let's Discuss Tomatillos

There was interest about this plant on another thread. I thought it might be a good idea to give tomatillos their own thread to see if we get more input from the members.

I will start.

I am a new gardener to SFG, or any other method.
I bought a tomatillo because it was on sale. After researching, I discovered - although not everyone agrees with this theory - that tomatillos are not self-pollinating. To be safe, a bought several more.
I planted them one per square in the same bed.
Unlike my tomatoes, they are skinny and lanky with one stem which branches into several limbs near the top. They appear happy and healthy.
Does this sound right to you? How are yours growing? What successes/concerns/failures have you experienced?

They like heat. Mine were growing slowly, and didn't check them during one hot weekend and BOOM, they were monsters shading every thing else. Same for the fruit. Mine had been flowering from the start but no fruit. Now that it is much warmer, I'm seeing more "lanterns" but still not much production. This is the first year I planted so I'll see how it goes by the end of the season.

I have 5 tomatillo planted in a block in my row garden (was worried about reseeding after a lot of online research)with black weed fabric underneath. We have had an unseasonably cold summer and my plants are about two feet tall on a single stem and still completely upright with several yellow flowers. I am planning to stake them tomorrow.

Some of the older forum members may remember my sad tomatillo tale, so I apologize for repeating the story yet again. I grew tomatillos last summer in my last row garden. They easily grew to be 6 feet tall and sprawled probably more than 6 feet in circumference. I won't put them in my sfg because, at least in my experience, they grow so big. Perhaps there are smaller varieties that might not overtake a whole 4X4 bed or perhaps they might not grow that big in other regions, I'm not sure.

My tomatillos were absolutely loaded with fruit and I was in eager anticipation of a bumper harvest. I was searching for recipes to use all of these wonderful tomatillos. Until the stink bugs and leaffooted bugs killed off my tomato plants and I pulled the spent plants up. The stink bugs and leaffooted bugs then went after my tomatillos. They completely devastated them and I didn't even get enough for one single batch of salsa. I suspect that other areas of the country wouldn't have the insect problem with them that I experienced, though.

I'd like to try them again sometime, but it wouldn't be in my sfg due to the size they grow here.

My had a terrible time setting fruit. I had a total of 4, with 3 of them in the same bed, so it wasn't the self-pollination issue. Plenty of heat and I watered every day. I think I got a total of 6 that grew instead of just falling off. I ended up pulling them up as we are moving next month. I'm not sure if I'll try them again as I am planning on having fewer beds at our new house...and I can always get them at the stores down here.

im trying to figure out is this is a tamotillo or a ground cherry or either ??

we bought two of these plants when they were tiny babies from our local school plant sale .....the little stick said it was a ground cherry.....

can you all let me know what you think



here is its flower


hugs
rose

Your plant looks like what I have. Well, at least the leaves and flowers are the same. My plants are lanky. They came that way. However, they are branched at the top and are becoming full at two or so feet.

The following article indicates that tomatillos and ground cherries are the same plant. Let's see if others agree.

By the way, I have heard/read that tomatillos fall when they are truly ready to be harvested. Furthermore, the green ones often seen at the grocery store are not completely ripe. At that stage, they are great for salsa. However, if you allow them to ripen, they become red, sweet, and can be eaten like an apple.

mijejo wrote:However, if you allow them to ripen, they become red, sweet, and can be eaten like an apple.

Oops! I should have said they become yellow (not red) when they are fully ripe.

I have 1 tomatillo plant. It is growing like crazy and has some papery lantern looking things hanging off it. My question is will the fruit fill in the paper lantern? It doesn't really have much inside it. Just a little nub of a fruit.

Thats the way mine always goes. It continues to fill out and enlarge the lantern size. If left to mature at some point they will start to fall off the vines. Thats fine just use them quickly at that point because they will spoil rapidly on the ground and you will have a million volunteers next season which will likely start too late for much of a useful harvest. Since you have only one plant and they do not self pollinate lets hope another one is close enough by to provide the pollinations. That mite be key in your pods filling out from this point on not sure about that. I grow 2 side by side just to make sure of sufficient pollination. There could now be some special self pollinators developed but I am unfamiliar with them if so. They may be in the same family as ground cherries but so are greyhounds and pit bulls in the same family. Size, taste and plant form are quite different ground cherries would be like marbles and tomatillos are like golf balls in size.

