Puffychicken trying to grow things

[Puffychicken]

Tomatoes I'm growing this year:

Dwarf Caitydid
Dwarf Awesome
Dwarf Firebird Sweet
Dwarf Brandyfred
Dwarf Mr.Snow
Sunrise Bumblebee cherry
And hopefully Favorie De Bretagne if the seeds get to me in time. (Thanks Dee!)

They are all new to me and I'm excited about them.

I was thinking about getting 10 6" pots and doing some micro dwarfs outside but many seem sold out for the year at the places that carry a lot of them like Renaissance Farms and Heritage Seed Market, so maybe I can't.

[GoDawgs]

Any micro in particular you're looking for? There is a Seed Fairy, you know..... if you believe.

[AKgardener]

This is where I get all my micros .. so far so good with all company once you go this rabbit hole your in it haha
Hr seeds
Bunny hop seeds
Tomato Eden
Meraki seeds
https://www.karierte-tomate.de
Secret seeds cartel
On Etsy woodland creation
The wheelseeds

[Puffychicken]

Any micro in particular you're looking for? There is a Seed Fairy, you know..... if you believe.

Well, I was looking at
Aztec, Chibikko, Golden Hour, groovy tunes, jachalos, inkspot, Pinocchio orange, Venus, Vilma, & bajaja. Unless someone wanted to talk me out of any of them and into another.

What do you leave under your pillow for the seed fairy to visit you? Trowel? Seed catalog?

[wykvlvr]

you want Pygmy (upright growth) very prolific red with good flavor especially if slightly over ripe and Baby (flat growth habit) they worked well for me outside in a short deck planter. Aztec was my favorite yellow again it was outside this time in grow bags (they are cheaper then a bunch of pots) and to be honest I haven't grown any of the others on your list.

[GoDawgs]

What do you leave under your pillow for the seed fairy to visit you? Trowel? Seed catalog?

LOL! Just a promise to collect some seeds and pass them on.

[AKgardener]

I have all of those started and just started a new batch of new ones think I have 30 different varieties started so far at different stages

[Puffychicken]

Finally have some tomatoes this week. Only the mr.snow & some of the microdwarfs have anything on them yet. We had late snow and then went straight into a heat wave, it's been rough for my plants.

[AKgardener]

Glad you’re finally getting some stuff!! I hsve started more micros enjoy the little ones and let them stay on the plant as long as you can..

[Puffychicken]

Belated tomato growing report:
Very few of my dwarf tomatoes produced ripe fruit before the frost, I think due to the heat wave we had. I got a couple of mr.snows which were unique tasting and I enjoyed and a couple catydids which were very pretty and fairly tasty. I'll probably give them all another chance in the future, since I think I did a bad job with them this year.

Most of the micro dwarfs produced ripe fruit and a lot of it for the size of the plants. Inkspot only made 4 tomatoes and only 1 ripened, it was very tasty though.

The tomato plants that did best were the Favorie De Bretagne and the Mongolian dwarf, both of which I received from Dee. The Favorie De Bretagne produced SO many tomatoes and was a favorite of my toddler, the Mongolian Dwarf produced very large tomatoes for it's size and was tasty too.

Overall, a disappointing season, it barely produced enough tomatoes to pick a few every couple days for my toddler. Still, I'm not unhappy with it because she enjoyed it so much. I'm hopeful for this coming year.

[MissS]

@Puffychicken Thanks so much for the update. I'm sorry that you had such poor production. Last year was a very strange year in most parts of the country. Where are you growing at? If we know where you are growing people close to you can give some tips for your conditions.

[Mark_Thompson]

Any pics of this year? Were you growing in pots or in the ground?

[Puffychicken]

Dwarf tomatoes.png

Mongolian dwarf_20250122_221118_0000.jpg

@MissS
I'm in Utah 7b
@Mark_Thompson
I grew in pots and bags this year.

[JayneR13]

You noted that the heat did bad things to production, and you're probably right. While tomatoes like it hot, there is such a thing as TOO hot. When temps rise above 90F, pollen tends to be sterile so it can't make tomatoes. Bummer. And how big are those pots? Did the root balls seem comfortable or did the plants get root bound?

Welcome to the mixed year club! Many of us had problems of one kind or another. I had a bag of bad seed starting mix and learned about squash mosaic virus! What fun! But I'll try again next year. Even if two of my beds will likely be out of production until my new garage is done.

[Puffychicken]

@JayneR13 the root balls seemed fine, the big pots are 13" the small are 5" ahh, too bad about the bad seed starting mix!

[JayneR13]

It happens. The next bag was better but most of my garden had been started in the first bag. Oh well.

Forgive me but 13” seems a bit small, even for micro tomatoes. But if the root balls didn’t seem cramped-

[Puffychicken]

@JayneR13 hmmm I'm not positive on the size being large enough myself, this is my first time growing in containers and I could have chosen incorrectly. I read through some tjunction and tville forum posts and seed seller websites that suggested that 5 gallon pots would be all right for dwarfs and 3/4 to 1 gallon pots for micros, but I don't really have the experience to know if bigger would have helped!

[AKgardener]

Honestly I agree it was a bad year for a lot including myself beautiful plants was finally starting to get maters but it just was too late. I’m really glad you showed a picture of your Mongolian dwarf I just started that today .. I’ve tried before but I killed it my bad..it seems to be a hot topic as of late looking forward to for sure.. thanks for sharing your pictures.. I’m only growing 1 variety outside this season it will be 96 plants and there all Vilma’s!! Yup my husband asked me to plant those and only those because they are his favorite and I need a break from trying this and that.. not to say I don’t have a few different ones growing inside right now just sayin there is a middle ground haha

[GoDawgs]

I did my dwarfs in 7 gallons last year and they seemed to like that better than 5's. Can't remember now which these are...

24.06.21 Dwarf Tomatoes.JPG

[JayneR13]

I'd say to look and see if the pots were root bound. I've grown in containers many times and with regular sized tomatoes, getting root bound was always a problem. I tried those in 20 gal pots. Dwarf and micro varieties might like containers better than full-size varieties. The other thing I'd consider is what you're using for potting medium. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I didn't know for years that the potting mix I was using wasn't soil at all. The reason it was fortified with NPK was because nothing would grow in it otherwise! I used MiracleGro for many years and it's everything BUT soil! So my plants would start out well, then get sick and produce nothing. Secondary and micronutrients matter.

I did grow this Lil' Lise in a small pot once that simply didn't develop. I had no explanation. And it's been a really mixed year all around.