Bright green tomatillo fruits, freshly husked
How to grow

Tomatillos

Warm-season and frost-tender. Start indoors 2 weeks before your last frost; plant out 2 to 3 weeks after your last frost. First harvest 60 to 90 days from planting.

Photo: “Tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa)” by Diógenes el Filósofo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.

  • Full sun6–8 hours or more
  • 18–36 in apartRows 3 ft
  • 60–90 daysFrom planting out
  • Soil 60 °F +To plant out
  • 1–2 in a weekEven watering
  • Frost-tenderHurt by frost and cold wind

Your dates

Put in your ZIP code to see when to start, plant and harvest tomatillos where you live, from your own frost dates.

Look up the frost dates for this ZIP code
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From seed to harvest

  1. SowSeed goes inWeek 0
  2. SproutFirst shoots showWeek 1–2
  3. Plant outSet out transplantsWeek 4–5
  4. FlowersFlowers openWeek 8–10
  5. Fruit setsSmall fruit formsWeek 9–11
  6. HarvestReady to pickWeek 12–16

How to plant and grow

  1. Start seeds indoors

    Sow seed indoors about 4 to 5 weeks before you plan to set plants out, a week or two after tomatoes. Keep the mix at 75 to 85 °F until sprouts appear.

  2. Harden off

    Over one to two weeks, give seedlings a little more sun and wind each day. Bring them in on nights below 55 °F.

  3. Plant after frost

    Set plants out 2 to 3 weeks after your last frost, once the soil is above 60 °F. Space them 18 to 36 inches apart in rows about 3 feet apart.

  4. Grow at least two

    Tomatillo flowers need pollen from another plant, so set out two or more. Two different varieties set fruit best.

  5. Stake or cage

    Give the sprawling plants a stake, cage or trellis. Supported plants are easier to pick, and husks stay off wet ground.

  6. Water weekly

    Give about 1 to 2 inches of water a week. Soak the soil at the base rather than sprinkling the leaves.

  7. Pick when husks fill

    Harvest when the fruit fills the papery husk but is still green and firm. Plants keep fruiting until frost.

Common problems

A striped flea beetle on the edge of a leaf
Photo: “Phyllotreta striolata P1210443a” by xpda, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.

Flea beetlesPest

What you'll see: Many tiny round holes and pits in leaves, as if hit by buckshot. Tiny dark beetles jump when disturbed.

Prevent

  • Cover seedlings with row cover and seal the edges.
  • Plant a little later, so warm weather carries plants through the damage.
  • Sow radish ahead of the main crop as a trap crop.
  • Clear weeds and old crop debris.

Organic options

  • Spinosad, or OMRI Listed pyrethrins (without piperonyl butoxide).

Conventional options

  • Carbaryl, malathion or permethrin, if the crop is on the label. Older plants seldom need treatment.

Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.

A dense colony of grey aphids on a kale leaf
Photo: “Aphids on Kale leaf” by Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.

AphidsPest

What you'll see: Clusters of small, soft-bodied green, black or gray insects on new shoots and under leaves. Leaves curl, and a sticky film may coat them.

Prevent

  • Check leaf undersides each week; a few aphids do little harm.
  • Pull nearby weeds, such as wild mustards, that feed aphids.
  • Grow flowers for lady beetles, lacewings and hover flies, and avoid broad sprays that kill them.

Organic options

  • Knock aphids off with a strong spray of water.
  • Insecticidal soap or horticultural oil on leaf undersides, repeated as the label allows.
  • Neem oil, or OMRI Listed pyrethrins (without piperonyl butoxide).

Conventional options

  • Malathion or permethrin, if the crop is on the label. These also kill the insects that eat aphids.

Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.

A greasy grey-brown black cutworm caterpillar
Photo: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

CutwormsPestSprays are rarely needed

What you'll see: Young plants are cut off at or just above the soil overnight. Fat gray or brown caterpillars curl into a C shape in the soil nearby.

Prevent

  • Put a cardboard or foil collar around each transplant, pushed a few inches into the soil.
  • Till the bed before planting, and pull weeds.
  • Keep a strip of bare, dry soil along the garden edge.

Organic options

  • Dig gently around cut plants and destroy the caterpillars.

Conventional options

  • Usually not needed in a home garden. Collars work better than sprays.
A tomato leaf blotched with dark early blight target spots and yellowing
Photo: “Alternaria solani a1 (2)” by Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.

Early blightDisease

What you'll see: Brown spots with rings like a target and a yellow edge show on the lowest leaves first. Leaves yellow and drop from the bottom up.

Prevent

  • Rotate: no tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, peppers or eggplant in that bed for 2 years or more.
  • Mulch so soil does not splash onto leaves.
  • Stake and space plants, and water at the base.
  • Grow resistant varieties.

Organic options

  • Pick off spotted leaves early, never more than a third of the plant, and bin them.
  • Copper fungicide, from the first spots. Look for OMRI Listed products.

Conventional options

  • Chlorothalonil or mancozeb, from the first spots, if the crop is on the label; tomato labels do not cover tomatillos. Most home plants still yield well.

Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.

Potato leaves with dark late blight lesions
Photo: “Phytophthora infestans potato Parel, aardappelziekte Parel” by Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped). The cropped version is shared under the same licence.

Late blightDisease

What you'll see: Large, dark, greasy-looking blotches on leaves and stems spread fast in cool, wet weather, with white mold beneath. Fruit and tubers rot.

Prevent

  • Do not plant where tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, peppers or eggplant grew in the last 3 to 4 years.
  • Plant certified seed potatoes and pull volunteer potatoes.
  • Keep leaves dry: water at the base in the morning and space plants.
  • Grow resistant varieties.

Organic options

  • Pull and bag infected plants at once; do not compost them.
  • Copper fungicide, before infection, when late blight is reported nearby. Look for OMRI Listed products.

Conventional options

  • Chlorothalonil or mancozeb, before infection, if the crop is on the label; tomato labels do not cover tomatillos. Sprays protect leaves; they do not cure.

Bee caution: Don't spray open flowers. Spray in the late evening, when bees aren't flying.

Read and follow the product label: it is the law. It sets the rate, the crops it is for, and the days between spraying and picking. Products registered vary by state; for organic growing, look for products allowed under the USDA National Organic Program (OMRI Listed). We name active ingredients, not brands or rates.

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Sources

Planting dates and growing facts checked against these university extension and USDA pages:

Growth-stage drawings: TallyTill.

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