NAME: Tamarillo
BOTANICAL NAME: Cyphomandra betacea
SEASON:
HEIGHT: 3 to 4 feet (90 to 120 cm)
PLANT CARE: Tamarillos produce their fruit on the current season’s growth. Mature plants should be pruned in spring, once the danger of frosts has passed – this will stimulate new fruiting growth. The earlier you prune your tree, the earlier it will produce fruit, so this is good to keep in mind, especially if you have several trees and wish to stagger the harvesting of your crop. dig in a dressing of blood and bone or sheep pellets. If waterlogging may be an issue, site your tamarillo in a sloping position to assist with drainage. Allow at least a metre between plants.
HARVEST: ripening from late autumn right through until spring.
USE: The Peruvian method involves grilling the fruit first to aid skin removal, then mixing the chopped flesh with diced green capsicum, salt and pepper. Once Ecuadorian recipe uses fresh, uncooked tamarillos with the more familiar additions of lime juice, coriander, chilli and onion. Recipes also abound for a type of hot sauce made with tamarillos, chilli and occasionally the addition of ‘lupini’ beans – literally the prepared seeds of certain species of lupin, popular as a snack food in Latin America and Africa.
OTHER: Tamarillos are subtropicals, tolerating only light frosts, and are also sensitive to high heat environments and drought conditions. They will not tolerate waterlogging or having wet feet either, and being large-leaved, smallish trees or shrubs with soft, semi-woody and fairly brittle stems, need protection from wind as well. They are fast-growing but short-lived when compared with other fully-woody tree crops: you can expect a crop after 18 months, and a well-cared-for tree to produce reliably for seven to eight years, but no more than ten or twelve at most. You can anticipate a harvest of between 10-30 kg of fruit per tree each season; cultivar, tree health and age depending.
The plants are self-fertile and pollinated by wind and insects, with fruit set enhanced by planting more than one tree in close proximity. Flowers appear from late spring through summer (cultivar dependent) and it is about eight months from flowering to harvest.
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