Tomatillos not producing??n

[TomatoNut95]

Hello everyone! This is my first year growing tomatillos. I purchased two plants in a pot. Now the plants are blooming quite well, but no production! There is no bee activity in my backyard, so could that be it? Do I need to hand pollinate?

[pepperhead212]

Where are you located? In my area, this is very early for tomatillos, yet there are a bunch of flowers on both plants, which are about 3' tall, and no bees yet, so only a couple tomatillos are forming. I "buzz the blossoms" of my early tomatoes, but tomatillos are mostly self-incompatible, so this didn't do much. I'd probably have to go out with q-tips, and cross pollinate the flowers.

Hopefully the bees will be here soon...

[TomatoNut95]

I am in East Texas. I will be patient with my tomatillos, I've just never grown them before. Oh, is there a chance they may cross with my peppers or tomatoes?

[rainbowgardener]

Oh, is there a chance they may cross with my peppers or tomatoes?

No. They are all in the nightshade family, but peppers are genus capsicum, tomatoes are genus solanum, and tomatillos are genus physalis. So they are not even the same genus, much less the same species.

[TomatoNut95]

Thanks!

[Mrheadache]

I'm up in Wisconsin and I do not put plants in the garden until Memorial Day due to frost. I usually won't have tomatillos until August. As soon as flowers are out so are the bumblebees to pollinate. I have never had to hand pollinate them. I also planted with peppers and tomatoes so there is no problem there. I am trying them at my new house, but I now have black walnut trees so it may be interesting... They need patience for sure, but when they come, there are a lot.

[pepperhead212]

I'm just starting to see some tomatillos forming, inside the husks. And a number of pollinating insects out there now. I think it was a strange season, because I had things out there so early.

I have probably weedwacked 50 or more volunteer tomatillos in the garden this season - they just keep popping up! Today, there were 3 of them together:
3 volunteer tomatillos, found while weedwacking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[TomatoNut95]

Pepperhead212, I couldn't help but notice the onions in the photo. Have any onion growing tips for me? I cannot grow onions good in my raised bed.

[pepperhead212]

TomatoNut - I grow all of those onions as scallions, since I cook a lot of Chinese, and other cuisines that use a lot of them. I got a bag of 200 onion sets on ebay for just over $8, and I planted about a dozen at a time, using the ones that had sprouted first. I plant some every two weeks, or a little less, and I'll have a constant supply of them. Somebody else will have to help you with bulbing onions - what works in some areas won't work in other areas.

[Mrheadache]

I'm late so I'm hoping I can find tomatiilo plants.

Pepper what is the ideal soil composition for on onions and garlic?

Jeff

[pepperhead212]

Jeff, If you planted tomatillos last year, you should have some volunteers out there! Years ago I only used the volunteers, and didn't even plant seeds, but eventually the fruits got small, so I went back to seeds.

I don't really do much for the soil, when planting garlic or those onions. For the garlic, I dig some compost in, when I 'till the row, back in the fall, then plant and cover with a bunch of ground up leaves. Then more leaves In the spring, to mulch them. The onions are just an afterthought, more or less, planting in leftover space of another row. I'll probably plant more in between tomato SIPs, once that row is filled.

I got some soil samples tested this year - I do 3 of these, about every 3 years - and all of them tested high, or even excessive, for everything except N, which is normal, actually. The "excessive" is not really bad, as all of these things have been added as organics, in compost or organic mulching. And the N recommended is a small amount - like 2 c, or less, of 30-0-0 over 1,000 sq ft! So the things I plant usually don't require any extra fertilizer, except to boost some flowering in the pots.