If you are one of those who has a small garden at home, you may be thinking about what you can plant. Do we make you a suggestion? How about planting green tomato? It is a food that, although in Spain it is still not fully known, the truth is that, in Mexico, where it is grown a lot, it is the protagonist in many houses.
But how to grow green tomato? Is it the same as if we planted red tomato, kumato or another? Or does it have some peculiarities? We are going to talk about that right now.
What will the green tomato plant look like?
Before opting for these tomatoes, which, by the way, have a scientific name Physalis philadelphica, you must know how will the plant you will have be like to know if you have enough space in your garden.
The tomatillo plant (another of the common names by which it is known), It will measure about 50-60 centimeters in height. The leaves on the branches, which are heart-shaped, will be alternate and usually have a fairly long stem and shorter branches. The flowers that he is going to throw at you are yellow and only have one petal.
Where is best to plant the green tomato
If you have already discovered that your garden is a good place to plant them, another point to take into account is the climate. And it is that This tomato does not support low temperatures or frost. Although it is always planted at the end of winter and early spring, the temperature must be taken into account.
If this does not usually rise much, or where you would put it does not have a "warm" temperature, it is possible that they do not turn out well (too small or the plant does not come out directly).
En general, the ideal climate that you will need is between 25 and 32 degrees during the day, and from 15 to 21 at night. If they do not come close to the temperature that you have, you will have to protect them (for example, growing them in a greenhouse that gets sun).
The steps to grow the Physalis philadelphica
Since we want this article to serve as a practical guide for growing green tomatoes, we are going to give you the steps one by one so that you will soon have some green tomatoes to try. You should know that, if you do it right, in just about 60 days after sowing they will flower, and in total, in 2-3 months you could have your harvest.
Shall we start?
Prepare everything to plant them
With "everything" we are referring to preparing the elements that you will need to grow the green tomato. Namely:
- Planters. You could plant them directly in a large pot or directly in the garden, but if you want to be careful it is better that they germinate in small pots and then transplant them so that they have more strength at that time.
- Substratum. You should know that the green tomato requires a soil with a pH between 5,5 and 7,3. So try to find a land that suits your needs. Do not forget either a drainage, such as perlite, so that the soil does not clog it, and organic compost to give it good nutrients. We could say that the proportion must be 60% soil with that pH, 20-30% perlite, and 10-20% organic compost.
In case you can't find that land, you can use a sandy land.
Prepare the seeds
An essential element to grow green tomatoes is that have seeds of this variety. And you can get these at garden stores, either where you live or online. Also, if you have green tomatoes at home you could take one and remove the seeds, rinse them and let them dry for about 24 hours before planting.
If you have had the seeds for a long time, they may need to be hydrated, that is, 24 hours before planting them, put them in water. At that moment you will see that some remain floating while others go to the bottom of the glass. Those are the ones that will germinate (or at least are more likely), while the others will be dry and useless.
Even so, we would recommend that you plant them all. You never know.
sow and care
Fill each of the pots that you have prepared with the soil mixture that we have mentioned before and, in the center, with the tip of your finger, make a kind of hole to introduce between 2 and 4 seeds.
Then cover with a little earth, do not push or do anything else. When it comes to watering it, it is best to do it with a spray bottle or atomizer since this way the seed is not removed and it will have enough water to get ahead.
Do the same with all the seeds you have.
Accelerate your development
When you have finished the previous step, you will have a lot of pots and you really want to see them grow, right? Well, this little trick can help you speed up the development of germination and, in a matter of 5 days, you could have them ready for transplanting.
What is there to do? You will see, the goal is to create a greenhouse with these pots. So, if you already planned to put it in a greenhouse, nothing like taking them there. You can, in an extra way, place bags so that there is more heat and humidity inside, but be careful, because if you are going to leave them in the sun and it gets very hot (the temperature rises more than 30 degrees), they could cook and then you will not nothing will come out In that case forget about the bag and leave them alone in the greenhouse.
Yes, you will have to check that the soil does not dry out (that will ruin all the work you have done).
In about 5 days they will have germinated and will begin to grow. But it is not yet time to transplant them. What you will have to remove is the plastic bag (if you have put it on).
Transplant
3 weeks after planting, and as long as they look healthy, you can transplant them to a larger pot, about 30 cm. deep at least.
And how do you know if they are ready? For a start, the stem will be much thicker and should have 4 large leaves. If they are not like this, leave them for a while longer in their first pot.
Important care of the green tomato
Finally, now that you have the green tomato in its final place, it is time to give it all the care it needs: plenty of sun, irrigation when the soil is dry, and some nutrients so that the plant blooms and gives you a lot of tomatoes.
Do you have any questions about growing green tomatoes? Ask us!