Vegetable · Solanaceae
When to plant tomatillos
Grown like a tomato and easier than one, but almost entirely self-incompatible, so a single plant sets nothing. Two is the minimum.
Start seed indoors
6 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Plant out
2 weeks after
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
75-100
From planting out to a first picking.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make tomatillos plantable anywhere.
- Start seed indoors 6 weeks before the last frost.
- Plant out 2 weeks after the last frost.
- Expect 75–100 days to maturity, counted from planting out.
Getting the timing right
Start indoors six weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after it. Fruit is ready when it fills and then splits the papery husk.
Frost tolerance
Killed at 0C. It sets fruit in heat that makes tomatoes drop their flowers, which is the main reason to grow it in a hot climate.
Classified as tender, with damage expected below 0°C (32°F)32°F (0°C).