Tasmanian Chocolate in a 6-7 gallon pot.

Brandyfred - in raised bed.

Tastywine - raised bed

Brandyfred left, tastywine right.

I grew Taz. Chocolate several years back. Productive, healthy plant and people liked the flavor. Can't give my own opinion of the taste as I am not a fan of raw tomatoes.

Rodney

I am growing Red Robin for the first time. Never grew a mini plant before. I was truly expecting fruit the size of a small red current but what we are getting off those tiny plants are regular-sized cherry tomatoes. And quite a few of them! Unfortunately, I do not much care for the taste, to me they are rather bland. I also have a couple of "Yellow Patio" plants that are also producing a good quantity but again, rather bland. But my husband likes them OK and is eating them. So not wasted. I actually wish he'd not eat so many and leave me enough to saute´ to make a spaghetti sauce. I'd like to see if concentrating the flavor helps. It's been fun growing them and I will have to check out some of the ones ekgrows is trying fir next year!

Red Robin is a micro rather than a dwarf which can be grown in a one-gallon sized container, whereas the dwarfs really need a five-gallon pot. I have found that Red Robin is the best tasting micro, but then I prefer "sweet" to "acidic" tastes. Most of the other micros I have tried taste too acidic to me, so if that is what you like, keep experimenting :).

This thread inspired me, so I just bought some dwarf seeds online for next year. Also a couple standard size. Thanks for the post!

Edie - glad your plants are producing. Haven't been a fan of red robin, but tumbling tom (red and yellow) are both okay and will do in a hanging basket. Hoping to try cherry falls next year. The tomatoes I'm talking about are from the Dwarf Tomato Project - look it up if you haven't. :)

Rodney - they are really good - almost on par with black krim - not that I will ever stop growing that one!

Susan - they really are amazing. Full sized tomatoes on dwarf plants. And because they've been crossed with all sorts of different heirlooms - they actually taste good.

I'm growing 4 other varieties as well - Caitydid, Purple Heart, Confetti (it is beautiful) and wherokowhai - which is the only other I tried and it was very sweet and mild. I can't wait to see how they all do.

I did have BLT's last night with Brandyfreds - a very good tomato but still not a Brandywine.

@ekgrows I have a Garden Tower 2, and everyone says you can grow dwarfs on the top. I am not a cherry tomato fan, but I love the regular size to huge ones. I have found that although Mortgage lifter sets a ton of fruit here, in hot Southern California, they all have those cat faces, so I have to cut half off! No more Mortgage lifter for me! So far all of our tomatoes are in ground, but I will try a dwarf in the tower next year!

perhaps you should check out determinate tomatoes. plenty of good varieties that still have good tomato flavor and the plants don't get as large. might want to just consider pruning the tops and just cutting the plant once a week with hedge trimmers ;-) which isn't all that much work and still get great tomatoes.

i solved all my issues with staking and constant supporting maintenance when i finally bought some heavy duty cattle panels and made my own 6.5 feet tomato cages. initial cost of investment is a bit high, but they will last almost an eternity and i will save in the long run (time, money, etc)...

I picked up a couple of Yukon Quest from our Master Gardener plant sale. I have them in 5 gallon buckets. I also have 5 Patio Choice Hybrids in 3 gallon grow bags and umm a few micro dwarf varieties.

Stevie - have grown 6 or 7 determinate varieties, and to me, the flavor of those I've tried were nothing special. I grow a fair amount of tomatoes in high tunnels, and they seriously get to be 12-14" tall. They reach the top of their 6' cage in July, fall over, and grow up again.

Dorothy - I'd love to hear how the Yukon does for you this season.

Just picked my first Tastywine - another one about the same size is almost ready. Love me some BLT's! - and tomato soup too!!!!

I’ve grown Husky cherry hybrid for the past 3 years. Totally Tomatoes calls it a dwarf indeterminate. Very easy

to grow, almost shrub-like, with somewhat sweet, rich taste. last year they were around 4-5 ft tall.

ekgrows - so far they are doing well and we have not had great weather for tomatoes. Of course our tomatoes don't go out until the first half of June... and these got to stay in longer when we had a couple of days of with lows in the low 30s but at least we didn't get snow here like other places near us did.

As far as flowering goes they are ahead of my normally reliable Stupice and I have some very small tomatoes forming on them. So far I am pleased with them and with the Large Barred Boar plants I got at the same time. FYI those are planted in the ground and are as small as my dwarf plants. Wild Boar Farms calls them a small indet with 8 to 12 ounce beafsteak shape tomatoes. Looking forward to both them and the Yukon Quest this year.

Grin this winter I will be growing out F2 crosses for the Micro Tomato Diversity Project. AND if all goes well in spring I will have some F1 crosses to grow out also.

nanelle - Could you please tell me where you purchased your cages? Thank you.

