From the photo caption: Tomatillos- yellowing no matter how little I water.

When you stick a finger into the soil a few inches, is the soil dry, damp, or wet? I'm betting on dry, because of the limp, drooping leaves.

Many things cause leaf yellowing besides too much water. Too little water will cause yellowing also. Regardless what caused the initial problem, I suspect the problem has worsened because the plant is not getting enough water.

Hopefully the container people will advise about fertilizing.

I had read some where else about adventitious roots (?) but they are 6-12' up the stems.

Adventitious roots occur on stems -- anywhere on any stems. 6-12" from the soil would be a normal location for adventitious roots. So would 24". Or pretty much anywhere the stem is large enough. To paraphrase Pascal, The plant has its reasons which reason does not understand.

I can't tell from the photo if the stem bumps are adventitious roots or not. I don't know about tomatillos, but adventitious roots sometimes occur in tomatoes if the plant is desperately looking for moisture: for instance, with diseases that affect the stem's ability to move moisture from the roots to the upper parts of the plant; I've also seen adventitious roots in a stem that was tunneled by a borer. I don't know if adventitious roots grow in conditions of drought. Certainly they do grow when the air is humid -- and for reasons that can't be identified!

"I have fertilized once and fed it compost tea once."

when did you?

Adventitious roots and needs feeding - badly.

Dave

Hi All,

I used 1/4 c of the Fox Farm 7-4-5 for each plant about 3-4 weeks ago. 3 weeks Before that, I watered with compost tea. I plan on watering again with tea this week. The plants had yellowing before I fertilized, which is the main reason I started.

MTO- since they are in 5 gallon containers, I was told to water every morning. And I did until water leaked out the bottom (1.5 gallons), after it was suggested I was watering too much- bc of the yellowing leaves, I watered every other day about the same amount. By the middle of the second day, the soil was completely dry, I did the finger test and all. The garden shop said to let them dry out completely before watering again. This has not stopped the plant from yellowing.

I have now gone back to every day watering with less amounts- particularly bc of the wilting and 90+ temps.

Maybe the have one of the diseases (bacterial wilt, spotted wilt, powdery mildew) that's attacking my garden. But, they are in the front yard while the rest of the garden is in the back (was told to do this for fear of cross pollination with other tomatoes).

They stopped flowering about 3 weeks ago. The husks were slow to develop. The same is true for my stupice and better boy and juane flamme which have a disease. The cherries and romas are diseased but keep growing. I'm stumped.

Oh- I'm told we don't have borers in Boulder.
Thanks.

The garden shop said to let them dry out completely before watering again.

Obviously "dry out completely" is an inexact term. But you don't want the plants to be so dry that they wilt from dryness (yes, I understand that your current plants may be wilting for other reasons). You want consistent moisture rather than inconsistent moisture. Inconsistent moisture stresses the plant, which makes it more susceptible to disease. In tomatoes, inconsistent moisture also causes cracked fruit, particularly radial cracks at the stem.

MTO- I didn't think the wilting was good either. I'm now watering a little bit every day to see what happens. By the next morning, the soil is less than moist but not somewhat dry.
Thanks.

Mine was also yellowing until I fertilized with some Plantone. It has started to green up. I am assuming it was a nutrient issue, though this surprises me given that I mulched it with 2 inches of compost and this is in addition to the healthy dose that was tilled in the soil. Also, I let mine sprawl and it has rooted all along the stem.

That being said mine has been producing like gangbusters even though the flea beetles have been doing a number on the poor plant.

Thanks Coralb.

I fertilized with 7-4-5, and compost tea this summer. Plus, we added compost and earthworm castings to the new potting soil. I'll hit them again with my home brewed tea and will maybe dissolve Epsom salt in it before feeding. The first tea was bought at the local nursery.

I guess there's no way you can post a picture of your tomatillos? I've heard that you can let them sprawl on the ground but we bought them as transplants- already about 1' tall. Did you seed your own? Do you let the fruit sit on the ground? We were unsure about that, plus we didnt have room, but we may next year as I'm getting a new bed-yay. Well, we've started mending the soil for a new one...

