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Old September 11, 2011   #18
carolyn137
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Location: Upstate NY, zone 4b/5a
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Originally Posted by SEAMSFASTER View Post
My understanding is that tomatillos are very dependent upon insect pollinators, especially bees - more so than tomatoes. They also tend to drop most of their blossoms early in the season then produce like gang busters later. At least that's been my experience.

I'm raising Toma Verde and Purple. The purples are hardly producing anything, while I can hardly keep up with the Toma Verdes. I have a fair number of pollinators buzzing around, so I'm not sure why the purple is so much less productive.
Tomatillos are not just more dependent on insect pollinators and more so than tomatoes, they must be cross pollinated b'c they are self infertile.

Somewhere at the top of the initial thread here on tomatoillos I linked to the excellent article from Purdue on all things tomatillo and it was also mentioned that almost any member of the Physalis genus can also be a source of pollen if within so many feet, which I've forgotten now, but it's in that article, and that's good to know for the persons who grow just one plant and say they get berries and then pooh pooh the info about two plants minimum being needed to get X pollination and berries.
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