Tomatillo pollination compatability

15 years ago

Hello Garden Web, I have been looking through all the previous post and cant quite find what I am looking for. I have seen there is no tomatillo section and people post in the tomato section so hopefully this is ok.

I pulled a rookie gardener mistake and thought all tomatillos were the same. I know you have to plant two or more to get fruit production but my mistake was is a bought a packet of purple tomatillos and a packet of mexican husk tomatillos, both ferry morse seeds, they seem like they are both from the same gene pool (Physalis ixocarpa, doesnt say on the packet just googled them) but the picture on the mexican husk tomatillo packet looks like pineapple tomatillos or ground cherry almost which i found out online that they are from other gene pools.

1.should i disregard the picture and go off what the name says on the packet?

2. If they are both from the same gene pool will they pollinate each other ok still even if they are different colors?

both were started at the same time and now about 3 feet tall and look identical and about two feet apart from each other. they are both blooming like crazy but no fruit set yet

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Comments (3)

carolyn137
15 years ago
The search below looks to me like your Mexican Husk tomato is a tomatillo.

And since you already know that tomatillos are self infertile, thus the need for another plant unless there are members of the same genus and species within I think the distance is 500 meters, I didn't check, then yes, they can cross.

That is, regardless of the color of a specific tomatillo they can cross with each other, which shouldn't be a problem unless you want to save seeds from the fruits.

Carolyn, and please check out that first link in the link below, the one from Purdue, since it's the best source Iknow for tomatillo culture and biology

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Search
DTray
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you carolyn for response, i hand pollinated with a qtip to better my chances of earlier fruit set. hopefully that works.
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treemama
15 years ago
Well, apparently my rookie mistake is even more basic than yours! I didn't even know tomatillo plants were infertile and had to be planted in pairs or more. That probably explains why I haven't seen any fruit on my plant. Tons of flowers but nothing else.

So, if I were to find another plant, it seems as long as I don't plan to save seeds it is OK to get one of a different variety, right? One other question is, does the new plant need to be about the same size (mine is about 18" tall) as the other, or can it be smaller? Guess I'll start looking around for another tomatillo plant!