The appeal of Dwarfs

Father'sDaughter · October 22, 2016

I've heard of some people getting non-dwarf plants from dwarf seeds. So far it's never happened for me. Not sure what would cause it. Maybe crossed seed or a variety that isn't 100% stable??

I've grown Fred's Tie Dye, Tastywine, Dwarf Pink Passion, Boronia, a few developing Ivaldi selections, and this year I grew out ten F2s of a couple of dwarf pastes--half in the ground and half in grow bags. All plants, except for one of the grow bag pastes, were in the 2-4 foot range.

Of the ones I have grown over several years that have since been released, Tastywine had amazing flavor and decent production (about a dozen medium size fruit per plant in better years), Dwarf Pink Passion loaded up with fruit and had very good flavor last time I grew it (two plants produced almost five dozen small to medium tomatoes), and Fred's Tie Dye had about the same production as Tastywine.

This year I had a really bad season for tomatoes and the ten dwarf F2 paste plants produced almost the same amount of fruit by weight as my 17 indeterminate paste varieties. They saved my season from being a complete bust.

For me, in my growing conditions and climate, I could easily see myself switching over to all dwarfs if/when the time comes that I am no longer able to deal with 6' plus tomato plants.

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October 22, 2016	#11
Father'sDaughter Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: MA/NH Border Posts: 4,919	I've heard of some people getting non-dwarf plants from dwarf seeds. So far it's never happened for me. Not sure what would cause it. Maybe crossed seed or a variety that isn't 100% stable?? I've grown Fred's Tie Dye, Tastywine, Dwarf Pink Passion, Boronia, a few developing Ivaldi selections, and this year I grew out ten F2s of a couple of dwarf pastes--half in the ground and half in grow bags. All plants, except for one of the grow bag pastes, were in the 2-4 foot range. Of the ones I have grown over several years that have since been released, Tastywine had amazing flavor and decent production (about a dozen medium size fruit per plant in better years), Dwarf Pink Passion loaded up with fruit and had very good flavor last time I grew it (two plants produced almost five dozen small to medium tomatoes), and Fred's Tie Dye had about the same production as Tastywine. This year I had a really bad season for tomatoes and the ten dwarf F2 paste plants produced almost the same amount of fruit by weight as my 17 indeterminate paste varieties. They saved my season from being a complete bust. For me, in my growing conditions and climate, I could easily see myself switching over to all dwarfs if/when the time comes that I am no longer able to deal with 6' plus tomato plants.