Well, having never grown them before, I was really surprised to pluck my first fat little tomatillo from the vine today. We planted a packet (indoors) but did not have good luck with them (they did not seem to thrive for some reason). Out of many we were left with two plants and had no idea that two were necessary for the fruit prior to reading that here. One plant is huge, now over six feet, and the other is small and puny. Both have many flowers and the large one also has many of the green husks.
What was a surprise is how the husks are so large and empty at first, later being filled and then split by the fruit. And here I thought they were probably all sterile. What a trip.
The branches seemed to want to grow horizontally so I espaliered them to some surrounding pepper plant stakes. They liked this treatment very well and are making lots of fruit all along the length of the branches. Consequently, I will follow the same treatment plan next year as well. What cool plants. :)
Phae