Tomatillos as a trap crop?

miinva 9/7/2010, 6:08 pm

I don't know about anyone else, but my revelation for the year was that tomatillos act like a trap crop. Every day that I went out there to drown pests, the tomatillos were my first destination because anything I found elsewhere, I found on my tomatillos in droves. I'm going to plant them again next year, probably more of them, for just that purpose, because I think the other plants would have suffered more damage if the two tomatillo plants hadn't been there. They looked horrible and still produced a couple of dozen tomatillos! Last year I planted one of them because the guy I got it from told me I didn't need two and he was wrong Smile

Megan 9/7/2010, 6:12 pm

I haven't found any pests on them, they are just not doing well. (Maybe I am simply missing the pests.)

miinva 9/7/2010, 6:21 pm

I'm certainly no expert. Last year the one plant we had just didn't flourish. I also learned that eggplant is a flea beetle magnet, to the point that I didn't bother with them because I don't want to mess with chemicals.

junequilt 9/8/2010, 3:54 pm

Mine haven't shown any pest damage to speak of. They're very weedy, though, and haven't produced nearly as much as I expected. This is the first time in about 15 years I've grown tomatillos, and I bought plants that were past their time to be planted -- very leggy. Well, even though I pruned them judiciously after planting, they have continued to be leggy! I expected them to sprawl, but the ones I used to grow had a mounding growth pattern, nothing like this!

Megan 9/8/2010, 4:55 pm

I bought mine late and they are really leggy, too. I thought I was getting a few good fruits but they dropped, and/or didn't turn color (they are purple toms.) The others are getting tackled by my squash. Guess I need to organize a rescue mission....

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Tomatillos as a trap crop?

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