Nanelle, I also grow mostly in earthboxes but on a patio in NJ. I can squeeze in 10 tomatoes Looking for a dwarf with the best combination of disease resistance, taste, production and medium size. are there 1 or2 of those You listed that you can recommend?

@cindy-6b/7a VA, they are upside down "pea fences", mostly from Gurney's.

@cecenj, for sure would be Malee Rose and Rosella Purple. Another might be New Big Dwarf, although that might be larger than you have in mind. I tend to chose a few paste or meaty tomatoes, since I prefer to cook with them, and larger tomatoes in a variety of colors that get good reviews for taste.

I have to add that my conditions are probably different than many as it is extremely hot and dry, and we get no rain at all for most of the season. I think this makes fungal leaf problems much less common, while I usually have problems with thrips ( I think western flower thrips) and spider mites.

Thank you, nanelle.

Thank you Nanelle; very helpful

I jumped the gun on some of these tomatoes. I couldn’t bear to think these first few might get pecked, chewed, split, or whatever.

Dwarf Beauty King

Rosella Purple

Wild Fred

I'm growing a Husky Red offtype F2 that is very small, but it's growing lots of fruit for the amount of foliage it has. The fruits are medium-sized. Note that Husky Red F1 and Husky Cherry Red F1 are not the same. My F1 wasn't rugose (that's why I call it an offtype). I don't have any other dwarf plants, this time, but Napoli and Sprite are pretty small, and are looking like they'll be quite productive.

My Husky Red F1 offtype was bigger, and had more sun.

I am starting some dwarf varieties in an aeroponic system that has a 36" clearance. Anyone tried that? I planted Purple Rosella, Arctic Rose, Iditarod Red, Banana Toes, Almandine and a couple of smaller bush style that aren't really dwarves (Manitoba and Frederick). I am wondering how big these will get when they are full grown both in height and in width. I want to put them about 9" apart from each other, and I am hoping with aggressive pruning, I can make them fit in a 9" wide, 36" tall space. Thoughts? Or better yet, does anyone have any experience with my experiment?

I have Rosella Purple, and Almandine. Almandine is the smallest, but I think it is easily 36 inches.

Gregory - I agree with Nanelle - all of mine are at least 36" tall, and there are still over 2 months to go in the growing season. mine are at least 18-20" wide. And here's the thing about pruning (on regular indeterminate plants)- if you pinch out all suckers to have a single stem, the plants get very tall. So maybe just prune off what ever leaders you have to keep it below 36"???? I'd love to hear how it all turns out - keep us posted, okay? And good luck!!!!

Picked all these yesterday off of 2 plants. Left are the Tasmanian chocolate, and right are the Brandyfred. I also picked 3 freds the day before, and 2 tas - but gave those away. Will have more to pick tomorrow. :)

I didn't find BrandyFred memorable in the past, but it is this year.

My Dwarf Almandine is looking a lot like my Dwarf Purple Heart!

I continue to be impressed with my dwarf varieties. The Brandyfred in the raised bed continues to be the star, with 5-13 tomatoes being picked every 3 days or so, and some are HUGE. The recent storms (derecho!?!?!?) knocked it down it a bit, and it was really difficult to get it back up because it's so loaded with fruit. Met some girlfriends and shared all Brandyfreds with them. Got a message yesterday from one saying she hadn't had a homegrown tomato that good in years.

Dwarf purple hearts are starting to come in now, and I really like the flavor. A bit drier, but will be great to use in sauces and salsas. Picked my first Caitydid - haven't had a chance to try that one yet.

Brandyfred - almost a pound and a half!

purple hearts - huge and beautiful.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences with these. :)

Those are beauties! I roasted some this evening.

@ekgrows sadly our 4 days of winter did my Yukon Quest plants in. I ran out of room inside and in the garage and had to pick between my two dwarf tomatoes and my squash, the squash won. I did pick a few tomatoes off of them and hopefully they will ripen inside. My Large Barred Boar, Moskvich, Blush, Stupice, Tigerella and Green Zebra all got left to freeze after I picked all I could from them. So except for my micros (all 30 pots came in) my tomato season is over. AND we are now climbing back to summer temps...

I was however impressed enough to buy seeds for 6 dwarf varieties to try next year, ie all my tomatoes will be dwarfs and micro dwarfs. Giggle I love my little ones even if most lack flavor BUT I have two brand new varieties from Bunny Hop seeds that should be very tasty.

@Dorothy Pohorelow - the end of the season is always so bittersweet. :/. And it's always maddening when the weather is gorgeous for 3 weeks AFTER it kills everything. I'm sure you'll still get some to ripen. Fried green tomatoes are delicious if not. :)

I should have about a month to go before I have to worry about my warm season crops. My outside tomatoes are basically done, as disease has set in, and worsened with 6 out of the past 7 days being rainy. Haven't seen the sun since Monday. We made up for the 2 month long drought this week! One of the last storms knocked over the plants in the raised bed yet again, and I just did not have the energy to get them back up. But the amount of tomatoes on them was just astounding. My tastywine was just starting to come into its own! They are now all rotting, or getting sun scald. I also underestimated the amount of support these plants would need. I now know.

