Growing Micro Dwarf Tomatoes

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:

Orange Hat

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.

Blaue Zimmer

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.

Golden Hour

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.

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 increase during the summer and most varieties of tomatoes won't produce 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 back 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.