The Sweet Tomato Alternative That's Easier To Grow And Better Tolerates Heat

Tomatoes are undisputed kitchen superstars. You can eat them raw, simmer them into a gravy, or just add them to other dishes to enhance their flavor. Their versatility is legendary. But let's be honest: tomatoes can be challenging to grow. They don't like heavy clay soils, and despite being a warm-season crop, they hate heat. Or at least, too much of it. When temperatures climb above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, tomato plants just stop growing, and their flowers dry out and fall off the plants. So, what if there was a tomato alternative that was way easier to grow and similar in taste? Well, that is exactly what ground cherries (Physalis heterophylla) bring to the table.

Ground cherries taste pretty much like tomatoes, and they also belong to the same plant family, Solanaceae. Unlike tomatoes, ground cherries can handle heat and drought well. Plus, they are prolific fruit producers. A single ground cherry plant can produce 100 fruits if it is grown well. The best part? Ground cherry plants stay compact and small. You can grow a lot of them, even without a ton of space. However, unlike tomatoes, you cannot eat them unless they are fully ripened. Their fruit is poisonous when unripe. The good news is it's easy to tell when they're safe to eat. Ripened fruits simply fall to the ground on their own, and you can just pick them up, remove their husks, and enjoy.

Ground cherries are easy-to-grow plants, and you can find their seeds online or at a local nursery. Start the plants indoors, somewhere in April or about six to seven weeks ahead of the last spring frost. Once there is no more risk of frost, bring them outside to transplant. They are not particularly fussy about their soil type as long as you make sure the pH stays around 6.0 to 6.5. There are many home-based soil testing kits available online that you can use to check the pH of your garden soil. 

Be sure to plant them in a sunny spot. Ground cherries are full-sun plants and need at least six hours of sunlight daily to grow properly. As for the watering needs, even though ground cherries are drought-tolerant, for the best harvest, you will need to keep the soil consistently moist. If you can, install a drip irrigation system. Just make sure to set it in a way that it delivers a few gallons of water per week. But water is not the only thing ground cherries need consistently. They need regular fertilization as well to harvest abundantly.

So, once the fruits start appearing on plants, feed your plants with a mild liquid fertilizer once every 14 days or so. Just don't fertilize too much. Overfertilization can delay or reduce fruit production and make plants bushy and leafy. This is not good, as dense and bushy leafy plants, with no space for air to move around, invite problems. And ground cherry plants have many, including blight, wilt, cutworms, hornworms.