Tell me more about the Dwarf Tomato Project! :)

[Andrew Barney]

Craig, i guess this is mostly aimed at you, but also anyone who is deeply involved in the project or who grows mostly dwarf tomatoes.

I really like indeterminate tomatoes. But that is not to say i would not grow dwarf tomatoes. But they would need to be the best. The best flavor, the best colors, grow well here in the semi-arid west, and decent production for their size.

Also, are micro tom tomatoes included in this project or are those even smaller than dwarf tomatoes?

Anyway, for someone who knows nothing about this project or anything about dwarf tomatoes, here is your chance to tell me all about them. Why you love them, which ones you love the best, and why.

https://osseeds.org/free-the-seed-podcast-s2e4-dwarftomatoproject/

https://www.dwarftomatoproject.net/

https://www.craiglehoullier.com/dwarf-tomato-breeding-project

[nathanp]

This is not a lot of information, but I am growing 10 dwarf varieties this year, all bred by the Dwarf Tomato Project, and it is interesting comparing them to full sized tomatoes.  I have not had any tomatoes from them yet, but a few are flowering and have small tomatoes growing. 

My understanding is they are indeterminate, just shorter. 

[whwoz]

From what I understand, and I was  not part of the project to any great extent. The aim of the project was to produce plants suitable for patio and other restricted area growing in pots that had the full range of colours and flavours that one would normally expect in indeterminate plants, thus allowing the growing of high quality tomatoes in areas where a small number of full size plants would be a crowd

[ilouque]

This year was my first year growing dwarf tomatoes.  I decided to grow dwarfs because I don't have a very big garden and I was looking for varieties that mature quickly and have large fruits.  I don't have any experience with growing the standard, heirloom indeterminate tomatoes that so many like, but I've really enjoyed the dwarf tomatoes this year.  5 varieties were transplanted into the garden on March 1 which is about the earliest I could plant them without winter protection: Dwarf Vince's Haze, Wherokowhai, Dwarf Mr. Snow, Dwarf Jade Beauty, and Uluru Ochre.  Our tomato season is truncated by persistent hot weather starting in early June so I wanted to get the longest tomato season possible.  So far, I'm starting my 6th week of harvests and the plants are slowing down as expected.

I planted 30 plants, 6 of each variety in a bed measuring 60 square feet.  The plants were spaced a little closer than I would have spaced larger plants and the middle row didn't get stakes.  The stems of the dwarf tomatoes are much sturdier than the stems of full-sized indeterminates so they didn't all need to be staked if they were within the staked plants.   I don't really have a frame of reference since I haven't tasted any of the big, tasty heirloom tomatoes, but all of the dwarf tomatoes mentioned above produced some excellent flavored fruits.  Uluru Ochre was the only one that underperformed, but I'm not really sure why.  So far, Dwarf Mr. Snow kind of started off slow but was a strong producer of really tasty and large fruits so it is my favorite of the 5.

My hot, humid climate in south Louisiana is very different from yours, but that's my experience this year.  Larger fruited varieties don't tend to do as well here, so my biggest fruits were around 225 g and most were closer to 100 to 150 g.  We have high disease and pest pressures that I needed to stay on top of by pruning the lower limbs and squishing caterpillars and stink bugs.