Why won’t these grow in my actual garden? I am walking the route where I’m going to have road grading and I see these mature fruits growing from a perennial that will definitely be destroyed by this project.
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Maybe you could try carefully digging up the perennial plant, and move it to your garden? Maybe some of the microbial life in the soil is helping it. Or maybe soil acidity/alkalinity?
It really is puzzling that you’ve been having so much trouble with it.
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This one isn’t the same thing. It’s only distantly related. The one that is commonly sold in shops, and also here called “pineapple cherry” is p.peruviano. It’s so isolated from the others in the family that it doesn’t even cross with any of the other species in the family, that I know of. P.longifolia might be source for crossing with some other species in the family, but I’m not quite sure with which it’s compatible. There is very little information about crossing within physalis and not all is consistent.
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One of the things that’s so nifty about this species is that it’s a temperate perennial, and native to North America, to boot. There are several other species like that, too. So while Physalis peruviano is certainly tasty, it’s a tropical perennial, so it’s the species I’m least interested in! I’d really rather be growing a temperate perennial that I can keep wherever I want to in the garden.
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I have this plant, or a variety of it growing wild in my yard. When I first discovered it, I asked the internet if it was edible. The internet said to taste it, and if it tasted good it was edible, and if it tasted bad, it wasn’t. And so I did taste it, and didn’t find it very pleasant, so I’ve never harvested them. Also, the fruit on what grows here seem to be quite small. And I don’t recall any way to tell what stage of development the fruit is in without breaking open the husk. But they grow all over here very freely. I think it is too late in the year to find any seeds now, but I will keep this in mind for next year. Maybe I just need to give it more focus.
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Hello! I see here that it says longifolia should be inbreeding and self pollinating, but do you guys have experience with solo plants yielding fruit? I planted seeds early 2025 and only one plant made it. It grew well in my garden and heavily flowered, but all the husks were empty. Does it need a pollinator or could there be something else going on? Thanks!
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