One season, I was tending to a client’s garden and her tomatillo plant was flowering, but wasn’t producing any fruit. I was confused because usually tomatillos are super productive. It’s easy to grow more than you can use in your kitchen.
What the heck was going on?
I was comparing the tomatillo plants in my garden to hers. The only difference? I had planted two in my garden and only one in hers because her garden was small. Hmmm…that led me to ask – do you need two plants to get tomatillos?
A quick internet search led me to the answer – yes, in fact, you do need two plants to get fruit. Aha! That’s what was going on.
I had stumbled upon the question I didn’t even know I had – are tomatillos self pollinating?
Let’s talk a little bit about the role of pollination in our vegetable gardens. You may not think too much about pollination in your garden because most of it is orchestrated automatically by Mother Nature.
But, let’s dive into science a little bit just for fun. Pollination of flowers generally happens by insects, wind, the plant itself (self-pollination), or it doesn’t need any at all.
Tomatillos are what’s called self-incompatible, which means they need to cross pollinate with another tomatillo plant in order to produce fruit. Insects, mostly bees, but sometimes flies or butterflies, are the ones that carry pollen from one tomatillo plant to the other.
And why does pollination matter? Because flowers that aren’t pollinated don’t turn into fruit. And although a lot of vegetable flowers are pretty, that’s not the primary reason we’re growing the plants. We want food!
Wow – gardening is fascinating! We had a science lesson because of one simple frustration in a client’s garden.
So, now that we know whether tomatillos are self pollinating, let’s talk more about growing them.
When is Tomatillo Season?
You can think of tomatillos as being in the same category as tomatoes. They get planted at the same time, begin fruiting at around mid-summer in most climates, and aren’t frost hardy.
This means they’re part of the summer season in the vegetable garden. They grow quickly in the heat of summer and put on the most fruit during those months.
In my zone 5 garden I generally start harvesting tomatillos in July and continue until my first frost in mid-October.
Growing Tomatillos
We’ve already learned one of the most important things we need to know about tomatillos – you need to plant at least two plants to get fruit.
There are also a few other tips for growing them successfully.
Planting
Tomatillos are not frost hardy, so they should be planted at the same time you’re putting out your tomatoes, peppers, basil and other summer crops – after your average last frost. I plant all of my frost sensitive plants in mid to late May in zone 5. (Don’t know your last frost date? Learn how to figure it out with this planting schedule.
I recommend planting seedlings vs. seeds, especially in short season climates. Planting seedlings will allow you to start harvesting much earlier than direct seeding.
I always put a little scoop of organic garden fertilizer into the planting hole of each seedling and deeply mulch the entire garden bed to suppress weeds and conserve soil moisture.
Read this article to learn eight steps for how to plant a seedling.
Trellising
Tomatillo plants don’t get as tall as tomato plants, but they can still grow up to 5 or 6 feet. This means they need a trellis. Sometimes I use the same DIY cages I put over my tomatoes and sometimes I plant and train them up my cattle panel trellises.
A trellis is essential for keeping the plants upright and safe from animals (well, except for squirrels who are expert climbers!). The tomatillo fruit is also more likely to rot if it’s laying on the ground.
When To Harvest Tomatillos
Knowing when to harvest tomatillos isn’t as straightforward as tomatoes, so I’ve written a separate article on how to know when a tomatillo is ready to pick. I also share my favorite tomatillo recipe and how I easily preserve them for winter eating.
Purple Tomatillo Plant
If you’ve grown tomatillos in your garden you know that the most common variety is the green tomatillo. That’s what I grew for many years.
But, one winter I was looking through my seed catalogues when I stumbled upon a photo of a purple tomato. What?! I had no idea something like this existed.
I’m a sucker for unique seed varieties, so of course I had to have it! I grew purple tomatillos along with the green that season as a experiment.
They were so pretty! Mixed with the green they made for gorgeous photography like the photo above. I didn’t notice any taste difference; still yummy.
The one thing I did observe is that the purple tomatillo plants weren’t as productive as the green tomatillo plants. The fruit didn’t get as big and the harvest was smaller overall.
They were still fun to experiment with though. I’ve grown them in subsequent seasons because I bought a packet of seeds, but I like the green varieties better. I would put purple tomatillos on my list of varieties I’ll grow once in awhile for fun, but it won’t make an appearance in my garden every season.
I bought my purple tomatillo seeds from Baker Creek, but I’ve also seen them at Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
My Take on Tomatillos
I’ll end this article exploring are tomatillos self pollinating with how I approach growing tomatillos in my own garden.
I like tomatillos, but I don’t love them and I really only use them in one recipe – salsa verde. So, most seasons I plant two seedlings, which provide me with enough tomatillos to eat salsa verde in throughout the summer and also freeze for the winter.
I start the majority of my own seedlings, but I usually buy the two tomatillo plants from the farmers market because it doesn’t seem worth it to purchase a whole seed packet for two plants a year. There aren’t a lot of tomatillo varieties out there, so I end up usually growing Toma Verde.
Tomatillos are easy to grow, don’t have many pests or diseases, and produce a lot of fruit (as long as you plant two of them!). For those reasons, they’re always a part of my summer vegetable garden.
We’ve solved the mystery: are tomatillos self pollinating? I’ll make sure I never make that mistake in a client’s garden again and you’ll make sure you always plant two tomatillos in your garden!
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