Dwarfs have their own place. They are good choice to grow in small containers , in patio.. Some of them are pretty productive too. Search "New Big Dwarf" in this forum. I am growing few of them.

Sey

In my opinion the nurseries and seed companies are not or little aware of the wonderful marketing and sales opportunity of the Dwarf. The best fit for a Dwarf is the patio gardener - IMO. The Dwarf is an excellent container plant and could be the most popular tomato type once it is discovered - for the patio gardener market. It is hard to find seedlings at nurseries and hard to find seeds from the national seed companies for the Dwarf. Most of the general public does not know there is such a thing as a Dwarf plant - IMO.

Dwarf tomatoes fill a niche market for me but I will admit that I have little desire to grow these in my opperation as a crop. To describe another way I'll say that I grow both potted ornamental pepper and dwarf tomato plants for sales but I have not considered growing either in order to harvest and sell fruits. Of the ten varieties I grow none have the qualities that make it outstanding. The greatest feature that they all have is their small size. Because of that they make a great prepotted gift and I expect to sell many for the Mothers Day weekend market.

There is something to be clarified here.

The name "Dwarf" might have some meaning association with "midget" , being very small. But in case of "dwarf tomatoes " that is not quite the case. Although, mostly they have more compact size. There are dwarf varieties that grow as tall as 5ft , maybe more with an indeterminant growth habit. The smallest ones can be under one foot tall.

In short, dwarfs have a class of there own. They can have a Det or indet in growth habit.

sey

Dwarfs are not to be confused with determinate varieties or so called "bush" varieties. Dwarfs are a specific class of hybrids developed for a specific (and narrow) market with specific characteristics. And compact size is not the only one - rugose leaves, a heirloom parentage with similar fruit size, and a thick central stem are three other required characteristics for them to fit the class.

But many of the varieties are not yet fully stabilized and reversions (so-called "throw-backs") are fairly common. The F2 generation seeds only have a 25% dwarf production rate per the Dwarf Project's webpage and that only marginally increases with each successive generation. You are dealing with a recessive gene after all and little is known about the effect on the remaining genes.

So while perhaps ideal for some niche markets as Barrie indicated, IMO the resulting appearance, loss of flavor, level of production, and over-all fruit quality from both the gene selection process and the growing conditions used limits their appeal to the average home gardener/grower market. In time the appeal of future generations of them may grow but to date they are primarily just a curiosity with a limited market.

Dave

I think blue anthocyanin tomatoes are all the rage right now. My experience with them has not been good, since I grew several varieties and most suffered and does poorly in my garden, so I kind of gave up on them for now. They take too long to ripen, which make it harder to keep pest off the fruits longer as well.

After growing heirlooms and hybrids for many years, I gave up because tree roots invaded my raised beds. I live in N Cal on a sloping 1/2 acre that is very hot and dry and relies on drip irrigation from May tthrough October. For the last five or so years I've been trying vegetable gardening again, this time in earthboxes. I've been leaning toward peppers of late, but the dwarves are letting me try tomatoes with a variety of shapes, colors and hopefully, flavor profiles.

I've only done New Big Dwarf in prior years, but this year I'm growing nine others.

I am growing 3 of them:

1) Dwarf Purple Heart : Indet, with heart shape fruits, mid-to-late season

2) Hahms Gelbe Topftomate (micro ) : Yellow cherry , Early season

3) New Big Dwarf (first time )

I am growing all 3 in pots/container.

Sey