Tomatillos
(Physalis ixocarpa)
Sponsored links:
Cultivars
This little delight, far better known in Latin America (where it is a literally essential ingredient of what Gringos call "salsa"), is the subject of much gross misunderstanding in
North America. It is continually being confounded with its close and not-so-close relatives (described below); we once, back in California, ordered some "tomatillo" seeds which, when we
finally harvested the crop, we discovered to have been Cape gooseberry--possibly useful in desserts, but comically useless for salsa. If you grow this crop--and we think everyone
should--be sure you're getting Physalis ixocarpa and nothing else.
(P. pruinosa is the species that includes the ground cherry, the husk tomato, the strawberry tomato, and the dwarf Cape gooseberry; P.
peruviana is the Cape Gooseberry, Husk Tomato, Goldenberry, Poha, Ground Cherry, Gooseberry Tomato, and Ground Cherry; P. heterophylla is the downy ground cherry, or clammy
ground cherry; and P. philadelphica is the Tarahumara, Tepehuan, and Zuni tomatillos--smaller, wild, semi-cultivated types. The familiar decorative Chinese/Japanese Lantern
plant is actually P. franchetii, also known as Winter Cherry or Strawberry Tomato.)
We were pleasantly surprised to find that this useful and pleasing vegetable, despite our associating it with tropical climates, is robust in cool weather (indeed, it seems to be
remarkably robust relative to almost everything except actual frost). One home gardener has written--
"I trialed six different kinds last summer and each bore at least 15 pounds of fruit, in a drought no less. For a plant native Central and South America, tomatillos
are remarkably easy to grow in cooler climes, as my zone 6A garden attests. One gardener to whom I gave seeds had fine luck with them on the prairies of central Saskatchewan, three
zones north of me. If tomatillos weren't frost-tender, they'd take over the surface of the planet."
Vital note: Tomatillos are self-sterile, so always plant at least two! (So that's why the darn thing didn't fruit . . . .)
Although growers have made sporadic attempts to improve the tomatillo by selection, little has been accomplished, and the tomatillo remains a crop with great variablility in plant
habit, fruit size, earliness, and other characteristics. There are only a couple of formally recognized cultivars, and most of those U.S. seedsmen who do offer tomatillos at all still
usually offer a generic "tomatillo". But there are "strains" that are pretty well recognized--perhaps true cultivars that have recently been identified or selected out: one specialist
house, for example, offers five named tomatillo types.
The Toma Verde strain (or cultivar?) is now becoming a common offering (some houses even equate that name with tomatillo), but it is our understanding--albeit vague--that the purple
strains (especially the kind often called "di milpa", which just means "from the fields", as this type commonly grows wild as a "weed" in the cornfields of Latin America) are the sort
preferred by real salsa aficionados. The Purple Di Milpa strain was first introduced into the U.S. (as best we know) by Craig Dremann at Redwood City Seeds--who,
curiously, do not seem to themselves carry the Di Milpa any more. But purple types are commonly enough available, and the Purple Di Milpa is what we're growing. (As we indicated above,
our earlier ignorance in planting a single specimen barred our getting any useful results; but the next season we knew better and got so much crop that we aren't planting any more
this year because we still have quite a good amount in the freezer--these things are productive.)
Planting
The tomatillo has about the same needs as the tomato, and can be grown in about the same way. Recall, though, that the tomatillo is not self-fertile, so that you must have
at least two plants to get any actual tomatillos. (Tomatillos are normally quite productive, and even exuberant salsa fans probably won't need more than a couple of
plants.)
Timing
Though tomatillos are pretty hardy, we might as well plan on planting them out in our climate around June 1st; even with their 120-day growing season, that starts them bearing in early
to middle July and lets their natural term, typically 120 days, run till about the end of September. Out here, freezes are quite rare before mid-September, and still unusual by its end.
That means starting seedlings around May 1st. (If it's a warm year and the soil temperature is reliably at or over 70° F. before June 1st, you could set the seedlings out a little
earlier--they reportedly transplant well.)
Starting Seedlings
Sow seed indoors, in good-sized peat pots, say 4 inches. Keep the pots as warm as you can till emergence, their ideal germinating temperature being in the middle to upper 80s. Allow
about 4 weeks for indoor growth time (these fellows reportedly germinate quickly and grow rapidly).
The Bed
Prepare their bed by deep digging, addition of organic material, and--as tests may show necessary--amendment with organic fertilizers. Tomatillos do best in a rich, loamy soil, though
they're pretty tolerant (growing virtually as weeds in their native climate). A standard garden-soil pH of 6.5 to 6.8 works fine, but they can do well enough in anything from 6.0 to
7.0.
It is wise to use plastic mulch, and to set that mulch out a couple of weeks before transplant time to get the soil warmed. Plastic mulch also suggests drip irrigation, which is always
a good thing; and row cover is advantageous as well in our climate.
