I grew ground cherries ('Pineapple) for the first time this year. Plants were slow to get started, then took off. I grew them in a container. Worked fine. You need more than one plant. Three plants in a ten-gallon container could give you fruit for casual use. You can spread a cloth under the pot to catch falling fruits. My plants have stopped bearing and were blanching at the tips. I don't know if this was related to our very hot weather.

I've cut them back to about 5 inches in hopes of getting some fruit for fall, since they are supposed to store at room temperature for some time. I'm getting some new growth.

Seedy little fruits. The crunchy seeds remind me of figs, thought the seeds are smaller. A novelty more than a serious crop in my estimation.

I have something that fits your description in Munich, Germany last month. The size is about a gooseberry. Yellow fruit inside of the yellow husk. Taste a little tart but still pleasant to eat raw. I start to like its taste. Is the ground cheery also called Cape Gooseberry?

Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) and Ground Cherry (Physalis pruinosa) are cousins. Two selected varieties of Ground Cherry are Pineapple and Aunt Molly's (from Poland). I believe that Thompson and Morgan also sells a variety of one of the species above called "Golden Berry". Just to confuse things, there is also a tomatillo called "Pineapple" (Tomato Growers Supply). The Pineapple ground cherry is much smaller than the tomatillo.

Ground cherries self-sow in many climates. Both cape gooseberries and ground cherries may be mildly toxic before they are ripe. Store ripening or ripe ground cherries at room temperature, in their husks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden berries

This post was edited by carolync1 on Fri, Aug 9, 13 at 1:21

I also got the blanching of the leaves. Patches turn white and then dry out. Not all the plants are affected, and they're still producing, but there seems to be fewer flowers now. My four plants aren't enough for making jam or pies, but they're great to snack on instead of junk food.

I’m growing them for the first time. They started out slowly until I went on vacation. I planted them in large grow bags on my deck, mainly to keep the fruit off the ground as it fell. Before going on vacation, I watered them daily. For vacation, I set up a drip hose to a timer to come on morning and evening. When I returned after two weeks, they were enormous! I mean three feet high and five wide, and full of fruit. The leaves are yellowing on the edges (over watering?), but they are producing a lot of berries. Best of all, none of the pests have discovered them. The squirrels and birds haven’t figured out that they’re edible. I bought the Pineapple kind and they are delicious.