Tomatillos

[donheater]

Hello all I am new to this site.
I have been gardening for about 5 years now.
I have a question about tomatillos.
I have grown them for 4 years now.
First 2 years no problem.
2 years ago the plants grew very well, produced tons of pods when the pods got about half full with tomatillos the plants all turned brown dried out and died.
It was a very dry summer so I thought that was the reason
but then it happened again last year
I wish to grow them this year anyone have any idea what is going on with my plants?

Thanks
Mike

[valley]

Greetings, I've been thinking about what could have caused the problem. I keep coming around to two things: 1. Something eating the roots, gopher, or bugs eating the roots. 2. Then there is chemical like Roundup.

There are people on this forum that know a good deal about tomatoes, tomatillos as well I would think. I'd like to hear what some of them think.

This isn't close to an unfriendly neighbor is it.

[donheater]

My other tomatoes and other plants do just fine only the tomatillos I have a problem with. Last year the tomatillos were in the middle of the garden, so I think sabotage or the roots being eaten are unlikely.
My neighbors get things from my garden
Thanks for answering
Mike

[applestar]

Did they turn brown as in dried out or did they turn splotchy like disease?
Were they grown where other solanacea (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc.) were grown in previous years?

Did you see any level of similar symptoms in any other plants? How long did it take for the tomatillos to die between when you first noticed something was wrong? Did you have any insect pest problems?

[sepeters]

Could be a soil depletion issue if, like applestar said, they;re being grown in the same spot every year or the same spot as other nightshade plants. How are other things in that area doing?

Some of my plants did this last summer and when I emptied the pots there were june bug larvae in them munching the roots. Have you dug down to check the soil?

[imafan26]

Are tomatillo's blight or wilt resistant? I could not find much information about them. I'm thinking from the symptoms you describe it could be late blight or one of the fusarium diseases.

Planting members of the same family year after year can build up pests and disease. The other tomatoes may do fine if they are resistant to diseases.

[valley]

What I think is most likely, sepeters mentioned this also. Some insect eating the skin and flesh off the roots.

Richard