Purchase starts from your local nursery or start seeds indoors. Don’t worry, if you’re saving seeds, the tomatillo will not cross-pollinate with your tomato plants. One significant difference between the tomato and tomatillo is that you’ll need to plant more than one tomatillo plant in your garden since it’s not self-pollinating.
It’s a fruiting plant that loves the warmth and full sun, like its red-skinned cousin. The tomatillo is suitable for growing in zones 4-12 as an annual. Growing tomatillos is similar to growing tomatoes, with a few critical differences. The tomatillos are almost as big as apples! Planting Tomatillos Rio Grande Verde – For the gardener looking for a plant that yields big fruits, this variety is the number one choice. Amarylla is good for salsa but sweet enough for other types of preserves. Another excellent choice for salsa-making.Īmarylla – A yellow colored variety that matures in about 60 days. Tomayo – Tomayo yields big green balls of semi-sweet tomatillos. It’s an excellent ingredient for any Mexican recipe. Toma Verde – This type is quick-maturing tomatillo (60 days) that produces relatively large sized fruits. Purple Coban – Another purple-colored variety, this one is an heirloom. It’s a lot sweeter than other green-colored tomatillos and makes a great snack fresh off the plant.
Purple – This type has a dark purple skin that adds color to the garden. Here are a few of the best varieties if you want to break into growing tomatillos. While they retain the acidity of the tomato, there’s a flavor undertone that’s tough to pin down, but it makes them perfect for salsa making. Tomatillos don’t turn red and are covered in a husk. An unripe green tomato, for instance, isn’t the same thing as a tomatillo. Tomatoes and tomatillos belong to the same nightshade family, but they’re slightly different plants. You can use them in tons of recipes, and they can even go in some dishes that tomatoes couldn’t handle.ĭifference Between Tomatoes and Tomatillos Sometimes called husk tomatoes, these fruits are more resistant to disease and have a dense interior with a bright, vegetal flavor. I think you should be growing tomatillos in yours as well, whether you love salsa or not. As a lover of Mexican cuisine, the tomatillo is a must-have in my garden. I’ll confess, I prefer this tangy paper-wrapped fruit because I think it makes the best salsa. But for some reason, we don’t seem to give as much love to the tomatillo. I’d go so far as to say that the tomato is the most popular garden vegetable. Even people who wouldn’t call themselves gardeners have grown them. Bright red juicy tomatoes get all the attention.