Incan Berry in My Balcony Garden

FeralKevin visits the plant of many names. Physalis peruviana: golden berry, Incan Berry (from David Wolfe), poha (from Hawaii), ground cherry, and often here sold as Cape gooseberry.
What do I call it? Well, I like to call it Physalis peruviana.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Superfood
• permaculture
• David Wolfe
• container gardening
• winter fruit

[feralkevin]

yes

[feralkevin]

They can grow in Pennsylvania as an annual and perhaps by extending the season by starting them indoors and possibly protecting from any early fall frosts. The cool thing about these plants in tropical areas is that they fruit all year.

[cmurkar]

I am in in Zone 4 and would still recommend growing it if you live in the NE.

I have had a lot of luck with it self seeding, and being a very prolific fruit setter(especially the self seeding plants).

[feralkevin]

cool! I wonder if the warmer nights in the summer play a role in it ripening a lot of fruit in such a short season. Here, there will be some summer/early autumn fruit, but if it died here as early as it would in the NE, I would be disappointed with amount of fruit it produced considering how long it had been in the ground. Make sense? Thanks for commenting!

[feralkevin]

I would describe it as a strongly tangy cherry tomato with an almost smoky quality with a meatiness. Some people also say it has hints of cheese or nutritional yeast.

I would only grow it in your area if you have a greenhouse or heated area. It will grow as an annual but won't be that prolific in your short growing season, but definitely worth it if you just want to try it.

[Illchangeitlater]

@feralkevin Really? I think it tastes allot like an orange/pineapple, banana smoothie. Not tomatoe-y at all!

[WishingBones]

in my country we have no frost, does it mean all year round fruit?

[mrhumboldthippy]

yea they grow year round and my harvest was feb-march,i dont think i had proper growth period .all my berries have tasted horrible .i think they rotted or fermented.or did not growth to proper size becuase they are harvested in march in rains and freeze on the ocean,peace

[phantomcreamer]

I'm sprouting these now. They are so tiny, but I had such high germination rates I'm going to seperate the seedlings into seperate pots, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of them. I presoaked them for 24 hours in water that was originally heated to 100F and kept it by a heater vent.

[makehimhealthy]

Thank you for your wonderful video. :)

[lifearoundhome]

beautiful berries

[BWaustinTX]

Thanks for the video. I live in Austin TX, and am growing them this summer. Just learned of the plant a week ago, so I am a little behind.. but we get a late frost(nov earliest) and am hoping to get my seedlings to fruit.

[wavepsychic]

does these grow in Pennsylvania?