{"id":142,"date":"2009-09-15T00:21:15","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T10:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washedashore.com\/eggsntea\/?p=142"},"modified":"2009-10-29T22:04:43","modified_gmt":"2009-10-30T08:04:43","slug":"physalis-the-poha-genus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/2009\/09\/physalis-the-poha-genus\/","title":{"rendered":"Physalis – the Poha genus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The poha<\/em> fruit is commonly associated with Hawaii.\u00a0 It grows vigorously in most parts of the state, almost as a weed.\u00a0 You can buy poha<\/em> jam at the farmer’s market, and kids snack on it wherever it found.\u00a0 We have poha<\/em> on our land, growing vigorously.\u00a0 On wikipedia i found that it is a member of the Physalis<\/em> genus<\/a>, which contains a large number of other varieties beside poha<\/em> (which is P. peruviana<\/em><\/a>).\u00a0 On the Local Harvest: Fruit<\/a> site, i found two varieties of P. pruinosa<\/em> called “Cossack Pineapple” and “Goldie”.\u00a0 I figured that since poha<\/em> grows so well, perhaps some of the related species will too.<\/p>\n

I started the seeds in the greenhouse then planted them in three areas: in the garden experimental zone, along the far fence (next to some vigorous poha<\/em>) and on the terrace in the tea field.\u00a0 The results: unexpected.<\/p>\n

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Instead of a large bush like poha<\/em>, my P. pruinosa<\/em> grows creeping along the ground!\u00a0 At first, i thought that perhaps some it was some conditions (too much rain, wrong soil?).\u00a0 But it’s creeping in all three places, with amended soil, and it is making plenty of fruit which would imply that nutrients aren’t a big problem:<\/p>\n

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The fruits are small (1.3-1.5 cm, which is around 1\/2″ to 19\/32″ for masochists who like inch fractions).\u00a0 That’s roughly what was advertised (1\/2″ to 3\/4″), but it’s a bit smaller than typical hawaiian poha<\/em>.\u00a0 The main problem (beside the creeping low plants) is that it seems to be dropping lots of fruit before it ripens, so the harvest is barely yellow, mostly green.\u00a0 For comparison, this is how poha<\/em> grows: easily to 2m (6′):<\/p>\n

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Here’s some P. pruinosa<\/em> planted on the ground right next to it:<\/p>\n

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In regards to fruit, we almost never get any fruit from our poha<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ve suspected that the abundant wild turkeys and pheasants devour them, although i’ve never been certain.\u00a0 My pruinosa<\/em> tests seem to support the idea: the plants inside my garden fence are loaded with fruit, whereas those by the far fence or open tea field, where turkeys are busy every day, have almost none):<\/p>\n

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Here’s the harvested fruit:<\/p>\n

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Conclusion: pruinosa <\/em>not too successful. Those mostly-unripe fruits are tart, so i’ll probably mash them into a jam with added sugar for balance.\u00a0 I may as well just grow poha<\/em>, and do it inside my protected garden area.<\/p>\n

There is one other Physalis <\/em>contender left to try, though: the Giant Ground Cherry<\/a> from Trade Winds Fruit, which promises “large growing and large-fruiting … up to and a bit over an inch”!\u00a0 I’ve ordered the seeds and will try them soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The poha fruit is commonly associated with Hawaii.\u00a0 It grows vigorously in most parts of the state, almost as a weed.\u00a0 You can buy poha jam at the farmer’s market, and kids snack on it wherever it found.\u00a0 We have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crops","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ahualoa.net\/eggsntea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}