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I decided to try growing litchi tomatoes (Solanum Sisymbriifolium) this year as they sounded interested, and they are now cropping.
My verdict? Don't bother.
The plants are vigorous and crop very well, so I have no complaints in that department (although of course they do have vicious thorns covering literally every square centimetre of the plant). The problem is the eating quality. They are ostensibly meant to taste like sour cherries, but I find them to taste like a rather insipid cross between tomato and tomatillo, and feel that their flavour is unsuited for use in either sweet or savoury recipes (I've tried cooking them with sugar and it doesn't help much), and nor do I much like eating them raw. They are also absolutely packed full of hard (although mercifully small) seeds.
I'm not sure I shall even bother to pick the rest, sadly. Given how thorny the plants are, it doesn't seem worth the effort.
It's a real disappointment, to be honest, considering how well the plants themselves have done.
I suppose if you like tomatilloes then you might like them, at least as a novelty, but otherwise I don't think they're worth growing, despite being very easy to grow, pest and disease resistant, and cropping well.
I guess they might be worth growing as an ornamental, at least. The thorny plants look striking, the flowers are quite large and plentiful, in white or pale purple, and the bright red fruits look pretty.
My verdict? Don't bother.
The plants are vigorous and crop very well, so I have no complaints in that department (although of course they do have vicious thorns covering literally every square centimetre of the plant). The problem is the eating quality. They are ostensibly meant to taste like sour cherries, but I find them to taste like a rather insipid cross between tomato and tomatillo, and feel that their flavour is unsuited for use in either sweet or savoury recipes (I've tried cooking them with sugar and it doesn't help much), and nor do I much like eating them raw. They are also absolutely packed full of hard (although mercifully small) seeds.
I'm not sure I shall even bother to pick the rest, sadly. Given how thorny the plants are, it doesn't seem worth the effort.
It's a real disappointment, to be honest, considering how well the plants themselves have done.
I suppose if you like tomatilloes then you might like them, at least as a novelty, but otherwise I don't think they're worth growing, despite being very easy to grow, pest and disease resistant, and cropping well.
I guess they might be worth growing as an ornamental, at least. The thorny plants look striking, the flowers are quite large and plentiful, in white or pale purple, and the bright red fruits look pretty.
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