Comments on: What’s a Tomatillo?

By: Mike Akers

Mike Akers — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:16:51 +0000

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

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:42:41 +0000

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.

By: Marcella

Marcella — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:08:02 +0000

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.

By: Sharon Borglin

Sharon Borglin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:23:17 +0000

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). “

By: deejay

deejay — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:53:39 +0000

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.

By: Kenny Point

Kenny Point — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 19:48:36 +0000

Laura, I would cage tomatillos just like a tomato plant.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:21:34 +0000

Question: Do you cage them (tomatillos) as you would a tomato, or let them grow as they wish? Thanks.

By: Daria

Daria — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:44:04 +0000

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!