Tomatillo

[Diane Whitehead]

I am involved in a Canadian community project:

For the past 5 years, gardeners across the country have been working together to develop an upright-growing variety of ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa), planting the prior year's seed and making selections.

Ground cherries (Physalis pruinosa) are small, sweet, golden-yellow berries that are relatives of tomatillos and tomatoes. Each fruit is enclosed in a wrapper, and it falls from the plant when ripe, so you harvest by picking them off the ground. Since low-growing branches make the berries hard to see, we're breeding for upright branches and good flavour.

Uproot the plants that grow flat to prevent them from crossing with the tall-bearing plants.
Taste the berries and keep seeds only from those with excellent flavour.
Every time we repeat this process we get closer to the goal of a ground cherry that tastes great, and bears on upright (easy to harvest) plants.

[AndrewB]

I believe they are the same.  They certainly look the same.  Essentially, Queen de Malinalco belongs in the fruit bowl, rather than in salsa.  A bit like the little ground cherries, which are sweet, but larger and less juicy.

They might be. But according to one review on baker creek, they may not be the same.

This tomatillo is uneatable. Its so bad that I have to spit it out.. (But at leas the chickens love it). Maybe it was the crazy weather which switched back and forth from too much rain to long dry spells. I can't control the weather so I will hunt elsewhere for Queen of Milinalco, which Baker creek used to sell. I loved the fruit that plant made and expected this to be as good. But there is no comparison- Queen was delicious. Queen was a sprawling plant that rooted wherever it touched the ground. This plant grows upright which is better but that doesn't matter if the fruit isn't eatable.

[AndrewB]

I am involved in a Canadian community project:

For the past 5 years, gardeners across the country have been working together to develop an upright-growing variety of ground cherry (Physalis pruinosa), planting the prior year's seed and making selections.

Ground cherries (Physalis pruinosa) are small, sweet, golden-yellow berries that are relatives of tomatillos and tomatoes. Each fruit is enclosed in a wrapper, and it falls from the plant when ripe, so you harvest by picking them off the ground. Since low-growing branches make the berries hard to see, we're breeding for upright branches and good flavour.

Uproot the plants that grow flat to prevent them from crossing with the tall-bearing plants.
Taste the berries and keep seeds only from those with excellent flavour.
Every time we repeat this process we get closer to the goal of a ground cherry that tastes great, and bears on upright (easy to harvest) plants.

Very cool! Please let us know how this progresses.

[William Schlegel]

I found that my tomatillos have volunteered already in the same areas as last year today. So I added the seed I saved last year to the larger older patch.