I will grow all of these next year again both at home and will trial about 40 in a high tunnel at work. Think my favorites were Brandyfred, Tasmanian Chocolate, and Purple Heart - but want to try more as well. I took a video of 2 of my dwarfs a while ago for work - I'll see if I can post it here somehow,

Brandyfred and Tastywine

@ekgrows, that was a great video, and your tomato plants look amazing! Hard to believe that is just one plant.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here but a month ago we had a a heat wave,, then a lightning storm with a sprinkle of rain, then a terrible fire, which entered my yard and burned my irrigation tubing (could have been worse), and then what seemed to be tomato diseases I had never seen before. I pulled most of my dwarves, but I made a video first. If I can figure it out, maybe I'll post it somewhere.

@nanelle_gw (usda 9/Sunset 14) Wow!!!! Glad to hear the fire only got to your yard!!! We sure have different growing conditions, but they both managed to take out our tomatoes. As I stated 6 days of rain on plants that yet again fell over made for a big mess of disease and sun scald. Kinda breaks my heart to have lost so many tomatoes, but I grow for a living, come home and do it more, and sometimes I'm just DONE. I made / froze a ton of pasta sauce, canned tomatoes, plain sauce, and salsa, and still have probably 5 gallon bags of tomatoes in the freezer. I had BLT's at least once a week (with a side of tomato, of course!) and did lots of fresh salsa and bruschetta, tomato salads, etc.. It was a good tomato year.

I WILL grow dwarves again - am already thinking about better cages for next year. Anyone have any superstar dwarf varieties I should try next year? All of mine did extremely well - with the 2 in the raised bed being the stars. Think it's the location not the varieties that had a lot to do with that, so next year I'll try a few different ones in the raised bed.

Tastywine

Brandyfred

Both raised bed plants - they used to be gorgeous :(

They WHERE gorgeous. ! Glad you got a lot out of it.

Different but the same.

Another strange thing for me is that the three plants I cut back but didn't pull are growing, making flowers and occasionally tomatoes, and looking pristine. Mad world.

Yes I was impressed by Yukon Quest as far as fruit size. Flavor was not impressive to me but my poor plants had a hard time of it so have not totally discounted the variety and I do want to try other dwarf tomatoes next year. HOWEVER I will start them from seed and treat them like I did my other tomatoes not buy fairly large plants to start with. I think that could make a difference in how they handle the winds I get.

Patio Choice Hybrid are cherry tomatoes that grow only 16 to 18 inches tall. NOT dwarf or micro dwarf just very short tomato plants. I started those from seeds and had them in 3 gallon grow bags. They were covered in tomatoes. My single yellow was the most prolific of my "big tomatoes" Okay flavor, nice texture. If I didn't have other small compact plants to trial they would come back.

My Micro dwarfs were my stars. I had one 9 inch tall plant that produced at least 70 nice sized cherry tomatoes with at least as good a flavor as the Patio Choice. That was only one of my 4 Pygmy plants. Baby is a 4 inch plant that produced heavily and had good flavor especially a bit after they hit ripe. Bonsai was another red I raised that I liked. Aztek was my favorite of the yellows followed by Monteka, then Yellow Canary. Rosy Finch really needs to sit for a week or so after you think it is ripe to develop any flavor. Just ripe they were like water filled sacks... Alas the one variety I really wanted to try is the one I killed with my inexperience. The little ones sunburn easily and do better started out in partial shade... I lost all but two of my Hahm's Gelbe but yes the few tomatoes I got from those struggling plants were good. They will come back next year. Micro Tom cute 4 inch novelty and that is about it for now. Tomatoes are mediocre, plants are very variable but all are small. Not a favorite BUT mine were grown totally inside under lights and I still have a decent crop and they were better than store bought cherry tomatoes.

Of course you can't have a lots of cherry tomatoes without finding a recipe for them... in this case two 1 quart jars full of fermented cherry tomatoes and basil. These were all from the micro dwarfs, plus we ate a lot and I still have a full plate with tomatoes from the Pygmy plants, those guys really produced for their size...

@nanelle_gw (usda 9/Sunset 14) - what did you think about your Almandine Dwarf? A lot of our customers want to grow paste tomatoes, so I just ordered this one to add to our plant sales this year for those that are container gardening. :)

@ekgrows , they were alright, based on one tricky season, but I much prefer Sneaky Sauce, which I have grown for two or three years, andplan to grow for many more.

2021 seedlings!

2021 Dwarf Tomato Project seedlings!

I'm going to start a new thread for this year. :)