During lockdown, I bought a vegetable trug to grow some stuff in. Nothing big, herbs, radishes lettuce, that kind of thing. While at the garden centre I noticed some plants called tomatillos that I'd heard of but never seen before. They were about 10" tall and I bought two for a quid each. We named them Pote and Teresita in homage to the characters from 'Queen of the South'.
Two months on, and just like their namesakes, the bastard things have taken over the trug, shoving everything thing else either out of the way, or in the shade. They're so big, maybe over a metre tall and bushy as fuck, I can't shut the poxy trug lid.
Anyone else grown them before, or had any experience with them? If they're going to produce a shitload of fruit, fine. Green tomatillos salsa it is. If not, I'm getting the pruning shears out before they get any bigger.
Comments
I have grown them before and they fruited loads. Treat them like tomatoes - I think I sideshooted them to control bushiness and increase flower production, and fed weekly with an organic seaweed food.
Don't worry about having a lid over everything, most stuff doesn't need that level of heat and humidity to produce. I grew tomatillo outside on a balcony.
You may find that the shade from them benefits lettuces and herbs, by keeping them cooler and reducing the chances of them bolting it's also a good idea to have some pollinator friendly wild flowers nearby to bring in bees, wasps, hover flies etc to help manage pests and pollinate the flowers.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
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As it happens, the coriander is doing well in the dappled light, and the rocket lettuce appears to be, errrrr, rocketing up, too. On the downside, the basil has withered in their shade, and the spring onions are pitiful, about the size of a drinking straw.
I only bought two of them because the woman in the garden centre said a single plant wouldn’t produce fruit. Not sure how that works, but at £2 she can’t have been profiteering, so maybe it’s true. But I can’t determine whether the small buds on them are the precursor to fruit, or whether they’re a new flower. Time will tell.
I’ve seen the fruits in US supermarkets. They look like a green tomato in a husk. The salsa they make from them is very nice, great with Mexican grub, or fish tacos.
I'm not sure we covered this in my biology O level .