Diane and I bought the Purple Tomatillo seeds at Home Depot earlier this year. We have 4 plants growing in the garden. 2 are doing very well at almost 4-5 foot high, the other 2 are much smaller but all are flowering these little yellow flowers. alas, no fruit.
Reading about these plants is kind of humorous. They are a South American plant and grow in the wild, they are picked and sold in the markets and eaten in various dishes. Yet we just can't get these plants to fruit for anything! >.<
So it's off to the Internet to read about, study, stress, and try out new things with the garden. Besides - gardening is all just one big experiment anyways right?
Our leaves are turning up and yellowing. They get plenty of water and we planted them in a slightly raised bed. One of the things to look for is Nitrogen. I can can see this post or the next posting will be looking up what those numbers mean on bags of fertilizer like: 10-10-10, 8-4-4, or 6-6-6.
Looking at a few forums that ppl are posting questions:
Q: One of my three tomatillo plants wilted and is about dead. The other two look fine with many flowers but no husks so far. All three were purchased at same Bonnie retail location and the one that is dying was actually growing better that the two left, I’m disappointed and don’t really know what went wrong with this plant. They leaves begand by curling upward and turned yellow, then the plant seemed to have lost strength. They’ve been in the garden since early May, so almost 60 days, how long until I see growth in the lantern-husks or anything!?
A: It sounds like the plant received too much water. Stress on a plant causes leaf curl and yellowing is a sign of a nitrogen deficiency, which is usually caused by the nitrogen being leached out of the soil from overwatering. Could it be that the drainage around this one plant is not as good as the other too or that water puddles around it? A liquid fertilizer specifically for vegetables, such as our Bonnie Herb & Vegetable Plant Food, should help. Use at the rate and frequency listed on the label. Tomatilloes mature in 60 to 75 days after transplant, so if pollination is good, you should see husks soon, and you’ll be making salsa verde in no time! Happy growing!
Q: How do you self pollinate tomatillo plants? Specifically, how do I know what is female and what is male? I’m growing indoors so I will have to self pollinate if I want any fruits. Thanks
A: Do you have more than two tomatillo plants? That is necessary for pollination and forming of fruit. However, that is assuming there are insects to pollinate the plants, which you will not experience indoors. My research has not shown any verified information for hand-pollinating tomatillos but in theory, it should work with using a paintbrush or Q-tip to gather pollen from blooms of one plant to mix upon blooms of the other plant. We have a reader on this page who has had great success spreading pollen from one plant to another. Given how prolific tomatillos *could* be, I think this proves a tedious task. But then, fresh tomatillos are worth it!
Q: I planted two tomatillo plants right next to each other. For weeks they kept getting tons of flowers but none were pollinating and developing into the green pillow-y husk.
The plants were gorgeous and healthy.
I decided to hand pollinate with a small paint brush, gently brushing flowers from one plant then back to the other. Unbelievable results, my plants are loaded with developing fruit.
One thing I read somewhere is when the outdoor temp. is creeping into the high 80′s, pollen melts. It will not drop or float to help the plant self pollinate. It has been a relentlessly hot, dry summer here in Denver so far, many days in the high 90′s and low hundreds. I don’t know if it is true about pollen melting, but I can say for a fact that hand pollinating between the two plants was successful and I continue to do it with my tomatillo’s, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants. I am getting production from all of them.
A: Thanks for sharing! This is great info. Yes, pollination is definitely a problem in the heat as pollen does become sticky and less effective. You can read more about this in our blog post about tomatoes not setting fruit. Happy growing!
About the Fertilizer...
So what do those numbers mean and do you need to just run out and buy every bag with a multitude of different numbers for all those different plants? Maybe you need your soil tested?
So about those numbers...
Truth be told - I use a 10-10-10 in the garden and we've been having decent luck at our harvest. But in reading about the numbers - that 10-10-10 is great for lawns and non flowering plants like sweet corn (Which we're growing)
Nitrogen—the first number of an NPK rating—grows big plants with lots of leaves. But too much nitrogen, especially combined with a lack of other nutrients, will inhibit flowering and fruiting. The plants that thrive with this nutrient are the non-flowering grasses and grains (i. e. lawns and sweet corn). Blood meal is a high nitrogen fertilizer (it rates a 12-2-0; a very high number for a natural product), as are fish meal (and fish emulsion), horse and poultry manure and corn gluten meal (which also prevents seed germination, making it the only natural springtime weed and feed for lawns).
Phosphorus—the middle number—is best known as the nutrient that produces more flowers and fruits, but it’s also essential to strong root growth early in the season. Bone meal (1-11-0) is the organic source that becomes available the fastest. Many growers prefer rock phosphate or colloidal rock phosphate, which release the nutrient sloooowly, and for a long time after application—three to five years. But that slowness means you should try and apply rock phosphates the season BEFORE you want your blooms boosted, to give it time to get ready to work.
Potassium—the third number—helps plants process all nutrients more efficiently, improves the quality of fruits, and helps plants resist stress. The best single-ingredient source is greensand. Also known as glauconite, this mined mineral formed in prehistoric oceans also contains lots of important trace elements and minerals. It releases its nutrients the slowest of all—over the course of a decade; so, like the rock phosphates, always try and spread greensand in the fall in preparation for the following season.
So it looks like our Tomatillo plants might need a shot of Phosphorus., maybe from a specifically formulated vegetable fertilizer. Oh and look - a tomato type fertilizer is good for peppers, and eggplant too. perfect!
Now, I know - 'organic' is the word of the day. but really., unless you live on a farm and have a huge compost bin - how else do you feed your garden? We do use our limited worm castings, and never use a pest control other than our soap/garlic mix. When we do use the 10-10-10 fertilizer, its just a sprinkle here and a sprinkle there. Clearly the Tomatillo wants/needs something a bit more specific.
