after-ripen if the fruit has formed.
Wow, so good to know theyre edible. I had a volunteer plant come up and almost pulled it because I didn’t know if it was a weed. then I saw the papery fruits and thought it was a tomatillo. But they stayed small. I still had no idea if it was a weed but left it. Now the fruits have all fallen off and I was about to compost the whole thing, but now that your posting came just in time, I will pick up the fruits and try them out! Thank you so much Anna!
Thats a great volunteer to have. Now its very likely that you will have volunteers forever. Enjoy!