Tell me more about the Dwarf Tomato Project! :)

[Diane Whitehead]

I use one dowel about a metre long - knock it in, then place the tomato plant beside it.  When it has matured, I use a strip of that green velcro plant tie to go around the stem.  Dwarfs have only one stem so this is easy to do.

[Cathy A]

I'm quite willing to use cages, but not stakes or elaborate systems.

So perhaps "minimal support" rather than "support-free"?

[William Schlegel]

A few are self-supporting for me, but I think the clay accumulation layer in my soil may be part of why that works for me.

[AndrewB]

https://opensourceplantbreeding.org/forum/index.php?msg=12855

[AndrewB]

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/dwarf-tomato-project-volunteer/

[AndrewB]

1st preliminary report for my mini [Colorado] dwarf tomato project trial 2023.

Basically 1st four to ripen and taste test:

Big Hill
Bundaberg Rumball
Galan's Yellow
Andy's Forty

Bundaberg Rumball was my wife's least favorite. She said it was bad. My first taste thought it was ok, but my second I detected a very mushy texture, which wasn't great. Too bad.

Big Hill, wife's favorite of these four. She also liked it last year ok. Early. Probably the earliest fruit to ripen other than galans yellow and Andy's Forty. In this tasting it was just ok to me. Middle of the road but may not have been fully ripe. Seemed pinker or redder than usual, so hopefully not a cross.

Galan's yellow. Not bad. Cherry sized. An okay number of fruits on the plant. Not a ton, but more than most of the others. Pretty good overall.

Andy's Forty. Not sure about productivity. But my favorite of this taste test. My wife's second favorite. Seems pretty early compared to most.


I am running into some fairly significant disease issues this year. We've gotten so much rain this year! Also think the potato blight or something from last year stuck around in the grow tent. So I guess disease resistance is pretty important now. I'll try to take notes on which ones look the most resistant. So far one stands out:

Metallica may be the one with no disease out of the whole crop. Sadly it looks like I almost didn't plant this one as I had one too many. It got planted in the raised bed but not the pots, so there is only one plant instead of two to have two data points. Still will keep an eye on it though. I am now very interested in how Metallica does overall.

[Tim DH]

My Uluru Ochre produced its first ripe tom yesterday. 102days from transplant. The seventeenth out of eighteen cultivars here!

For comparison, Coorong Pink 94days, Rosella (indeterminate cherry, not a dwarf) 76days, Latah (Bush, not a dwarf) 58days

(I'm no great fan of 'days from transplant' data from different growers for assessing varieties. But I think there is some benefit in comparing different varieties from the same grower. So I hope that's of help.)

[Cathy A]

Tim, my Uluru Ochre are _finally_ starting to produce flowers and fruit. I had given up on them even though the plants look healthy.

Right now I would rate Uluru Ochre as one of the latest varieties of those I'm currently testing.

[William Schlegel]

https://www.tomatofifou.com/en/dwarf-tomato-project-variety-repertory/

Looks like from the above article that the dwarf tomato project variety releases to date descend from 54 families or crosses.