"Oddities - Tomatillo, Physalis, Cucamelon & Achocha

I'm growing a physalis for the first time this year. I sowed a few seeds, only one came up but it's looking healthy and I'm intrigued to see how it does in the garden.

I've grown them in the ground - its straggly and sprawling. Be prepared to support it.

I've remebered that we've eaten achocha a few times, it's most often known as christophene or sometimes chayote down here, and have to say I wasn't impressed enough to want to grow it! However MrPP has announced he liked it so I may give it another go.

I’ve grown tomatillo once we didn’t get on well. Never tried physalis but I want to after reading this thread and googling. I had no idea they had a pineapple hint to the flavour. Sounds awesome.

Just for you, SC, I've eaten the 2nd physalis that I've been saving for a special occasion. It tasted more orangey than pineapple but it was on the small size and not as ripe as it could have been. Lovely though.

I love the taste of Physalis Edulis. Unfornately I grew the dwarf variety last year which produced 'dwarf fruit' the size of a pea.

This year i have sown the seeds for the large variety which i have had success with in the past. They have taken a really long tme to germinate(toms and chillis sown at the same time have germinated and been potted on) but I think I can see a couple just starting to poke through the compost . Its a good job as I sowed the whole packet!

I  used to be able to keep the large (up to 6 foot high) variety going for two or three years in the greenhouse and the second year was always more fruitful.

They're lovely, the physalis, fruit flavour without being too sweet

Apparently the exploding cucumber is not edible, in fact, very poisonous, so I'm not sure I will sow them.

 

I haven't eaten them for a while but I have eaten them several years and I am still here and they never made me poorly. I quite liked the fact they saved you the hassle of deseeding. Maybe people picked and ate the already exploded ones that had been open a while. 

I am trying to grow all of them this year. I love cape gooseberries but I have to agree if you can over winter a plant, the crop is better. Mine lived in my conservatory I wouldn't be braver enough to have it in the garden, but then again I don't tend to have welsh sunshine 

I am growing the giant tomatillos from Real Seeds. I didn't manage to get my physalis seed to germinate, but it was almost five years old. Last time I tried it, I got great plants and then had a run of hot days where I didn't have a chance to water them, and that was that!

Can I just say that I have heard a lot about Phyysallis not germinating? I too was of the opinion that it was duff seed. Mine were sown in a pot and put in a propagator. They have been in for ages and only one or two germinated. Duff seed thinks I?
Anyway, I took pot out of propagator and set on windowsill and lo and behold quite a few plants have germinated. This has led me to the conclusions that either they just require an extremly long time to germinate, or that it was too warm for them in the propagator?

All I am saying is don't give up on them and blame duff seed all the time!

My physalis plants mostly grow from dropped fruit that I missed. Its always a nice surprise to find a young plant.