What’s a Tomatillo?
Despite the similarities in habit and appearance to the popular tomato vine, you won’t find tomatillos growing in too many backyard vegetable gardens.
This unusual plant is rare in the home garden, but the fruits are popular in salsas and many other ethnic recipes.
Tomatillos are also known as Toma Verde or husk tomatoes. The name husk tomato refers to the papery shell that covers the small cherry tomato sized fruit and splits open as the tomatillos mature and ripen.
With a quick glance a tomatillo plant could easily be mistaken for a tomato vine. There are several different varieties including; Purple de Milpa, Green Husk Tomatillo, Dr. Wych’s Yellow, Verde, and the Purple Tomatillo. The purple tomatillo fruits are ornamental and slightly sweeter in flavor.
Growing Tomatillos in the Garden
Tomatillos are raised in the same manner as you would grow tomatoes. At least I think they are… my one attempt at growing tomatillos a couple of years ago was not exactly a success. The plants grew well and looked healthy but for some reason failed to produce a single fruit.
The strange thing was that the plants did have flowers and small papery husks, but no tomatillos. If I had to speculate on a reason for the failure to bear fruit I would assume that the soil was too high in nitrogen; encouraging vegetative growth rather than fruit production.
A gardener in St. Catherine’s, which I believe is in Canada, commented as follows on her own interest in growing this plant: “Has anyone had any luck with the tomatillos variety this far north? Salsa is big in my family and we would like to have a crack at this authentic Mexicasa treat.”
Her question was proposed to subscribers of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter and several readers weighed in with their own experiences on the matter of growing tomatillos:
Gardener’s Tomatillo Growing Successes
“I live in Montana, I planted Tomatillos about 4 years ago and they have come up every year since voluntarily. I gave away bags full last year. So the answer from me is yes, they grow in the North. Keep Growing!” – Lola Friedhoff
“Ground Cherry, Husk Tomato, or Tomatillo plants should do well anywhere tomatoes grow. I’ve had luck with all of the species with the exception of one year when nothing seemed to grow. Good luck and keep trying.” – Jeanne
“I grew Tomatillos several years ago, green (variety), without any problems. Planted them just like regular tomatoes. They went wild and I ended up with more tomatillos then I knew what to do with. I used a hand posthole digger to dig my holes, then filled the hole with leaf mold compost, then planted the tomatillo plants.” – Jim Davis
Tomatillos are Worth a Try
For Northern gardeners it appears that if you can raise tomatoes in your garden, you should also be able to grow and harvest a crop of tomatillos. Start the seed indoors and transplant them out into the garden using the same techniques and timing as with your tomato transplants.
You can also use a layer of plastic mulch to raise soil temperatures in the tomatillo bed throughout the growing season. If your season is extremely short select a variety such as the Purple Tomatillo that has a shorter time to maturity and is listed at 60 – 90 days.
So for those of us that have yet to harvest a ripe tomatillo, it sounds like there’s still hope and that it would be worth the effort. It’s probably too late for me to plant tomatillo seeds this season, but I think they will be on my list of additions to next year’s garden.
This post has been submitted as part of the Weekend Herb Blogging Project for the week of June 10, 2007. If there are other tomatillo experiences, recipe ideas, or tips for growing tomatillos in the home garden, feel free to chime in.
Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:
June 9th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Kenny,
My husband (who buys just about any interesting seed packet he sees) planted tomatillos in the most inhospitable corner of our West Chester garden 3 years ago. Now we have tomatillos that self-seed and bear from July through October/November each year. We use them in salsa, as thickeners in soups, and even raw on vegetable trays (they taste like mild green apples when raw). Their husks seem to protect them from frost and spoiling once picked. I don’t know why they flourish here, but they seem to love Chester County.
June 10th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I don’t think, that they will grow in Northern Germany. Thanks for joining WHB
June 11th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Here in SW Idaho (desert region) I tend to transplant (they come up volunteer) them along the edges of the garden where the sprinklers and soaker hoses don’t hit). Also, cutting them back after they bloom will send them into a production frenzy. It is worth noting that tomatillos are just like weeds in that they grow well where your average dandelion or thistle would flourish.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:08 am
I have grown tomatillos successfully here in Salt Lake, although I don’t have any growing right now. I’m intrigued by the mention of the purple tomatillo and will try to remember that for next year! I do love the flavor, and think they’re especially good in salsa, soups, and stews.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Those empty husks will fill up eventually – I live in Maine and had to wait until almost frost for them to fill out last year. I canned about 6 jars of green salsa – yum!
July 13th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Question: Do you cage them (tomatillos) as you would a tomato, or let them grow as they wish? Thanks.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Laura, I would cage tomatillos just like a tomato plant.
July 25th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
This is my first time growing tomatillos. Just picked my first 4 of them about 5 min ago.
I was looking for a recipe to use them in that wasn’t salsa, they grew way to easy.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I found this on a website, does anyone know if it is true?
“Tomatillo plants are not self-pollinating; at least two plants are needed for both to produce fruit (each plant yields about 60 to 100 tomatillos per season). “
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 am
You do need more than one plant to get tomatillos to bear fruit. I live in Zone 5, and have tomatillos going absolutely wild in my garden.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
I have 2 tomatillo plants growing. One is sprawling real wide and the other plant is over 5 feet. Lots o fruit on them so I will wait to see what happens. This is the first time growing them. They were on clearance and didn’t look like they would make it. So I thought I would give it a try.
August 19th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Several years ago I planted a couple tomatillo plants and had a huge amount (no real idea what to do with them…). this year I decided to do it again, so I bought ONE…, when it was about 4ft tall and lots of blossoms and bees and NO fruit, I looked up growing and much to my dismay, discovered you need at least TWO!!!!
I went on a mad search and found two more, unfortunately the only place left in the garden was on the shady side of my 4ft tomatillo… I got 5 tomatillos to set, then the new plants started climbing to the sun, and shortly caught up… but still, lots of flowers, bees and no more fruit… Also my peppers were flowering with very little fruit. My tomatoes had set fruit early but seemed to be slow in setting anymore. I started reading more and came to the conclusion my feeding program (steer manure, epsom salt and miracle grow) was to high in nitrogen.
Miraculously my question was shortly answered by a radio ad.. Zamzows Trive Blossom… (I live in Boise, Idaho. Zamzow’s is a local garden center) It is a relatively low nitrogen/high phosphate fertilizer (7-28-4) diluted and sprayed on the foliage. I applied it 9 days ago and went from 5 to a couple hundred set on my now 8ft tall tomatillo plants, not to mention, my tomatoes and peppers are setting a lot of fruit now….. ie, to much nitrogen…BAD