Baby Micros Started

[rdback]

Thank you @AKgardener! I appreciate you sharing your experiences so far. As I said, this will be my first foray into growing micros inside, so I still have to get set up for it, which will probably be after pepper season winds down. If everything goes well, I look forward to comparing notes!

[GoDawgs]

@rdback , so you're taking the micro plunge, eh? Good for you! They're fun to play with over the winter. I've got about 40 varieties (probably a drop in AK's bucket!) and to be honest I really don't remember how most of them taste except for a few. I really like Jochelos, Red Robin and Florida Petite. But remember, what is one person's spitter is another's good taster. It's all a matter of personal preference plus the effects of differences in growing media, watering regimens, fertilizers, lighting, etc all have an influence on flavor.

I agree with AK that Baby is more of a novelty being so small. Not much production and not much flavor. Inkspot didn't grow well for me. Neither did Groovey Tunes, Fat Frog, Curley Kaley and Chibbiko so not much flavor.

Pot size? I see descriptions online that say you can grow this or that in a 1 gallon pot. Well, maybe one can (Baby qualifies) but I prefer to give them a bit more room. As plants get rootbound they get so tight that water can't really seep in so it finds little crannies along the side to run down to the bottom and out, leaving the plant thirsty. I started with something a little bigger (gallon and a half pot, sometimes called an azalea pot) but now I use a two gallon pot.

Fortunately I have florescent lights on long chains hooked to old planter hangers attached above windows so using taller pots is not a problem.

Plant stakes of some kind are handy to have because when the tomatoes set the plants tend to lean, especially if one side is loaded more than the other.

I fertilize about every other week and use a light touch of Miracle Grow just for the convenience. Use what you feel comfortable with.

The first flush of fruit, as with the large plants, is the best in quantity and quality. A second round will still be OK but you might find that third rounds are a lot less in quantity. If I get a third round, the plant goes away afterwards to make room for a successor. Oh it's so tempting to hang on to them past that because "Look! There's a cluster of four flowers!" Time to make way for a newly potted up plant.

So have fun with them! It takes the edge off of drab old winter to play with something green. Maybe keep a small pad of paper next to your micros so you can make notes right then and there about likes and dislikes because I guarantee you won't remember to write it down later.

[AKgardener]

As my kids always say true dat haha. Write it down for sure and like godawgs says what others like you might or might not.. it’s really about you and what you prefer I’ve started a bunch of the old varieties before all these new ones came out to try them again I had a bunch started but lost them all the a earthquake and everything fell off the shelf and well I didn’t start them over cause I got busy .. and yes I most definitely have well over 100 varieties of micros that are still sitting in containers waiting to try but I feel I need to give these others ones a go before I go down the rabbit hole of the new ones That came out recently..,good luck and have fun with it don’t stress there fun to try easy to care for I did have to adjust my list do to I thought I had some seeds but turns out I’ll have wait until they show up .. but for now I think 18 varieties are good haha

[rdback]

@GoDawgs, thanks for sharing your experiences as well! I also appreciate your advice on pot size, ferts, notes, etc. Now, all I gotta do is get set up and start some seeds. Since it was only 49F this morning, sooner might be better than later, lol.

Thanks again to both of you!

[AKgardener]

I was able to finally try totum today it stayed true to it size with larger cherry red tomatoes it was a good tomato worth growing again I think it could of been a little sweeter because mine didn’t ripen until now and it’s stayed in the 40 at night and has been raining for weeks so I picked it when it was just starting to turn .. started more today for winter but worth it in my opinion.. easy seeds to find got mine from reimer seeds and tomato growers supply.. these are not the tiny totum different variety

[AKgardener]

How is everyone doing on the micro!! So my Tom’s are done Tim’s are done same flavor but fun to grow Nina nutron hopefully will turn soon got a mystery one only 3 inches with flowers got my favorite Vilma’s turning spunky bird getting flowers and andrina just picking up growth..tiny totums just germinated along side Florida petite..the rest haha I just dropped seeds and had to start over because I tripped and things went flying..and some I didn’t have seeds anymore for so list was redone.. I’ll list them when there up and alive but I did find some new ones I don’t think anyone has .. I’ll post about once I got my order and feel the place is legitimate..

[GoDawgs]

I STILL haven't started mine! So much other stuff to do it keeps slipping out of my head. I'm only going to do three this time and then start three more when the first ones go through their first fruit set. Hopefully the new ones will be ready to go when the other ones get the boot.

[AKgardener]

@GoDawgs not yet haha!!! and only 3 . We’ll I will not count how many I have yet or say that I hit the buy button on more seeds shhhh

[AKgardener]

I ran into an issue this time around with micro that I didn’t was possible I had a variety called zugwender the taiste wasn’t bad thick skinned but it was actually mushy.. I grew tiny totum again last time was 2 years ago got only 1 tomato but it was good this time each plant gave me 5 decent tomatoes but again they were all mushy as well very different from all the other times .. any suggestions of why?

[GoDawgs]

The micro tomatoes started from seed on 10/21 are setting fruit. This is Red Robin:

25.01.21 Red Robin micro.JPG

A new one for me is Krasny Milo; it has one about ready to try.

25.01.21 Krasny Milo micro.JPG

The one growing the fastest is also new to me, Golden Hour. It's taller but holding at 18" and not as compact as the other two. The fruit has a bit of striping. A pot of basil I started and my cheap little Christmas poinsettia keep it company.

25.01.21 Golden Hour micro and basil.JPG

25.01.21 Golden Hour micro.JPG

However... there's a pot of chili on the stove. Just right for the weather and ready to eat. Gotta go get some NOW!

[rco3]

I grew Golden Hour last year. The plant in the roll-around plastic planter got to be a couple of feet tall and absolutely crowded out Orange Hat and Micro Tina near it. I don’t really consider it a Micro the same way those two are. Of the 60-ish varieties I planted end of this September (and then shamefully neglected), they are the only ones with fruit so far. I usually get more antho expression in my GH fruit.
Vigorous, robust, attractive, productive, but no one in the house ever got excited about eating one.

[AKgardener]

Plants look great let us know how they taste and if there worth growing again..I’ve got several started just waiting for them to get bigger