I will try to take a photo later today but you are not going to be able to see them well. As usual I planted everything too closely together. Also, I planted sweet potatoes for the first time. Even though they are a bush variety they are also sprawling all over the place. As a result there are tomatillos growing through the eggplant, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes in the tomatillos. At least I convinced my son to pull the volunteer pumpkins that were also growing into that corner of the garden.

I just looked at the photo of your tomatillos and wonder if the pot is really as small as it looks. If so, I wonder if that is part of the problem. I do not have a lot of experience with container gardening or tomatillos but that pot seemed very small for a plant that can get as large as mine.

Coralb- you've just made me jealous... No worries about a photo. Did you start the tomatillos from seed or buy a transplant? I'm just wondering if you lay it on the ground it will start rooting along the stem, or if you buried the stem but kept the leaves out somehow. I may try that next year to see what happens. And sweet potatoes.

They are 5 gallon pots-well, the small one is 3 but I didn't expect that plant to survive from it's injuries in a wind storm so I didn't replant it. The plants are about 4' tall. I've talked to other container gardeners of tomatoes and they say just to water every day. I don't know what's going on but I'll see if the compost tea helps.

Thanks.

I just went out and checked. The sweet potatoes are starting to cover the tomatillos so a picture won't be much help. There are places where the stem just touched the ground and it rooted. I think you could certainly encourage this by burying the stem.

I am not going to let them sprawl next year. It is too much of a pain trying to get to the fruit while stepping between the vines (both sweet potato and tomatillo). I have already noted that I am going to cage or trellis them next year. I have not decided which.

I bought mine as transplants this year. Next year I will try them from seed. I have read that I will likely have some volunteers next year since they self sow.

BTW if you are looking for a great recipe that uses them look up Tyler Florence's tomatillo chicken enchilada recipe. It is very forgiving if you substitute, alter proportions. After trying that my family told me I have to continue to grow tomatillos every year.

Also, thanks to everyone for letting us have a little conversation about tomatillos (which I know are not tomatoes) on the tomato forum.

Thanks Coralb.

I gave the plants compost tea for 2 days and they have less yellow leaves. I'm wondering if containers don't hold nutrients like the soil. I had added compost and 7-4-5 to the new potting soil. My cherry tomatoes in pots are doing fine. Not as much growth as in ground but still a lot. Maybe tomatillos need more fertilizer.

Oh, appreciate the recipe. It's my first year with these so am lining up recipes once they all ripen.

I'm wondering if containers don't hold nutrients like the soil.

Yes, the nutrients wash right out of the soil (ideally, soilless mix) in containers. They need fertilizing much more often, though since I don't grow in containers I can't tell you how often.

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and new to growing tomatillos. I have no idea about what this tea is that you are talking about. I've got two plants in a container, since I didn't have a clue about how big they will grow. They are both now about 6' tall and bearing like crazy.

I am finding that one is getting some yellowing leaves on it and would love to find out more about the trouble this stems from.

Thanks

Hi Jonathan,

I don't know how to collect pollen- I'm a new gardener. There have been a few discussions about tomatillos fruiting this year- some say you need 2 plants, some say that you absolutely do not. Others say to shake the plant in the early morning to release the pollen. I don't know.

I have 3 tomatillo plants. Only 1 is fruiting. They are all next to each other. I don't understand why other than I planted the one that is fruiting about 3-4 weeks later than the other 2 and maybe it missed the hot spell when it started to flower????? But, nothing on the others and they are 5ft tall and have been dropping blossoms all the way up the plant. I'm now top loaded with blossoms on these 2 but am not seeing really any husks forming. I have about 10 almost ripe on the 3rd and a few more forming.

One thing to keep in mind- someone commented that they are a late fruiting plant. I have no idea but after dropping blossoms all of july- the 3rd is starting to catch.

The plant that's fruiting is also smaller than the others. I will fertilize again with some bonemeal to see if that helps them set fruit- I don't need anymore green.

If you can let me know how to collect pollen, I can try but have no idea what that entails.

Don't worry about it Lesuko. It wouldn't be viable anyway. You can't keep pollen alive long enough to ship it through the mail.

This person spammed this post all over the forums in any discussion even related to tomatillos but I doubt he will return to read any of the replies explaining why his post not only violates the forum guidelines but isn't possible in the first place.

Dave

Thanks Dave. Bummer