Brian C. Becker
First ripe Pinnochio tomato First harvest!! Just under 3 months from seed, both the Bonsai and the Pinnochio tomato plants had two ripe tomatoes and a bunch of other varieties like Window Box Red are looking close. First Bonsai tomato harvest! Given we found two ripe ones of each, my wife...
Brian C. Becker
Just under 10 weeks from seed and the first outdoor micro-dwarf tomato is starting to ripen! This is the Bonsai variety. First ripening micro-dwarf tomato!
Brian C. Becker
Two months in and my 10 outdoor micro-dwarf tomatoes are doing great! Most have lots of fruit. I measured the rough height and an approximate estimate of how much fruit there was on the plant. Micro-dwarf tomato status across the 10 different varieties. * means more than 2″ from the...
Brian C. Becker
So yes, I can say definitively that planting micro-dwarf tomatoes 6″ apart is too close together and now I have one giant tomato carpet Unfortunately, I think my results will be less accurate now because some of my plants are being shaded by others quite a bit. In fact, my Bonsai plant near the...
Brian C. Becker
Two weeks after transplanting into the sub-irrigated bin indoors, the tomatoes are taking off! So much so that I probably put them too close together, even though I put them 6 inches apart. I fertilized both the indoor and outdoor tomatoes to keep them well nourished. The micro-dwarf tomatoes...
Brian C. Becker
Arrangement of tomato plants with light intensity measurement. I have two QB120 HLG lights with reflective sides around the back and sides of the sub irrigated bin. I measured the light intensity, which varied between 30k and 39k lux. Normal sunlight is ~100 lux, so on average I’m operating...
Brian C. Becker
After hardening off, I planted one of each of my 10 varieties in my designated outdoor garden plot (well the front half of the raised bed). It sits over my compost pile so is more of a large container than raised bed, but has drip irrigation that provides it with water so it doesn’t dry out too...
Brian C. Becker
Since many of my tomato seedlings were already starting to flower, I’ve been meaning to transplant them. I think I got fooled on when to transplant because they are so tiny and dwarf! Tonight I was able to get around to transplanting the indoor ones into my 27 gallon sub-irrigated bin. I have 10...
Brian C. Becker
Today I spent some time creating a new sub-irrigated bin to put the tomatoes in. I used a pretty even mix of potting soil (aka peat moss & decomposed mulch), my own compost, and vermiculite. This will be the bin the tomatoes get transplanted to for the indoors part of the test. Equipment...
Brian C. Becker
Tiny flowers already appearing! Only 4 weeks into the experiment and just noticed tiny flowers are appearing! That’s pretty crazy. I guess I was underestimating how mature the seedlings were because they were so tiny. I think the next step for this weekend is to transplant them to their final...
Brian C. Becker
Tomato thinning 3 weeks in, I figured it was time to thin the tomatoes. Since I had planted two seeds in each square, some had multiple growing tomatoes. For each square that had two, I gave the smaller, weaker tomato the chop. I now have exactly two tomato plants for each variety. The...
Brian C. Becker
First fertilization. All of the cells are up except one of the Yellow Canary, which means I probably overlooked it when planting Everything else is doing well and today I watered with half-strength fertilizer. I’ve also been rotating the seed flat periodically every few days to get light and...
Brian C. Becker
It’s Day 6 of the Micro Dwarf Tomato Experiment and almost all the tomato cells are up! Yellow Canary seems a bit slow, one cell has a half-sprouted tomato poking up and the other has nothing. I removed the clear plastic humidity lid and installed a fan. Almost all the tomatoes are up!
Brian C. Becker
Micro Tom Patio Choice Maskotka Background: A few years ago, I got interested in growing the smallest tomato, the Micro Tom as a curiosity, so I grew it in a small 4-6″ pot over the winter. It was super cute and provided a half-dozen tomatoes or so (but I didn’t have very much light, just...