Perfect tomato plants for a small garden space.
For nine years I grew an assortment of indeterminate tomatoes in 15 gallon Smart Pots. Most were planted in the fall and ripened during our coolest weather. After I moved, I had very limited garden space and full sun from only March through October. In the spring I can still grow some paste and cherry varieties if they're heat and sun tolerant.
From seeds to ripe tomatoes within 3 months.
In mid-March, I trialed micro dwarf tomatoes. Surprisingly, these tomatoes grew really fast and produced an abundance of small to large cherry tomatoes on miniature plants. Depending on the variety, they grow around 1 ft tall.
These were the tomatoes I trialed this spring:
From Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They grew so fast, were the first to flower and produced an abundance of small yellow-orange cherries. At 2.5 months, these plants were so full of fruit - I had to stake them to keep them from falling over. They were really sweet. In late June, the tomatoes were smaller due to the rising summer temps.
I purchased these seeds on Etsy. They flowered later than Orange Hat and produced large blue-red cherries with a blocky shape. Typical of blue tomatoes, they took longer to ripen and had a tart and moderately sweet flavor. However, they started cracking when the temps reached 85 plus in late June.
This is a Wild Boar Farms creation. They flowered and produced fruit later than Blaue Zimmer but ripened earlier. The fruit were a variegated orange and shaped like a mini-paste tomato. They had a sweet citrus flavor. They also grew smaller when the temps reached 85.
Golden Hour - Blaue Zimmer - Orange Hat
At 2 months Orange Hat was already producing fruit.
I planted two plants in each 5 gallon container to hopefully get at least one plant to grow as I have a lot of issues with powdery mildew attacking my tomato plants. Amazingly, none of these plants were affected.
Tomatoes really do need a full day of sun. If you have limited garden space but sufficient sun I recommend trialing these. They take up far less space, are resistant to powdery mildew, need less water and fertilizer and produce a lot fruit on very small plants.
In Kihei, October through mid-March are the ideal months to plant these seeds so they're ripening by mid-June. The temps and sun intensity increases during the summer and most varieties of tomatoes stop producing fruit.
I found a few tomatoes with blossom end rot. I recommend adding an all purpose
fertilizer at least twice per month and including some agricultural
epsom salt with each fertilizer application. It really does correct this issue.
One other issue I had was birds. The plants were loaded with fruit that were very accessible. The birds were most aggressive at sunrise. Since these tomatoes were planted in small containers a brown paper bag easily fit over the plant and top of the container. I put it over the plants in the evening and removed the bag in the morning.
I saw other varieties online. I suggest searching the term "micro mini dwarf tomatoes". There are a lot of seed vendors now on Etsy with very competitive pricing and free shipping.
2025 Update
This spring I trialed Tiny Tiger and Laura micro dwarf varieties. They were both really good producers of sweet cherry tomatoes.
a round 1" striped red cherry tomato
I planted Tiny Tiger from seeds on March 2nd and they began to ripen within 3 months. By the end of June, Tiny Tiger began cracking from the rising summer temps.
an elongated 1.5" red cherry tomato
Laura was planted from seeds on March 29th and also began ripening within 3 months. There was no cracking as the summer temps began to rise at the end of June.
Tiny Tiger plants were 10 inches tall and Laura grew to 8 inches. I sowed the seeds directly into 24"
Bloem railing planters purchased at Lowes and thinned them to 6 plants per container. So far, Golden Hour, Tiny Tiger and Laura were my favorite micro dwarf varieties as they produced good size, sweet and early cherry tomatoes.
All of these seeds can be purchased on etsy.
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