Background: A few years ago, I got interested in growing the smallest tomato, the Micro Tom as a curiosity, so I grew it in a small 4-6″ pot over the winter. It was super cute and provided a half-dozen tomatoes or so (but I didn’t have very much light, just a few fluorescent tubes), but I never gave it too much serious thought. Since then, I’ve been growing tomatoes like Maskotka, Patio Choice Yellow F1, and Red Robin indoors but never been super happy with any of them. I grew them under HLG QB120 lights. Both Patio Choice and Red Robin were both too lanky so the bottoms didn’t get much light while the tops got too close to the light and burned. They also liked get large, to fall over the side of the container, generally be unruly, which made it hard to harvest. Maskotka were great from a foliage standpoint with short, dense coverage that took great advantage of the light, but despite so much greenery, I never got very many tomatoes. So when I read a blog post on growing micro dwarf tomatoes indoors during the winter, I got intrigued all over again. However, given the variance I’ve see with just the three varieties I’ve tried so far, how to pick which ones to try?
The selection process: There are plenty of micro-dwarf tomatoes to choose from. Curtis at Renaissance Farms has a lot of posts and YouTube videos, but I get the impression every tomato variety is his favorite, so that doesn’t help narrow things down. I also wonder if there is actually that much difference or if all the micro dwarf varieties would be about the same. So I figured it would be worth doing an experiment with a bunch of different varieties to see which worked best for me. Since they are so small, I decided to pick 10 varieties. So, how did I decide?
- Availability: Specifically, had to be available from Renaissance Farms’ selections (especially after I discovered Baker Creek was out of Orange Hat).
- Under 12″: I only picked varieties that we reported to be under a foot tall because I have HLG QB 120 quantum boards all at the same height so ideally the canopy should be within 6-12″ for even lighting.
- Personal inclination: I read over reviews and descriptions and kinda went with what seemed cool.
The candidates! In the end I wound up with these 10 varieties: Andrina (5-7″), Florida Petite (6-8″), Mohamed (7″), Pinocchio (7″), Pigmy (7″), Bonsai (8″), Little Red Riding Hood (8″), Yellow Canary (8″), Hahms Gelbe (8-10″), and Window Box Red (8-10″).
Day 1, planting: I planted out 20 cells of my GrowEase seed starting kit with two cells of each variety, each cell having two seeds. I randomized the placement of the seeds so as to reduce some of the bias. Then it went under an HLG QB120 light.
Evaluation Criteria: So all good experiments have an evaluation criteria: what are we looking for in a good micro dwarf tomato? For each variety, I’ll be checking up on the following things:
- Size: How tall does the tomato plant get? Ideally looking for something under 12″.
- Productivity: How many tomatoes does each plant produce? More is better!
- Season: How long does it take for each variety to produce tomatoes and how long does each harvest last?
- Flavorful: Very subjective, but wanting something tasting better than store-bought tomatoes at the very least.
- Robustness: how well does the plant resist disease / insects / etc?
We’ll see how this experiment goes! I’ll try to control for some of the variables, but honestly there are too many (for instance, I should probably have at least 5-10 of each variety for a real experiment). And I haven’t had the best of luck with pests so we’ll see if they even make it to the finish line still reasonably healthy. If nothing else, it should be fun to see how the ones that survive grow and taste. Always an adventure!