this article, organic gardening expert Logan Hailey walks through how to grow and care for tomatillo in your vegetable garden, step by step!

An essential ingredient in salsa verde and southwestern chili, tomatillos are tomatoes’ tart, more acidic cousin. Though their name technically means “little tomato” in Spanish, tomatillos are a different plant entirely. They are also remarkably vigorous, disease-resistant, drought-tolerant, and more distinctly flavored than their tomato counterparts.

In early summer, the chartreuse husks of tomatillos dangle like little lanterns waiting to be filled with ripened, tropical-flavored fruits. These plum-shaped nightshades are native to Mexico and also go by the names “Mexican husk tomato”, miltomate, “mexican ground cherry” or the Latin names, ​​Physalis philadelphica and Physalis ixocarpa.

If you’ve been wanting to add some diversity to your summer garden and enjoy the bold flavors of a zesty salsa verde, tomatillos are remarkably easy to grow and harvest! Let’s dig into planting, growing, and caring for these unique husk-covered temperate fruits.


History and Cultivation
Tomatillos are tomato relatives with a whole host of culinary uses and health benefits. Their husked green fruits are a pleasure to grow, harvest, preserve, and eat! Modern breeding efforts have generated incredibly vigorous varieties that are easy to grow and generous with their yields. Let’s explore the fascinating cultural and botanical background of the noble “husk tomato”!

What Are Tomatillos?
Tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa) are annual nightshade-family plants that bear small, tart, plum-shaped fruits wrapped in husks. These frost-sensitive plants grow on farms and in the wild throughout the tropics.

In temperate gardens, they are planted in late spring or early summer for warm season harvests. The tomatillo plant can be upright like a tomato (especially with the help of trellising) or it can vine and sprawl low to the ground (hence the name of the closely related, small-fruited “ground cherry”, Physalis philadelphica). The stems are slightly hairy and the leaves are ovate with jagged edges.

When tomatillos flower, their distinct yellow blossoms have five fused petals and darker spots in the center. The plants need pollen from a neighboring plant to produce their tart fruits. You will notice the bright green husks forming first, and then the tiny fruit- technically a berry- begins to grow inside. Only the fruit is edible and the rest of the plant parts are considered mildly poisonous.

Tomatillos are usually about 2-3 inches in diameter. They can be eaten raw or cooked, and are often included in traditional jams, chutneys, salsas, soups, and stews.

Where Did They Originate?
Most infamous for their inclusion in salsa verde recipes, tomatillos have been used in Mexican, Guatemalan, and other Meso-American cuisine for millenia. They were probably first domesticated by Azetc or Mayan farmers around 800 BC, but may have been collected from the wild for a long time before that. The word “tomatillo” comes from the nahuatl word tomatl. In Guatemala, it is called miltomate.

Scientists at Penn State recently uncovered a pair of fossilized wild tomatillos over 52 million years old! That means tomatillos were growing at the same time when giant ancestral rhinoceroses and 8 foot tall carnivorous birds were roaming Meso-America. After their excavation in Argentina, these ancient lantern fruits completely changed the botanical world’s understanding of the nightshade plant family’s origins.

Propagation
Like most nightshades, tomatillos are predominately propagated by seed. Their flattened round seeds are reminiscent of yellow lentils and handled similarly to tomato seeds.

When to Seed Tomatillos
Most tomatillo varieties take 60-80 days to mature. You can start tomatillo seeds indoors 6 to 10 weeks before the expected last frost date for your region. This will prepare them to be planted out around the same time as you transplant their cousins, bell peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes.

If you would like to directly sow tomatillo seeds in the garden, wait until outdoor nighttime temperatures are consistently above 55°F, typically in late spring or early summer at least 2-3 weeks after the final frost date.

How to Propagate Tomatillos
These seeds are easy to germinate and tend, but if you don’t have a seed-starting setup, tomatillo plant starts are also widely available. Keep in mind that unique varieties of purple or yellow-orange tomatillos may be difficult to find as nursery starts and need to be seeded in your home nursery or directly-sown in your garden.

Filling Seed Starting Trays
Prepare 6-packs or 4” pots with a quality, well-drained seed starting mix that is rich in organic matter. Don’t pack the medium into the cell too densley. Use your finger to make a small shallow imprint in the center of the cell about ¼” deep.

Decide How Many Seeds To Plant
Tomatillo plants produce impressively huge yields, so you don’t usually need to plant many of them (unless you really love salsa verde and plan to preserve massive amounts of it). These fruits are much higher yielding than their tomato relatives.

For a small family who likes salsa verde, I would recommend planting just 1 to 2 tomatillo plants per person. However, you may want to start double this amount of seeds to have backup or replacement plants in case anything goes wrong. Remember that you need at least 2 plants in your garden to ensure proper pollination (tomatillos have self-incompatible pollen and need a neighboring plant to actually produce fruit).

