I know I'm not alone among gardeners when I buckled to a seed buying wild-hair in winter. Triggered by a packets of free seeds with purchase, I succumb to temptation and ended up with five varieties of dwarf tomatoes. Here's my tale.
I had a logical and well though defense for incorporating these plants despite being well beyond maximum growing space. By tucking dwarf tomato plants into nooks around the garden, I could test them for flavor and production with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of space-consuming indeterminate types.
It's not a long-term goal to reduce the indeterminate types, but an option to keep fresh tomatoes flowing while remediating some tired soil in the tomato garden. Space is at a premium in any garden, but in suburbia that's infinitely more true. I currently lack the needed combination of space and light to successfully rotate tomato plants. Without the option to rotate, a tough decision lie ahead: either suffer with reducing quality plants and fruit or suffer without garden fresh tomatoes for a season.
Logic argued in my head that if I found some prolific and tasty alternatives in the dwarf family, I could selectively remediate parts of the tomato growing area. A noble cause if I do say so myself, and thus my shopping spree began.
I'm documenting the progress of these plants through the season and will report on each as they reach the end of their growing life. First though, here is a summary of the what I'm growing and what I was hoping for when I purchased them.
I intentionally chose orange colored grape or cherry tomatoes. These are the go-to salad and snacking tomatoes in my household and by freeing up the space used for indeterminates like Snow White and Sun Gold plants, I could re-home my beefsteak varieties. With that measure in place, the oldest and most depleted soil would be available for cover crop planting.
The packet that started it all. Received as a gift-with-purchase from Totally Tomatoes. I wasn't extremely enthusiastic about these but saw them as an opportunity to check green when ripe tomatoes off my grow list and see how a dwarf did tucked into the foundation bed on the west side of the house.
Purchased from Heritage Seed Market. If you watch Roots and Refuge on YouTube, Jess has mentioned these more than once. I didn't know that when I bought them. I purchased them on the promise of them resembling candied kumquat slices and the reviewer noting their flavor had surpassed their current favorite dwarf variety. I also enjoy a good Moscato or Reisling wine and these were promised to have a similar flavor.
Purchased from Heritage Seed Market. I chose this one because of its reviewer's experience that it produced better in the heat than other dwarf varieties. It also received interesting comments about flavor that left me intrigued.
Purchased from Heritage Seed Market. This is a member of the "snowy" family and I've had tremendous results with Snow White tomatoes so this was a no brainer for me.
Aztek (yes, that's correct with a K)
Free gift from Heritage Seed Market. I put this one in my cart but removed it when I decided I had enough, so I was excited to find it in my shipment while at the same time a little nervous. I didn't have the space for the others but had an inkling where they could be tucked. Another variety? Not so sure. The reason I was interested in these was the promise of them being among the earliest producers.
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