If I pluck out some of the tomatillo 'lanterns' in my large tomatillo plants, will the remaining tomatillos get bigger? I have two in the ground and two in my SFG.

Maybe someone who grew these last year could tell me their experience.

So far I have harvested three when I noticed they were coming out of their husk, yet the plants are full of little 'lanterns' and flowers.

I've grown tomatillos several times and had bumper harvests. However, I did notice that it took rather a long time for fruit to appear. It's like they try, and try, and try again, and finally when they get the pollination thing going, you can't stop them.

Do have to add, however, that we have a very long growing season where I live (South Carolina), and that may help their production.

Your response helped me do more research and it turns out that the tomatillo season in California is also long.

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/7246.pdf

My season in the San Gabriel Valley could last until November! Nothing was mentioned about about removing the small lanterns. So I won't try it. I will continue to side-dress with my own compost.

Thanks!

My tomatillo seedling has balls in the middle of them. Will these be the flowers? They seem too small to have flowers, about 5" tall, and won't be planted outside til end of May when the maters go out.


CC

Yes, those look like incipient flower buds. Can anyone chime in as to whether they should be pinched?

I'm curious about this, too. I have two seedlings (one of which I was going to give away) until I read you need two plants for pollination. My seedlings don't have anything resembling a flower bud yet, but it may not be long.

Can anyone confirm the pollination/flower bud issue?

I've had small tomatillos from one plant only, so I don't know whether one needs another plant for pollination.

I've always grown two, but a guy I work with tried one plant and got very few fruits. He now grows two and gets tons. We harvested about 20# from two plants last year.

My experience was that with 1 plant I had very few fruits and with 2 plants an over abundance. Tomatillos are classified as highly self-incompatible, and two or more plants are needed for proper pollination. The plants can be the same variety or not or even other ground cherries.

I had ground cherries last year. The 'aunt molly' variety was extremely prolific by itself in a sfg bed 12 inches deep. There were 2 more aunt molly's in pots next to each other 120 feet from the bed-planted one. All 3had the same amount of sun. The two in pots didn't mature vigorously or produce much fruit. Maybe last year's extreme heat affected the potted ones, and maybe ground cherries are not agreeable to a potted environment.

I'm hoping for high yields from my ground cherries! I want to put my pressure cooker through the ringer this fall



I've got 7 plants that seem to be doing great so far

Just wait till you give them space in a bed, they should explode with growth. It was fun to watch last year. Keep them watered. Even in extreme heat if they could talk it was like -- Bring It On Baby! Although I did give them shade when it stayed in the 90's and 100's.

OK! So I guess I'll go ahead & plant both of my seedlings & just share the bounty with the friend who was going to get the other seedling.

It seems that the variety I have (purple tomatillo) can get pretty bushy @ >4' tall by 4' wide, so I'm thinking of putting them in the ground so as to not use up that much real estate in my raised beds.

BUT, I've still got about 4 weeks before they get planted outside. Should those lil' flower buds be pinched? Wouldn't pinching encourage even more bushiness at too early a stage?

Wouldn't pinching encourage even more bushiness at too early a stage?

I'm not sure :drunken: This is my first experience with the tomatillo. I can't wait to see your purple fruits though!

CapeCoddess wrote:My tomatillo seedling has balls in the middle of them. Will these be the flowers? They seem too small to have flowers, about 5" tall, and won't be planted outside til end of May when the maters go out.


CC

I've got the same on my ground cherry plants. I could be wrong, but I think they are new leaves/branches not flower buds. I've watched mine over the past several days, and new leaves seem to open from those buds:



Do you have any new development CC? I would like to know if anything new has come from your buds.