Tomatillo Failure

GoDawgs · August 13, 2018

The one plant I tried years ago grew nicely but it never produced the first tomatillo so I gave up on them. Then this year I read the tomatillo discussion here about self-pollinating vs needing a pollinator to produce and so I tried them again and grew three, each one supported differently.

It rather ended in failure. One by one they succumbed to some kind of wilt. It definitely wasn't bacterial wilt but rather something that was caused by some kind of problem with the stem at the soil line. At the time there was too much going on in the garden so I didn't take the time to really explore what was going on with the first plant to have the problem. Shame on me for not taking the time.

The problem hit the other two one by one. This one on the end with the pole and twine supports was as the first one to go:

The second plant (in the middle with cage support) flowered profusely and had a ton of bees around it but only set one fruit:

The third was the sprawler (minimal initial support) and it set a lot of fruit but they never sized up and the leaves weren't a nice green even when fertilizer was applied. The fruits yellowed to a past ripe stage without splitting the husk:

I may have overwatered. They only got afternoon sun but that was about 6 hours worth. There were no signs of nematode damage on the roots.

Next spring they will have more sun and only get watered when they tell me they want it. Anything else I should change or try?

August 13, 2018	#1
GoDawgs Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2018 Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b Posts: 1,685	Tomatillo Failure The one plant I tried years ago grew nicely but it never produced the first tomatillo so I gave up on them. Then this year I read the tomatillo discussion here about self-pollinating vs needing a pollinator to produce and so I tried them again and grew three, each one supported differently. It rather ended in failure. One by one they succumbed to some kind of wilt. It definitely wasn't bacterial wilt but rather something that was caused by some kind of problem with the stem at the soil line. At the time there was too much going on in the garden so I didn't take the time to really explore what was going on with the first plant to have the problem. Shame on me for not taking the time. The problem hit the other two one by one. This one on the end with the pole and twine supports was as the first one to go: The second plant (in the middle with cage support) flowered profusely and had a ton of bees around it but only set one fruit: The third was the sprawler (minimal initial support) and it set a lot of fruit but they never sized up and the leaves weren't a nice green even when fertilizer was applied. The fruits yellowed to a past ripe stage without splitting the husk: I may have overwatered. They only got afternoon sun but that was about 6 hours worth. There were no signs of nematode damage on the roots. Next spring they will have more sun and only get watered when they tell me they want it. Anything else I should change or try?