No need to ferment...I too use seeds from ones that are going soft and/or changing color. Usually, there are enough that fall on the ground that you have a ready source of seeds. Little bitty things and a pain-in-the-butt to separate out, but one tomatillo usually produces enough seed to meet the savers need. I spread the seeds/pulp out on wax paper as they seem to want to stick to paper towel (there is quite a bit of sugar in a ripe tomatillo.)

Tomatillo fruit not forming
 

In NC Piedmont with 3 large tomatillos, been flowering and covered with bees for polination since late May but NO fruit forming. Growing like crazy, well watered and heat in the low 90s. Any ideas to get them fruiting?

Wait another month to see if fruits bear. You should have at least empty husks growing by now. Maybe too much nitrogen in the soil?

HELP! Here it is middle of August and still no tomatillo fruit set. Plants are large, healthy and full of blooms and bees. Never had this problem before. Even tried hand polinating some flowers with no success. Well watered, heat in the mid 80s to low 90s, should be ideal for fruit set. Any ideas to help appreciated.

[QUOTE=MuddyBuckets;659683]HELP! Here it is middle of August and still no tomatillo fruit set. Plants are large, healthy and full of blooms and bees. Never had this problem before. Even tried hand polinating some flowers with no success. Well watered, heat in the mid 80s to low 90s, should be ideal for fruit set. Any ideas to help appreciated.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like you have grown with success before?
I've never had a problem, but they do eventually form very quickly inside the husks.
If you don't have any paper lantern husks I doubt you will get fruit at this point.
If you do have lots of husks, feel them and you should feel a little tiny marble size
fruit that fills up quickly.

Had great success last 5 or 6 years, no paper husks even forming. A real bummer since they are usually so prolific. Always can some, make tomatillo salsa, etc., guess not this year. These are 3 plants from the premiere nursery in my area that I have used in years past.

:cry:

So sorry. I always look forward to that mid/late Sept harvest of tomatillos. I never think
they are doing much or will ever produce, then bam, blink, I have a boat load.

[QUOTE=oakley;659695]:cry:

So sorry. I always look forward to that mid/late Sept harvest of tomatillos. I never think
they are doing much or will ever produce, then bam, blink, I have a boat load.[/QUOTE]
Have they filled the husk ?

I tried tomatillo back in PNW for 3 years. Never got anything worth harvesting.
They kept flowering but no fruit set for a long time. Then suddenly in September ( or late August ) they would set . Too late .

Well, here it is September 12, tomatillo plants are huge and I finally have about a dozen 1" husks on the 3 plants! Probably too late in the season to mature but may get some small tomatillos...oh well, better late than never!

Best of luck, MuddyBuckets.

[QUOTE][I]They will crowd, choke and grow . . .
. . . they are a plant on steroids.
. . . they re-seed with a vengeance . . .

. . . negatives . . . [/I][/QUOTE]Context must be everything, one guesses.

If only tomatillos or any tomatoes could be anywhere near that hardy here! Flea beetles savage tomatillo plants preferentially in my yard, and that's before the blights, plagues, and mites set in.

Tomatoless and tomatilloless in Cowtown, but the chiles and basil persist.