Fifteen days since I sowed the Cos Verdi tomatillo in Buddy’s Cairns plot. I walked the rows this morning with the magnifying glass out. Mixed bag, if I’m honest.
I count seedlings up in roughly two thirds of the holes I sowed. Call it 65 percent emergence. The first ones broke ground around day nine, which is bang on for tomatillo in tropical warmth. A second wave is only just cracking the surface now. So the bed looks patchy. Some seedlings already have their first true leaves. Others are still bent over in that pale hairpin stage, deciding whether they’ll bother.
Tomatillo wants soil around 24 to 29°C to fire properly, and a Cairns May gives me that without trying. Warmth wasn’t the problem here. Moisture was uneven. The holes that dried out between waterings are the ones still sitting empty. I’ve since gone to a deeper soak every second morning rather than a daily sprinkle, and the late wave came up within three days of that change. Tells you something. If you want to know whether tomatillo even suits your patch this time of year, the climate zone growing guides break it down zone by zone, tropical through cool temperate.
Thinning the keepers
Where I’ve got a clump, I’m thinning to one strong seedling every 60cm. Tomatillo sprawls. Two plants fighting in the same hole gives you two weak ones and no fruit worth picking. I snip the runts at soil level with scissors rather than pulling them, so I don’t disturb the keeper’s roots. Brutal, but the survivor doubles in size within a week once it’s not competing.
For the empty holes, I’m giving them until day 21. Tomatillo seed stays viable in warm damp soil for a fair while, and a slow starter in the tropics often catches up. If they’re still quiet next week, I’ll resow those gaps with soaked seed and keep the moisture even this time. No drama, just a second go. If you’re wondering what’s worth sowing in your own zone right now, the plant now calendar tells you what’s in season where you are, and I log every emergence and resow date as I go so the harvest record tracks the lot.
Harvest’s still pencilled for early August. Plenty of runway. The only real threat at this stage is the ants deciding my seedling tray is prime real estate.
