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Slow growing tomatoes?

Hello, can someone recommend a slow growing indeterminate variety? Preferebly it should have a small growth habit, small leaves, small fruit, etc.

Comments (4)

  • 8 years ago

    what is slow?


    To determine how slow a plant may go, look at the days-to-maturity.

  • 8 years ago

    Not quite sure what exactly you're trying to achieve. You want to harvest at a date far in the future? Plant later. You want to avoid getting too much fruit at once? Prune maliciously. Or maybe you just like to watch things grow slowly? In general, inadequate nutrition or some other stress will make things grow slowly.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Small growth habit and indeterminated are oxymoron, as indeterminated plants gets big when given ideal condition. Days to maturity only tells you how long it is estimated to get a ripe fruit from transplant, it doesn't say anything about how big and fast a plant will grow. You can grow Black Cherry which is 85-100 days to harvest, but it will get to 12ft or more in a couple months in good condition.

    Microdwarf and dwarf tomatoes matches your description, though they tend to be determinated. There are lots of new variety of open pollinated indeterminated dwarves coming out recently, and for me lots of them seems to be slow to fruit and ripe, but that doesn't mean they won't get tall if you don't prune them over time.

    The traits you desire are easier achieved if grow the plant in a smaller pot than it desired with not enough nutrient. So purposefully stunt your plants.

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Husky Cherry Red F1. It's a dwarf indeterminate with rugose foliage. It grows foliage/branches slowly, but it's early and produces well—and it keeps growing/producing the whole season here. Dwarf indeterminates are pretty nice, in my opinion.

    You might also try Sub Arctic Plenty, but the leaves and fruit are bigger than those of Husky Cherry Red F1.

    You'd probably like Maglia Rosa. It's semi-determinate, with a bush habit, and small, oblong, striped fruit with a sweet taste.

    If you want small leaves, try the Stick tomato (but the fruit and vines might be too large/long for what you're asking).

    Galapagos Island (Solanum cheesmanii), at least the version of it that I have (which I got from wintersown.org in the fall of 2014), is an indeterminate, has small leaves and small stems, and doesn't grow enormous fast. It definitely has small fruit (like marble-sized). It's early and produces all season. There are a few versions of Solanum cheesmanii floating around on the Internet. They're not all early, round, or even yellow.

    Are you growing in the ground or in a container? Are you growing outdoors, indoors, or in a greenhouse? Are you doing things hydroponically or the traditional way?

    Was I right in thinking you wanted a slow-growing plant, rather than a slow-to-mature plant?

    Are you just wanting small plants that continue to fruit the whole season?

    This topic reminds me of Atlas F1. The fruit aren't small, but it otherwise might fit the bill (compact, indeterminate, fruits all season).

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