I let my ground cherries grow on the ground. I haven't had any problems yet, but this is my first year growing them. My plants are about 4 feet in width and about 2-12 inches off the ground (height varies in places).

Alpines do best in the cooler weather. I have some that are in shade during the hottest part of the day and have full sun for the rest of the day, and they didn't really stop producing. I put 2 in a half barrel of low pH soil and they did extremely well. They covered the soil in no time and produced hundreds of berries. I picked more than a dozen every day for weeks. They usually don't produce much on their first year, but they went wild for me.

They are totally not worth growing and yes the rain makes them impossible to pick, but once you plant them they volunteer forever. Malna I wouldn't come on a forum for market farmers and complain about someone's product being 50c higher than you thought it should be. I charge $3 per pint too. It takes about an hour to pick a basket of them so I do it once a week the day before market if I have time and the weather is good. I had someone want to buy them by the pound bulk once. My answer was they had to pick them themselves. Everyone wants everything for nothing, but if we make nothing per hour we don't have any money to spend/live and will need to quit farming. Then who will grow the food?

Hi. I'm wanting to try to grow ground cherries this year. I'm wondering if anyone might know a local supplier of plants in/near LaPorte Co. as my seedlings have not sprouted and I'm getting doubtful. :) Ann