Ground Cherry Pruning

[Setec Astronomy]

For the last few years I've been growing ground cherries (mostly Aunt Molly), and if anyone has grown these they know they go everywhere (including popping up in cracks in my driveway, etc.).

Since this year I'm determined to prune my indeterminate cherry tomatoes to double-leader, I started thinking about whether I could tame the ground cherries. I found an academic study from South America for commercial production that looked at pruning to 4, 6, and 8 stems, along with no pruning, which concluded that while pruning did result in larger fruit, because the market (mostly for preserves, I guess) does not confer higher value on larger fruit, the reduced total yield as a result of pruning was not recommended.

Has anyone tried to prune their ground cherries? I presume you would approach the pruning in the same way as an indeterminate tomato.

[HudsonValley]

I haven’t tried pruning ground cherries, but I’m curious to know if it works. The ones I grow are short and bushy, but perhaps a taller one exists? Please update us if you try pruning this year!

[Setec Astronomy]

I support mine and encourage them to grow up, which they will to over 6'. If you let them sprawl, they will grow along the ground, which I guess makes them "short".

[Shule]

Mine (usually Aunt Molly's) grow in an low, even square-ish spread, on the ground, about three to four feet in diameter. The branches are pretty uniform. I'm curious how you would go about pruning them, since they don't seem to have a well-defined main trunk. Maybe you'd prune to make them have one, as they grew.

The plants were much smaller the first time or two I grew them. Saving seeds and letting them reseed seems to help the size, vigor, and production.

[Setec Astronomy]

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Getting ready to plant my (Aunt Molly) seedlings, which I ordered online as I have in the past...but I seem to have 2 and in one case 3 plants per pot. So before getting to the original topic of this thread, which is pruning the plants--what would you folks do, nip off the extra seedlings? I don't want to separate them and plant elsewhere because I just have no room, and no one to give them to, either. I don't really think I should just plant as is because as I noted in the original post, these plants (for me) grow to huge wild things and having 2 or 3 is just going to be worse.

[Growing Coastal]

I planted two together too but that is because I have read that tomatillos need to be other pollinated to set fruit. Is that not also true with Aunt Molly?

[Setec Astronomy]

I'm planting 4 plants (er, 9 if you count all the shoots), so I don't think I need to worry about cross-pollination.

[Shule]

I planted two together too but that is because I have read that tomatillos need to be other pollinated to set fruit. Is that not also true with Aunt Molly?

Aunt Molly's (which is a breed of Physalis pruinosa) doesn't need a pollinator. Tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica, AKA Physalis ixocarpa) are the only Physalis species I know that requires a pollinator, and there might be some tomatillo varieties that don't require one, too.

[Setec Astronomy]

My better half (who I plant the ground cherries for) didn't want me to snip off the extra plants...I tried to separate one pot but that didn't work. So I just planted them as-is, I can always snip them when she's not looking...

Now I just need to study the growth pattern to see if I can figure out how to prune them down to less leaders. Being that I haven't even really figured out how to do that for indeterminate tomatoes...wish me luck.