Tomatillos are fun to grow in the garden, and there are tons of yummy uses for them in the kitchen. If you’re new to growing this cool vegetable in your garden, it can be tricky to know when and how to harvest tomatillos.
Tomatillos start out as cute lanterns or balloons, and sometimes these little lanterns will grow huge long before the tomatillo inside is ready to harvest.
You might think the tomatillos look like they’re ready to be harvested, but one quick squeeze and you’ll discover that the lanterns are empty.
Don’t worry, soon it will be obvious when your tomatillos are ready to be harvested.
Tomatillos On The Vine
When To Harvest Tomatillos
There are a few ways to tell that it’s time to harvest tomatillos.
One way to tell that tomatillos are ready to harvest is that the the outer husk (the cute lantern) splits open, and it looks like the tomatillo is busting out.
The husk may turn brown and papery once it splits open, or it might stay soft and green. Either way, a tomatillo is ready to harvest once the husk splits open.
Another way to tell that it’s time to harvest tomatillos is when the husk turns brown and papery, but it doesn’t split open.
Once the husk turns brown and papery, the tomatillo is ready to harvest even if the husk hasn’t split open.
Harvest Tomatillos When Outer Skin Turns Brown
How To Harvest Tomatillos
Once you determine that a tomatillo is ready to harvest, it’s best to cut it off the plant rather than pulling it off.
But many times ripe tomatillos will come off the vine easily with a gentle twist.
Just don’t tug or force the ripe tomatillo off the plant or you could damage the stem.
Related Post: Free Garden Harvest Tracking Sheet & Guide
Tomatillos That Are Ready To Harvest
Tomatillos can also be harvested when they’re small, before the husk turns brown or splits open.
So, if a hard freeze is coming, you can harvest all the tomatillos that are left on the plant, and still use the small ones for your recipes.
Once the plant starts to get heavy with tomatillos, you will need to stake tomatillo plants in order to keep the stems from collapsing to the ground – just like you stake tomato plants.
Tomatillos take a long time to produce fruit, 70-100 days. But they are pretty cold hardy and can withstand the first few light frosts in the fall.
If you’re interested in growing tomatillos in your garden, here are some great quality seeds you can buy to get started… green tomatillo seeds and purple tomatillo seeds.
More Garden Harvesting Posts
- When To Harvest Onions From Your Garden
- Harvesting And Storing Fresh Basil Leaves
- How to Harvest Chives
- How To Harvest Lavender Fresh From The Garden
- When To Harvest Potatoes From Your Garden
Do you have any tips for how to harvest tomatillos? Please share them in the comments section below.
Barb M. says
Thanks for info! So, you say you pick ALL the remaining tomatillos when frost threatens? That’s including those that are only half the full size in the pod, say down to the size of large olives? I keep reading that the very small undeveloped ones are toxic, poisonous, etc.
I have a lot of them ready to pick, but also a pile of those quite underdeveloped ones that I’d like to use if safe. We don’t have a long growing season here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. If the weather holds, it will frost Friday night (9/27) and that’s a fairly late frost for us!
Amy Andrychowicz says
Tomatillos are in the nightshade family, along with eggplants, potatoes, peppers and tomatoes, all of which contain the toxin you’ve heard about. The leaves and stems of the plant have a much higher concentration of the toxin than the fruit, which is why these vegetables are edible (but no other part of the plant is). I’ve also heard that wild tomatillos may have a higher level of the toxin than cultivated varieties, so it might be wise to do more research about those before eating them. I’ve never heard of small, undeveloped tomatillos being more poisonous than mature ones, so I can’t speak to that. However, if you have an allergy to the nightshade family, then you will likely have a problem with eating tomatillos. I will say that I harvest immature tomatillos every fall before frost, and have eaten them many times myself without any issues. I don’t pick them as small as the size of an almond. I only harvest the ones that are about 1/2 the mature size or larger.
Aileen Noll says
Thank you for the information. I actually grew tomatillos by slicing and planting the slices in soil. I have an amazing plant. It is producing like crazy. Now I know when to harvest. Thank you.
Amy Andrychowicz says
Wow, that’s fantastic! LOL. Great to hear your tomatillo plant is going to give you a great harvest this year! 🙂