7 Common Mistakes When Growing Tomatillos
Tomatillos are a common, productive plant for most garden zones and they are relatively easy to grow. Their small, green fruits may look similar to an unripe tomato, but they have a distinctive papery husk around them. You may not see tomatillos in a grocery store, but you can often find them at local farmers markets or co-ops. Since they’re more difficult to find than other vegetables, we prefer to grow our own and process them into jars of salsa verde that will last us all year. Although they can be very easy to grow, there are a few mistakes that many gardeners make when first growing tomatillos. Learn how to avoid these 7 common mistakes in your own garden.
Is a Tomatillo a Tomato?
Although they look like small green tomatoes, tomatillos are not considered a tomato. Both tomatillos and tomatoes are part of the nightshade family, but they have several distinct differences. Tomatillos have a paper husk surrounding the fruit and have a tart, slightly sour flavor when eaten raw. Tomatoes do not have a husk and they often have a sweeter flavor when eaten raw. Tomatillos also have a more firm and dense flesh, which makes them hold up better than tomatoes when cooked.
Mistake #1: Not Planting Enough Tomatillos
Tomatillos require cross pollination, meaning pollen from the first tomatillo plant is needed to successfully pollinate the second plant. You should plant a minimum of two tomatillo plants to ensure cross pollination can occur. Depending on how you plan to use them, you should consider planting closer to 3-5 plants. Though tomatillos are tart when eaten raw, they are fantastic when roasted and used in tomatillo salsa or salsa verde. Our first year growing tomatillos, we only had 3 plants, which yielded roughly 16 pounds of tomatillos. Although we were able to process 20 jars of salsa verde, we wish we had more to last us longer into the winter. If you haven’t tried homegrown tomatillos before, try buying some at a local farmers market to see if you like them and test out any recipes you want to try.
Mistake #2: Planting Tomatillos Too Close
Tomatillo plants can get pretty large when they’re fully grown, sometimes 3-4 feet in height and width. Without proper airflow, these bushy plants will be more susceptible to diseases and will likely yield less fruit. When planning your garden space, ensure each tomatillo plant has 3-4 feet of space. As the tomatillo plants continue to grow, trim off the lower branches that are touching the soil or have dried out and turned yellow. Whenever you’re trimming plants in your garden, don’t trim more than ⅓ of the plant or you may cause damage to the plant. Keeping space between your plants and proper airflow throughout the season will help your plants produce more tomatillos.
Mistake #3: Not Providing Support for Tomatillos
Tomatillos will grow 3-4 feet tall and produce a lot of fruits over the season. As your plants grow, make sure you provide a support structure for them. You may be tempted to use a tomato cage, but this likely is not large enough or have enough horizontal support bars for the amount of tomatillos your plant will produce. We like to use an adjustable trellis system that we can add to as the plant grows larger. It allows us to provide support for the branches as they get heavy with fruit and helps make space for airflow. Most tomatillos are indeterminate plants, meaning they will produce fruit continuously throughout the season. The branches will get very heavy as more fruit develops, so supports are essential to your branches not snapping.
If you’re not sure what type of support system to use, see Our Favorite (and Least Favorite) Vertical Gardening Setups.
Mistake #4: Ignoring Watering Needs of Tomatillo Plants
Tomatillos thrive with consistent watering and in soil that drains well. For our plants, we use soil that is rich in compost and a top layer of mulch to retain moisture during the hot summer months. For watering, we use drip irrigation, which waters our garden for 20 minutes twice a day. This allows the tomatillos to get enough water, but dry out slightly in between waterings. You don’t want your soil waterlogged, which can cause issues with the roots. You also don’t want the soil to dry out too much in between waterings because your tomatillos will not grow as large. Each tomatillo plant needs about 1-1.5 inches of water per week. Also, remember to water at the base of your plant, instead of from the top. This will reduce the chances of diseases since the leaves and fruit of the plant won’t get moisture on them.
Learn more about four proven irrigation techniques we’ve used in our own garden at How to Water Your Garden: 4 Methods That Work (And When to Use Them).
Mistake #5: Forgetting about Pollinators
Tomatillos need cross pollination, which means you need more than one plant for it to bear fruit. But you also need pollinators to move the pollen from one plant to another. As your tomatillo plant grows, small yellow flowers will start to form. Pollinators, like bees, will visit these flowers to collect protein and nectar for themselves and in the process will get covered in the pollen of the flower. As they fly from flower to flower, they spread the pollen and pollinate your plant, which will then form the tomatillos. You likely already have pollinators in your area, but it’s helpful to give the pollinators some incentive to visit your garden regularly. You can do this by planting flowers or other plants that pollinators in your area especially love. We like to use flowers placed around our yard and the garden beds to encourage the bees to visit more frequently. The bees in our area love tomatillos plants, especially when there are a lot of flowers blooming for them to stop at. Consider adding flowers near your tomatillo plants if you are having trouble with your plants not getting pollinated. Make sure you’re not spraying any pesticides near your garden since they will stop all insects from visiting your space (not just the harmful ones).
Need help picking which flowers to add to your garden? Visit 6 Essential Flowers Every Gardener Should Add to Their Vegetable Garden.
Mistake #6: Not Checking for Disease or Pests
Like most vegetable plants, tomatillos are susceptible to a number of harmful pests and diseases. Aphids, cutworms, and flea beetles are common pests for tomatillos and can quickly take over, harming your plants and lowering your chances of getting a good harvest of tomatillos. It’s also important to check plants for fungal issues or other diseases that may spread from neighboring plants. To manage these pests and diseases, check your plants regularly, ensuring they have proper airflow, and water at the base of your plants. Although our garden is on drip irrigation, we try to check it at least every other day because these issues can quickly take over. There are a lot of natural and organic options to deal with pests and diseases, so if you catch it early, you can treat it. You can also consider adding trap crops near your garden beds to help trap any harmful insects.
Mistake #7: Not Knowing When to Harvest Tomatillos
The tomatillo husks will be the first thing to form when your plant gets pollinated. This husk covers the tomatillos and helps protect them until they are ready to harvest. The tomatillo will fill the husk and the husk will begin to split as the tomatillo ripens, which is usually when they are ready to harvest. Make sure you are checking your plants each day once your tomatillos start to ripen so you don’t miss any. Once they are ripe, the tomatillos will easily come off the vine and they may even fall off of them on their own. You may be tempted to wait until the tomatillo fully comes out of the husk to harvest, but that could be too late. A ripe tomatillo will have a nice green color (not yellow), the husk will be papery and beginning to split, and the tomatillo will easily pull off the vine without any clippers. Harvesting tomatillos at the right time will give you the best flavor and ensure you don’t waste any of your harvest.
Seed Saving Tip:
Leave a few tomatillos on the vine to overripen so you can save seeds from them. Not only is saving your own seeds more sustainable and budget friendly, but growing from your own seeds will give you stronger, more resilient plants. Since your tomatillos have acclimated to your current environment, using seeds from those tomatillos means your plants will already be used to your environment and will likely thrive a lot easier than they would from store bought seeds/seedlings.
What to Do with Tomatillos
Now that you’ve harvested your tomatillos, you’re probably wondering what you should do with them. Raw tomatillos have a crisp, slightly sour flavor, so they are most popularly used in recipes where they are roasted. We love to turn our tomatillos into salsa verde, using jalapenos, onions, and garlic from our garden as well. There are a ton of recipes online for salsa verde. We use the Ball Roasted Salsa Verde recipe, which can be waterbath canned for long term storage. Salsa verde is delicious with tortilla chips or as enchilada sauce, so it’s a versatile ingredient for your kitchen throughout the year.