Tomatillo seeds usually stay viable for 3 years under proper storage conditions (cool and dry in their seed packets).

Sowing Seeds
Sow tomatillo seeds ⅛” to ¼” deep at a rate of 1-2 seeds per hole. Lightly cover with a thin layer of potting mix or vermiculite and gently water in. Keep the seeds consistently moist and warm until germination.

Water, Warmth, Thinning, and Tending
Tomatillos love a warm, cozy environment. A heating mat will speed up germination and promote even sprouting amongst your seedlings.

Tomatillo seeds take 7-14 days to germinate and prefer temperatures between 75 and 95°F. Once they grow their first true lives, be sure to thin plants to 1 per cell. Grow the baby tomatillos for 6-8 weeks until they have robust root balls and the weather has thoroughly settled out in your garden.

Planting Tomatillos
If you’ve ever planted tomatoes, it will be very easy for you to plant and grow tomatillos as well. The process is almost identical and can be done at the same time as your other Solanaceous crops (eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes).

When to Transplant Tomatillos
Tomatillos are extremely frost-sensitive and shouldn’t be put out in the garden until night temperatures are reliably over 55°F. The ideal soil temperature in the garden is between 70 and 80°F. This is typically 2-3 weeks after the last frost of the spring, often between March and May in many parts of the United States. Due to their cold sensitivity, tomatillos are best planted about 2 weeks after your early tomatoes.

The tomatillo seedlings should be at least 4-6” tall and have strong root balls before planting. Check that the plants have ample amounts of healthy, green leaves and any early flowers pinched off before transplanting. Flowers that grow on baby plants are often a sign of stress and should be removed to allow the plant to channel its energy into root and shoot establishment.

Tomatillo Spacing
Tomatillo plants can grow quite large and sprawl about. The full-grown plants grow 3-4 feet tall and spread 2-3 feet wide or more.

Trellis or No Trellis?
If you’re growing with a trellis, plant tomatillos about 24” apart in rows 1-2 feet apart. You can use classic tomato cages, stakes with string, or the “Florida Weave” method. You can also let tomatillos ramble up cattle panels or fencing.

If you plan to let tomatillos sprawl along the ground, plant them 36-48” apart in rows 2-3 feet apart. Keep in mind that harvesting takes a bit more time when they aren’t trellised.

Plant Deep
Like tomatoes, tomatillos are eager to root all along their stems as they establish. This is called adventitious rooting, or the ability of plants to develop roots from any tissue (such as from their stems). This creates resilient, durable plants with deep root zones for scouring water during drought and holding strong in windy conditions.

To get the most out of your tomatillos’ adventitious rooting preferences, plant the seedlings deep into the soil. Depending on the size of the start, you can even remove some of the lower leaves as long as there are 3-4 pairs of healthy leaves left above the surface.

How to Transplant Tomatillos
Prepare rich loam garden soil just like you would for the majority of your vegetables. Consider adding a generous helping of quality organic compost. Use a broadfork or digging fork to loosen the lower layers and ensure good drainage. Be sure the area is weeded and raked smooth.

Hardening Off
Before transplanting, ensure that you’ve properly hardened off your baby tomatillos. These nightshades are very cold-sensitive and need 1-2 weeks to adjust to outdoor temperature fluctuation.

I prefer to harden them off along with my pepper plants by placing them in a protected area of the patio where they still receive plenty of light. A layer of lightweight garden fabric (row cover) can help keep them cozy at night while still getting them adjusted to the world outside the nursery.

Measure, Dibble, and Tuck
When you’re finally ready to get these babies in the ground, lay out a measuring tape to mark out your spacing. Use a hori garden knife or a shovel to prepare holes that are 1.5 to 2 times larger than the size of the root ball. Grasp the seedling by its base and gently wiggle it out from its cell. Place the baby tomatillo in the hole and backfill. There is no need to press down or compress the soil, as tomatillos prefer a loose soil with excellent drainage.

Water in tomatillos thoroughly to help with establishment. These can be quite drought tolerant plants, but they need consistent moisture in the beginning to get established and prevent blossom end rot.

Sporadic watering may lead to issues with the fruiting. At the same time, a soggy soil will lead to very slow-growing, even wilty or diseased tomatillos. Consider using drip irrigation or soaker hoses to keep the beds moderately moist.

How to Grow Tomatillos
When growing tomatillos, it’s important to cover all your bases. You want to make sure you plant them where they will get adequate light, water, the right type of soil, and the right type of fertilizer. You’ll also want to take companion planting with tomatillos into your thought process if you plan on growing them with other plants. Let’s take a look at each step in more detail.