I have fond memories of these in my mother's garden and was so excited to find seeds

Seeds germinated well

I absolutely love these ground cherries, or as we call them “garden candy”. Not only do they do really well in my zone (NC zone 8a) but they are super prolific. They volunteer in my garden every year and are so sweet and tasty. Fun fact: they are a wonderful trap crop for pickle worms. I have not had any issues with pickle worms over the last few years that I’ve been growing these because they love them so much. It’s great that they pop up all over the garden so that I can still harvest some for us.

I started two seeds in a hydroponic system on November 29, and both seeds germinated within a few days. They have now been transferred to soil indoors and are thriving! I'm looking forward to tasting the fruit within the next few months.

I planted 6 seeds. Only 2 sprouted, and out of that, only one plant survived. Not sure why these were so hard to get to grow and stay alive, but the plant that did make it is so fun! It's filled with lots of tomatillo looking fruit. They've just started to fall off and are so fun to collect and eat! My kids love them! They have a tomato like texture, but are super sweet and taste more tropical. Not like a tomato at all. (Planted this in a large pot and it did great. It ended up growing over the sides and onto the floor