Tomatillo Pollination The Facts?

[Worth1]

Mark they may have topped the plants because they were really tall.
Mine are like 2 feet tall and are just now starting to show new growth from the sides.
I do know from reading that even though they look leggy now they will be a big bush later on.
From my feeble experience I wouldn't prune or top them.
I have 5 of them and they are all in tomato cages.

A most strange plant, I am so excited about them.
I cant figure out why it has taken me so long to grow them.
One of critters is swelling in its husk right now, I cant wait.

Worth

[Tracydr]

I planted four purples. Two in each hole. Plus, four ground cherries. The tomatillos are really growing, the ground cherries are much slower. I've got some flowers on the tomatillos and a couple on one of the ground cherries.
I'm so excited to try purple tomatillo salsa!
Plus, I've never had ground cherries and have heard such good things about them.

[livinonfaith]

Grew the medium sized green ones for the first time last year. I had two of the same kind and placed them two feet apart, like my tomatoes.

While both flowered, one filled up with little husks and one didn't. (We joked that it was a hot air balloon plant, because that's what all the little husks looked like.) It was almost like one plant became the female and one became male. The "male" only set three fruits the entire season. I have no idea if that is normal or not.

The plants ended up a lot larger than I thought. Mine were over five feet wide and about 3 1/2 feet tall. I personally didn't care for the taste by themselves, but they were fantastic in a salsa. they need to be pulled off when the husk splits, but before they fall off. Once they fell off, they were too mealy for me.

This year I'm growing them again from seeds I saved last year. They were a very useful, fun, pretty and tasty plant.

[ContainerTed]

As some folks have noted above, you need more than one plant. I tend to have my plants now in 3's. I let a few seeds germinate and then thin them out to three seedlings of approx. the same size. Last year, as an example, I got about two gallons of fruit from each of two five gallon buckets.

The real benefit from having more than one in the container or garden spot is that the stems of the tomatillo plants are usually somewhat fragil and will break with little effort. The multiple stems tend to help support each other. I get some fierce wind here from the mountain ridge to the northwest of me. Like right now, a small cell of rain is passing thru and my gauge is showing 42 MPH wind gusts with 28 MPH or so steady. Don't forget to provide plenty of support for those delicate stems.

[Worth1]

I have read that the plants get about 5 feet across.

((NOT)) The things are almost 10 feet across.

No bees this year till now so only 2 fruit.
Maybe with the bees showing up I will get fruit.

Worth

[tam91]

Well I probably will not be having tomatillos this year.

In two locations I put one regular tomatillo and 1 purple tomatillo.

Except, the purple tomatillos appear to be tomato plants. I thought they looked like tomato plants. The nursery said they got the seed from Tomato Growers Supply, and all of them are the same. Looks like a giant batch of wrong seed. Great (not).

[GoGayleGo]

I'm a new grower, and picked up a tomatillo plant spur-of-the moment about 7 weeks ago. Had *no* idea I needed two...after doing some reading I was pretty bummed out.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law's girlfriend had also picked up a single tomatillo plant spur-of-the moment. So we moved hers up a few weeks ago, and I'm finally starting to see lanterns forming, yay! Does anyone know how long it takes for the fruit to "fill" the lanterns from this point?

Fingers crossed!

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by tam91

Well I probably will not be having tomatillos this year.

In two locations I put one regular tomatillo and 1 purple tomatillo.

Except, the purple tomatillos appear to be tomato plants. I thought they looked like tomato plants. The nursery said they got the seed from Tomato Growers Supply, and all of them are the same. Looks like a giant batch of wrong seed. Great (not).

I know you aren't but some people may read it that way.
The seeds may have gotten mixed up by the help at the nursery by some part time help.
Maybe not.
You just never know.

A tomatillo looks very different from a tomato plant.

Worth

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by GoGayleGo

I'm a new grower, and picked up a tomatillo plant spur-of-the moment about 7 weeks ago. Had *no* idea I needed two...after doing some reading I was pretty bummed out.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law's girlfriend had also picked up a single tomatillo plant spur-of-the moment. So we moved hers up a few weeks ago, and I'm finally starting to see lanterns forming, yay! Does anyone know how long it takes for the fruit to "fill" the lanterns from this point?

Fingers crossed!

From my observations about a month or so.
I didn't really check the date.

Worth

[tam91]

I realize they look different. I told the nursery early on they looked like tomato plants. They said they all looked like that, they had planted two batches of them weeks apart, and they were all the same. They have never ordered them before.

[mwancho]

I think I may have unofficially given up on tomatillos. I have two plants that make a pretty large bush together (I have them trained up off the ground) -- no fruits as far as I can see.. I have untrained purple tomatillos in two different locations and gave away several seedlings to friends -- no fruits. It's either temperature or lack of pollination causing this, but in either case, they're taking up too much space and not producing... They're shading out the squash too, causing it not to produce! grr..

Interestingly, the two topped plants I got from the nursery each look different. One has small, pale green leaves and is bushier, while the other has larger, dark green leaves and is viney-ier. I'm fairly certain they're of the same seed stock..

[Worth1]

One be tell another bee and then the word starts spreading.

I now have bees everywhere and to tomatillos are starting to set fruit.

Carpenter bees and honey bees.

I dont know why I even bothered with the tomatillos except my wife wanted to grow them.

You can get a gallon of canned tomatilloes here for like $3.00

Worth

[tam91]

I really wanted the purple ones. I even grew purple jalapenos to go with them. Darn.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by tam91

I really wanted the purple ones. I even grew purple jalapenos to go with them. Darn.

That stinks, you cant buy purple ones here.

I think I will go with them next year.

Worth

[tam91]

I can't buy the purple tomatillo fruits here. Next year I'll get some seeds and start them myself. I really wanted to make purple salsa. Interesting, the purple jalapenos are really early - they're ready to pick, far ahead of my other peppers.