This would be really valuable if it can overwinter outside in temperate climates
Fingers crossed ! I feel like they both will, in theory, survive my zone 7a. Longifolia is super freeze resistant, so 3/4 the genome should give the hybrids what they need down to pretty cold climates, if not zone 4 then definitely 5 or 6. In the case of the sweet potato hybrids, the intermediate hardiness zone between the two species is zone 7, but if I can get F2s I should be able to push it even colder (provided the climate has some summer heat).
Tomatillos are beginning to flower(I started them in April indoors). I have emasculated some flowers for the first attempts at hybridization with Physalis Pruinosa, which is already fruiting and began to flower a while ago
Physalis Pruinosa will not be the mother for any cross because the flowers are so tiny and pretty much impossible to emasculate
Those are fairly easy with proper tools. Try some wild peppers that have buds half the size of those 
. Still not too hard either with proper tools, but it starts to go into realm of annoying. Trying to keep your hand steady and not accidentally remove the stigma. Small tomato flowers are maybe the hardest as you will so easily knock off the stigma.
So the Tomatillos grew a lot because it has been very warm last week. They are full of flowers and some of the cross pollinated ones are beginning to set fruit which is nice.
Also some nice genetic diversity: One plant has white/ very light yellow flowers which is interesting.
Another Plant has a hairy Calyx/ Flowers which is unusual.
Perennial Physalis Virginiana is also growing rapidly. Most Plants already have lots of shoots from rhizomes that are beginning to flower which is very good for the first year. This shows that perennial Physalis(at least Physalis Virginiana) will reliably fruit in the first year from seed.
The plants are also very short(matching the description given on the seed packet): They only reach a maximum Height of about 20-30cm
Are you sure these are hybrids?
They look a lot like pure Tomatillos to me
Do you have an update on them?
Yes these were created by Wojciech at Natures Pathfinders. Heās legit but yea theyāre surprisingly only 1/4 tomatillo. The 3/4 longifolia meant that cold stratification was required to germinate them. Theyāre tall with the habit of tomatillo, currently flowering prolifically but unfortunately they are highly male sterile and I havenāt gotten any fruit to swell yet but the tomatillos only just started flowering. Longifolia will flower soon. Iāll hit them either peruviana pollen soon as well. My buddy is growing them too and has one fruit swelling from tomatillo pollen. A good size so if fertility can be restored they could be a nice crop. Their hybrid vigor has been nuts and they should be perennial with that much longifolia so I should get plenty of tries with different pollens.
What do the flowers look like? Are they male sterile because they donāt produce enough pollen or is the pollen not viable? Is there any rhizome/ shoot growth visible?
Iām really interested because my hybrids will probably turn out somewhat similar to yours.
Also, wouldnāt crossing them to physalis longifolia once again be better because a cross with tomatillos could mean they arenāt perennial
Iāll upload a photo of the flowers when I get back in town. The hybrids produce clouds of pollen, but have not been able to intercross. Iām going to hand pollinate them both ways with peruviana. If they cross with tomatillo the progeny might be annual but also could restore better fertility for future crossing. Iāll probably try some controlled crosses with longifolia too.
OK
Also keep in mind that Physalis Peruviana is tetraploid which could make crossing impossible/ could lead to triploid sterile offspring
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If I got triploids from them I would double them to hexaploid to make a 2m tall multi species cold hardy beast
Maybe you could also try doubling the chromosomes of this Hybrid using colchicine which would make it tetraploid. This would also restore itās fertility and you coud cross it to Peruviana without complications if you want
Crossing directly to Peruviana would make the hybrid much more like Peruviana(no frost tolerance/ rhizome growth) because you are crossing a diploid with a tetraploid and the tetraploid will contribute twice as much genetic material to the triploid
Itās probably best to try everything: Backcross to Longifolia, crossing now with Peruviana, Doubling and then crossing with Peruviana, crossing with Tomatillos or just doubling to restore fertility. You can then look next year which combination is most promising(growth habit, fertility, rhizome growth ā frost tolerance)
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Yea man I hope to explore some of those possibilities. Physalis is such a great resilient genus it deserves the effort. Whats been fascinating to see with these particular is how dominant only 1/4 domestic genes are to the phenotype. I would not have tried crossing tomatillo to longifolia looking at a phylogenetic tree, I wouldāve tried peruviana and longifolia first.
@ferat here is one of the hybrid flowers
They look a lot like Tomatilo flowers. What does the whole hybrid plant/ the leaves look like?
Thatās what the flower looks like on that particular plant, but as is common with hybrids in general, most of the variation can show up in the flowers. Some look more like longifolia, others like tomatillo. The stature ranges from tomatillo height to like a dwarf version of a tomatillo (if that exists), in other words 3-4x taller than a longifolia (I grow the short ecotype of longifolia). The leaves had some hybrid dysgenesis in the beginning, they were full of edema from all the heterosis, but they grew out of it.
