Has anyone grown Dwarfs indoors?

[Marcsky]

It’s tragic that one cannot have fresh tomatoes in the Winter and Spring. True happiness is having heirloom tomatoes all year round. So I was thinking of growing dwarfs indoors during that time. It would make sense as they are a manageable size. Anyone have experience doing that? Do they produce well indoors? Do regular grow lights work ok with them? How long should the grow lights be on each day? Do they continue to produce tomatoes indefinitely? Do the plants continue to grow and need pruning? Feedback welcome...

Marc

[mikemansker]

I've "tried" to grow Red Robin indoors and actually got a couple of tomatoes from the plant, but almost any kind of indoor light is insufficient unless you are in favor of $20.00 tomatoes under "good" light.

[Labradors2]

I often grow 4 Red Robins inside (in one gallon containers) over the winter in NC. I'm lucky to have a couple of sunny windowsills facing south and west, and I move the containers with the sun. I think it helps to be in a climate where you can pop them outside on warm days (and not forget to bring them back in overnight!) The harvest was very good and Red Robin is tasty. Other sub-compact varieties that I tried produced bitter-tasting fruit .

I also grew Dwarf Arctic Rose one year which produced some large, tasty tomatoes.

Linda

[oakley]

I grow indoors all winter but it gets tiresome to try and convince the nay-sayers so I
don't even try or talk about it anymore...

What works for me in my grow room will not work for others....

The 'experts' say what can't be done and what we should do by a certain date and so on...

I do what I do when I want to sow and plant and enjoy the challenge.

I have snow on the ground and fruit setting indoors. The early plants will hit the outdoor sun
and thrive once the weather warms...not looking for a 'brag' at all. Just makes sense to me
to have an early harvest.

[Hatgirl]

I grow micros, tumblers and small dwarfs in winter easily. They end up in 8inch pots with a standard 3 ring circular plant support. I use IKEA grow lights.
So far my favourites are:
*Bajaja (red and round, under 18inches)
*Little Sun (yellow and round, close to 18inches)
*Red Profusion (red and round, under 18inches)
*Red Robin (red and round, under 18inches)
*Sweet ‘N Neat Scarlet Improved (red and round, under 18inches)
*506 Dwarf Bush Early (red and round, close to 18inches, larger fruit need good support)
*Mega Bite / Megabyte (red and round, close to 18inches, larger fruit need good support)
*Snow Fairy (red and round, close to 18inches, larger fruit need good support)
*Tumbling Tom Jnr Yellow (yellow and round, close to 18inches)

[Marcsky]

Thanks for the responses. It seems like most of you are growing the small dwarfs. I was wondering if any of you have grown the regular dwarfs (tomatoes from 6 ounces to 1 pound).

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by Marcsky

Thanks for the responses. It seems like most of you are growing the small dwarfs. I was wondering if any of you have grown the regular dwarfs (tomatoes from 6 ounces to 1 pound).

I've grown regular dwarfs indoors during the winter and they produced full-size fruit with excellent flavor. I grew them in 1-gallon pots. I started and kept them under lights until they outgrew the shelf and lights at about 23". By then they had already set fruit on the first few sets of blossoms

They finished out very well - good size and excellent flavor on the fruit. However, I have a sunroom with south-facing windows and they get pretty much full-sun on those days the sun shines during the winter. They went from 14 hours/day of light under lights to 9 hours in front of the windows during the depth of the winter. They finished growing and ripening fruit normally. I also started some not under lights, with just the window light. They did not set blossoms very well at all during the depth of the winter. I assumed they needed a longer day to set fruit, but didn't experiment enough to say for sure.

If I they had not had the sun during the middle of the day, I don't think they would have done well only under the lights I have. I'm not sure, but I don't believe my lights wouldn't have been bright enough as the plant height forced the lower leaves further from the light.

Your mileage may vary.

[Marcsky]

Originally Posted by dfollett

I've grown regular dwarfs indoors during the winter and they produced full-size fruit with excellent flavor. I grew them in 1-gallon pots. I started and kept them under lights until they outgrew the shelf and lights at about 23". By then they had already set fruit on the first few sets of blossoms

They finished out very well - good size and excellent flavor on the fruit. However, I have a sunroom with south-facing windows and they get pretty much full-sun on those days the sun shines during the winter. They went from 14 hours/day of light under lights to 9 hours in front of the windows during the depth of the winter. They finished growing and ripening fruit normally. I also started some not under lights, with just the window light. They did not set blossoms very well at all during the depth of the winter. I assumed they needed a longer day to set fruit, but didn't experiment enough to say for sure.

If I they had not had the sun during the middle of the day, I don't think they would have done well only under the lights I have. I'm not sure, but I don't believe my lights wouldn't have been bright enough as the plant height forced the lower leaves further from the light.

Your mileage may vary.

How long did your indoor dwarf plants last? If they’re outside, I assume they would last until the first frost, but since there’s no frost indoors did they live the same amount of time or longer and continue to produce fruit.

[dfollett]

Originally Posted by Marcsky

How long did your indoor dwarf plants last? If they’re outside, I assume they would last until the first frost, but since there’s no frost indoors did they live the same amount of time or longer and continue to produce fruit.

I don't have a lot of specific detail. It was something I did just to see if I could. I decided to see if I could grow and harvest full-size normal tomatoes 12 months of the year. I have a 3-month growing season, so I normally have tomatoes only from late july through part of September.

I had full-size indeterminates in Earthtainers and dwarfs in smaller pots. They all grew fine. The dwarfs were under lights early in life, but the others were not. The indeterminates were the ones that set fruit quite sparingly until February and later - I assumed because of the short day-length. I had to top the indeterminates - the room has an 8 1/2' ceiling. I think they grew taller than normal looking for more light - but they seemed healthy. As far as I could tell, the fruit was normal, just fewer blossoms early on the non-dwarfs. They tasted better than summer tomatoes..... because there was nothing else to compare them to.

I staggered the planting a bit but didn't keep track of much - days to maturity, etc. I didn't keep many notes nor did I try to see how long I could keep them going. But, I did have full-size tomatoes 12 months of that year. They lasted through the winter, but the Earthtainers were too cumbersome to move outside and bring back inside to harden off. I took a couple directly outside after danger of frost but they sunburned so badly that I pulled them. I kept the others growing until I had ripe fruit outside to complete the year then pulled them.

They were the first plants I used in crosses to see if I could get a decent micro. It was interesting and fun, but they were a pain in the butt to work with. I still have ripe fruit year-round, but I only grow the micros now. I'm still hoping to get a decent winter BLT (getting close).