Upright ground cherries

[Salaam]

A few years ago I bought a ground cherry seedling for the first time, and it grew upright. The kids loved it, and I've been planting one or two a year ever since. But since that first year, all the plants I've gotten have been spreading plants. This year I'm growing my own seedlings-Aunt Molly's ground cherry- and I'm afraid it will be spreading as well. Anyone know where I can find an upright ground cherry?

[Gardadore]

Aunt Molly’s is an upright. But the stems are not strong and can easily fall over so I place 12” BBQ bamboo sticks next to each stem and use the green garden Velcro to tie the stick to the stem. I grow them every year. Last year I finally got enough plants to harvest a large enough number of “cherries” to make a pie. What a treat! Biggest pest for me are the cucumber beetles. The larva can wipe out a crop if you don’t pay attention. They are fun and delicious.

[Mark_Thompson]

I’ve got Aunt Molly’s and a generic ground cherry from Baker Creek that has the number GR101 on it. That one is sprawling, and Aunt Molly’s is upright, just as mentioned above.

[Shule]

My Aunt Molly's (from Baker Creek), and all the ground cherries I've tried, seem to spread uniformly with bracket-like branches in every cardinal direction at once, if they're volunteers. If they're not volunteers, they seem to be small and bushy instead. I don't know that I've ever seen one I could truly call upright; maybe the ones I had in buckets outside were, but I don't know. I'd love to see a picture of the upright ones.

Before the transplant mine look upright, though. Mine tend to be a lot healthier and more vigorous if they grow as volunteers than if I transplant them.