Transplanting Out
Possibly because of the notorious variability of tomatillo plants, there seems wide disagreement about a good inter-plant spacing for them: the range offered runs from 15 to 24 inches.
On the one hand, one wants them as close as practicable, to conserve garden space and to encourage the necessary cross-pollination; on the other hand, one doesn't want the plants competing
for sun and space. We're going to transplant them out at 24 inches this season, then "tune" that in future based on our developing experience.
Plastic mulch (applied a couple of weeks before your expected transplant date), row cover, and drip irrigation--the usual warm-weather-crop adjuncts--are all advisable. So too are
cages (real tomato cages--see the article here on tomatoes--not those
wimpy little conical frames they sell in stores).
Growing
The tomatillo is a low-growing, sprawling bush plant, usually not more than 2 feet high. That can make two things awkward: watering and weeding. For watering, drip irrigation is an
easy and inexpensive answer. As to weeding, use of plastic mulch renders the question moot. Water well, as for tomatoes.
If you used row cover, get it off as soon as temperatures allow, so the plants can be pollinated by bees. Do recall that the plants don't like actual freezes, but are otherwise pretty
temperature-hardy.
If, as it grows, a plant is spreading too much (which caging minimizes), you can pinch off the more aggressive branch's tips.
Time to maturity is reported differently by different sources, ranging from "first harvest is generally 70 to 80 [days] from seeding" to "mature fruit are produced in about 120 days."
That may not be as contradictory as it sounds, for commercial harvest is often of fruit not fully mature. Tomatillo fruits need to be hand-selected and harvested daily as the
plant approaches maturity: tomatillos are not fully ripe till the fruit begins to break through the husk. (The husks split, but don't fall off, as the fruits mature.)
If you want to pick earlier than at full maturity, select fruits about 1¼ inches in diameter; by harvesting before full maturity, you can spread the harvest period out over
perhaps two months. Commercial growers try to harvest when the fruits are well-formed and have substantially filled the husk, but are still bright in color (overmature fruit are light in
color or yellowish, and it is said that those should be avoided as being sweeter and thus undesirable for most standard tomatillo uses). The purple varieties are said to grow
significantly smaller fruits, but they grow more and so produce about the same net weight per plant--but use your head with respect to picking sizes, depending on the type you're
growing.
More
Relevant Links
Besides any links presented above on this page, the following ought to be especially helpful.
Odds and Ends
Biology
Tomatillos are members of the prodigiously useful Solanaceae (or nightshade) family, as are tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, and eggplants, among others. Some botanists unite
this species with P. philadelphica, saying that it arose from P. philadelphica through cultivation (probably true, but possibly irrelevant).
History
The tomatillo is native to Central America, and was used by the Aztecs in pre-Columbian times. In fact, there is archaeological evidence of its use as a food in the valley of
Tehuacán in the centuries from 900 B.C. to A.D. 1540. Before the European arrival, the tomatillo was used far more than the tomato, but eventually the latter came to dominate,
except in some rural areas where the tomatillo is still preferred over the tomato.
The ancestral wild tomatillo was domesticated in Mexico, then carried back by the Europeans on their arrival in the New World. It enjoyed some popularity till being eclipsed by the
tomato.
Envoi
If you've ever wondered just where The Tomatillo Capital of the World is--and who amongst us has not, at one time or another?--it's El Fornio, California, or so it says here.
Return to the top of this page.
--Site Directory--
Search this site, or the web
-
Background Information
about the purposes and design of this site
-
Recommended Crops for a home garden, by variety
-
Gardening information and aids
-
Miscellaneous Information of interest to the home
gardener
-
Books on "Vegetables" and vegetable gardening,
both new and used
In reality, we have six bookshops, one for each of the six national divisions of Amazon books; the links farther below are to the U.S.-based shop, but you can
visit any of the six:
In our U.S.A. Bookshop:
(What do you know about OmniKnow?)
Since you're growing your own vegetables and fruits, shouldn't you be cooking them in the best way possible?
Visit The Induction Site to find out what that best way is!
|
|
This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl)
to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites.
|
|
Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair
Networks,
whom we strongly recommend. We invite you to click on the Pair link (or their logo) for more information on getting your site or sites hosted on a first-class
service.
|
Click here to send us email.
And why not look in at Is it a blog yet?
So that you need not be a victim of the "Browser Wars," we have taken the trouble to assure that
this web page is 100% compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's
XHTML Protocol v1.0 (Transitional).
You can click on the logo below to test this page!
Not every browser renders proper HTML correctly (Internet Explorer famously does not);
so, if your browser experiences any difficulties with this page (or, really, even if it doesn't),
(It's free!)
You loaded this page on
Tuesday, 8 July 2008, at 23:52 EDT.;
it was last modified on Thursday, 1 March 2007, at 21:47 EST.
All content copyright ©1999 - 2008 by
The Owlcroft Company
