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General information and discussion about cultivating tomatillos.

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Old October 7, 2012   #1
peebee
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Default Can I harvest seeds from a fresh tomatillo?

This has been the first year I started cooking with tomatillos. I bought them at the store, so next year I want to grow my own. It seems from reading here, they reseed easily, so I'm wondering if I can just get seeds from a fresh one, wait for it to get softer maybe, and dry them? Or do I need to wait for the fruit (on the vine) to mature, somewhat like for eggplant or cucumber seeds?

Thanks!
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Old October 7, 2012   #2
HiPoha
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I don't see why not. Make sure the seeds come from a very ripe fruit. I planted tomatillos for the first time this past summer and they grew fairly well, gave fruits and then dried up. I managed to get seeds from a couple of fruits for my next planting. Just spread the fruit out on a newspaper and separate the seeds from the pulp.
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Old October 7, 2012   #3
peebee
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When you say very ripe fruit, how will I know a store-bought one is ripe enough? Will it ripen on the counter, say in about a week?
Now I am disappointed cuz I don't see any tomatillos at the local store where I've been buying them. Is the season sort of over?
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Old October 8, 2012   #4
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Peebee, I'm also new at growing tomatillos. The ripe fruit I took seeds from had the husk peeling back, exposing the fruit, and would be the sweetest of the bunch, tasting like honeydew melon. And the seeds look like they can be planted right away. Over in my location, the season is year round, no cold weather to kill the plants.
My best plants were the ones isolated from the ground, placed on my balcony in a 20 gal container. The ones on the ground were eaten by slugs and the surviving ones that gave fruits wilted away from some disease. I planted in May of this year and after harvesting most of the fruits last month, the plants on my balcony has stopped flowering, so I guess the plants have run its course, and maybe the season is over for now for me.
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Last edited by HiPoha; October 9, 2012 at 03:42 AM. Reason: photo
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Old October 29, 2012   #5
Rideau Rambler
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What is a Bulam? I see it in your first photo and it looks really interesting.
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Old October 29, 2012   #6
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Rambler: Bulam is a korean type summer squash, it taste similar to a zucchini. It is a fast growing vine and the squash can be picked anytime five days after pollination. I got the seeds from Kitazawa Seed Co. The largest I let them grow is to grapefruit size, which is about ten days, after that the seeds inside gets hard.
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Last edited by HiPoha; October 30, 2012 at 12:26 AM. Reason: photos
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