Tell me what husk cherry plants look like, please

[DancingMom]

I started a patch with seeds saved from a fruit last year and I know it is related to the tomato, but I have other volunteer tomato plants growing throughout the garden. I think my compost didn't get hot enough.

Does anyone know how similar a husk cherry plant is to a tomato? I've been waiting to see if anything else comes up before I thin the patch and there are a few other plants in there. I don't want to pull the wrong thing.

Thanks for any help.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

Are husk cherries the same thing as ground cherries? My ground cherries have much more heart shaped leaves than tomatoes but the surface texture and veining of the leaves is similar to a tomato.

ETA: according to Wikipedia they are the same thing. There's a picture of a seedling here.

[Talula Fairie]

I have a cherry tomato plant called husky cherry...this is the exact plant:

http://www.bonnieplants.com/tabid/42...8/Default.aspx

It is a bushy, shorter variety with shorter branches. But I bought it when it was a larger seedling, so I don't know what a bran new one would look like.

Er, ok, you have a totally different plant

[Aubergine68]

When I googled "husk cherry" they came back as being the same as ground cherries, which I do grow. The yellow pineappley fruits inside the brown paper husk?

Here is a link with a drawing:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/cape-gooseberry.html

The leaves start out kind of roundish and heart shaped and then as the plant grows, they get narrower and pointier, like in the picture. They never turn jagged like tomato leaves. They flower little yellow bell-shaped flowers.

They are related to the tomatillo and photos here show the plant and flowers that look a lot like the ground cherries. THe ground cherry flowers are a little smaller and the leaves a little narrower when the plant is that size, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatillo

To me, they look more like pepper plants than tomatoes, though with rounder leaves. When I first grew them, I though they were bolting or spindly or something -- they'd grow a few inches tall with a few leaves, then topple over-- turns out, that is part of their spreading habit. Or one could stake them at that point. Sometime, I'm going to try growing them on a trellis.

Hope that helps!

[velcromom]

That's good to know that they are naturally spindly, mine just fell over and I wondered about that. I'll have to stake them I guess, if I let them lay, the snails will eat them.

[DancingMom]

Thanks for the links. I think I have a bunch of tomato plants and perhaps one husk cherry. I'll check again tomorrow.