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This is not a very good picture of them, but I’m growing tomatillos for the first time, and they are in trouble. I need help diagnosing and treating. They HAD been chewed on by fleabeetles and three-lined potato bugs, not so much now. One of the tomatoes nearby is infested by mites — probably broadmites. But I don’t recognize the puckered and yellowed appearance of these tomatillos.

They have been blooming but not setting fruit — maybe just because of the weird fluctuations in hi/lo temperatures (down to low 60’s recently, though up to high 80’s yesterday). Do they need steady hot temperatures?

They are in the foreground and to the right. I have 3 plants, but 3rd plant was broken by some critter, and has been trying to grow back from a stick ...only 1/2 the height of the other 2 and not blooming yet.

Tomatillo's are grown like tomatoes. They like the same soil type as tomatoes an need to be staked like tomatoes. Plants will not pollinate them self you must plant 2 plants side by side very close 12" apart so they can pollinate each other. Plants need very little nitrogen mostly P & K mostly K and calcium. They need 5 to 8 hrs of full sun. In my garden I would water small plants to get roots established then never water again but you need to decide what works in your garden how much rain are you getting & how dry is your soil. Harvest when skin splits & tomatillo is green they turn yellow when over ripe.

I'm not sure about yellow leaves but tomatoes with yellow leaves is often not enough nitrogen or too much nitrogen. Too much nitrogen makes tomato leaves curl up before turning yellow. Very low nitrogen makes yellow leaves. Tomatillos might do the same. I started to plant tomatillo's this year but changed my mine we don't eat enough of those to grow my own.

Tomatillo's make very good, green chili sauce, green salsa, green enchilada sauce.

My tomatillos are actually larger than my tomatoes this season - above the top of the 5 ft trellis, and branched out more than I've ever seen before, so the cool nights haven't bothered them, like it did the peppers. And they are LOADED with flowers, and immature fruits. And I have never had a mite problem with them, but I sprayed them with Surround for the flea beetles, and I haven't seen a sign of holes in the leaves, as they usually had. Not sure if surround is effective against mites.

Here you can see how well they are doing in the SIP, grown to the top of the trellis, and not a sign of holes in the leaves, which is the first time that has happened, so I assume that it is the Surround. I just gave them another shot of that Surround, on the new leaves today, I think before I took these photos. And you can see in the second one, how loaded with blossoms they are!
DSCF0750 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

DSCF0751 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

They look fantastic! I found my bag of Surround. I applied some before —I think that’s what helped with the bugs.

I will mix another batch and give them a good coating.