Hi there. Thanks for your video. I'd like to plant a couple of dwarf tomato project seeds but need some help. Could you please help provide some advice as to which three beefsteak and three cherry varieties are best suited for zone 7b with hot and humid summers? Thanks.
Hi oldporkshops, Sorry I've been away for a while.... back now. Okay, so I have grown about 10 varieties only. Based on what I know of my 10, none are cherry varieties as cherry varieties don't do well for some reason here close to the ocean, still don't know why. They produce very late even though I get alot. I do have a suggestion of one of the regular cherry varieties that isn't a dwarf that will do extremely well.... That is the Blonpkomf.... it is a apricot small round cherry and produces about a 1000 sweet tomatoes on one plant.... it is incredible and a Heirloom German variety. You should be able to find it online in the US. As for other varieties of cherry tomatoes that I have grown, none compare to this one above in abundance and flavor, I found. The bigger cherry tomatoes that are about 1 inch to 1 and a half inch in diameter, would be a regular heirloom again "Bumble Bee" and " Green Vernisage" both excellent in flavor but not dwarfs. I haven't grown any cherry dwarfs yet but may in the future just to try to see if they produce early enough in my area. As for beefsteak in dwarfs, the best ones I've grown are "Fred's Tie Dye" as outstanding flavor and this year I'm regrowing some varities to see how they do in raised beds... and I'll let you know as the dwarfs I find didn't do well in containers but do much better in raised beds. So, I'm sorry I can't tell you much in terms of dwarfs too much, but I'll find out in about a month or so left for this year.... I'll taste them and see what the results are and will get back to you. So over all, Dwarfs don't do well where I am in containers as a whole. Some do well in raised beds and that result I will let you know soon. I will never grow dwarfs in containers where I am again, they do terribly and over all I find the plants do well in raised beds like the heirlooms do. Hope this helps, and thank you for your questions.
Hello there, Thank you for your very detailed reply. I've looked for Blonpkomf but Google had no results. I suppose you meant Blondkopfchen? If so, I've found many seed sellers with this variety. Thank you for recommending this one. It is my first year with the dwarfs and I've started them indoors in gallon milk jugs containers and some in 5 gallon grow bags. I saw in your video "How to Harden Off Your Heirloom Tomato Seedlings" that you too used gallon milk containers. If I may offer one suggestion? Instead of cutting halfway from the top, I cut my milk containers above the handle. There should be a line where the bottle slopes upward towards the opening up top. I follow that line and cut using it as reference. I do so for two reasons. First, it allows me to still use the handle to carry the container around. Oh and I drilled five holes at the bottom for drainage too. Second, I remember from high school biology that a plant's roots is usually the same height as its height above the ground. As such, I try to match my container to give it as much soil as it is projected to be high. The seed packets I bought from Tomato Growers have the estimated height printed on most of the packets. Hopefully, it is going to make a difference. I'll let you know. Another thing is that the air where you are might be too salty. This too can affect plant growth, but I see that your other plants are thriving, so this probably isn't that much of a factor. I sincerely appreciate you sharing your experience and recommendations and look forward to hearing from you after you can harvest the varieties you grew this year. Cheers.
@@oldporkchops Hello there oldporkchops, Thank you for sharing your ideas , I so appreciate any imput in exchanging ideas.... Could you send a picture of how you cut your gallon, I'm not quite getting how you do it and what the advantage is, but sounds very interesting... I always handle the jug by the bottom and side for stability... When further growing in the jug for the last month before I put it in the ground I, bend over open the top and leave it bent to give the plants room to continually grow up on my greenhouse shelf and save the jugs for one more year of use after washing them. Because I generally start with 8 seeds and then eliminate them as they grow down to the best 2 before my final planting, the jug has plenty of room to grow at 2 plants per jug, 12-14 inch tall plants so at that later last month stage the root room will be fine. When I transplant into the same jug at 5 inch tall seedlings, I make sure I plant the roots close to the bottom so they have room to spread burying most of the plant and even a little sideways bent root if tall. I don't drill holes for drainage because I'm careful not to over water the seedlings so you don't have to drill holes, keeping the jug self contained to hold water when I'm watering them outside in the greenhouse. It takes a little experience and nack in knowing how much your seedlings need in water which I'm sure you have. As you know, tomatoes don't like to be drowned in water and the greenhouse heat evaporates the water quickly needing to water every 2 days or so. The salt issue in the air isn't of concern here.... it is more the night coolness of the ocean where we are that can drop down 10-20 degrees if you can believe it. It is good to flood your soil once in a while to release any salt minerals accumulated in the soil to keep it balanced when livng in a place like ours especially, but even in a regular place it is beneficial because the minerals do accumulate from watering. A little trick I've learned to help the balance. Please do send me a picture of the way you cut your jug, I would be so interested to see it visually. Thank you so much for your experience and please do let me know your further growing developements.... so nice to exchange our ideas and knowledge. Thank you for your wonderful comments....
Hi MM Ma, I've been having a hard time growing them... I tried container and in ground. The in ground, in raised beds do much better I find, even though they are a container plant. I am holding off selling seeds until I get a robust good crop. I have grown about 8-10 and they haven't done that well I find. You can find them online and see how they grow for you. I am still experimenting with them to see if I can get a better crop. I had 4 plant failures in crops last year with new varieties I planted. It is my feeling that Dwarf Tomatoes are very environment sensitive and that any weather change for them can easily ruin their crop or growth which has been my experience for the last 3 years in growing them. So, I am waiting for good crops in order to guarantee a good seed harvest. Until then, I won't be selling any. My rascalandcrowfarm.com site is under construction right now.... I will post on my site when I have it up and running when I do get a good seed crop. Thank you for your comment!
@@RascalandCrowFarm Hello. Thanks for sharing your experience. Based on what you shared, do you think planting these dwarf tomato seeds indoors in a controlled environment would be better? My indoor environment has about 8 hours of sunlight and is above 70 degrees Farenheit (about 30 deg C) 10 months of the year.
Hi Aimee.... Thank you for your question... They don't cross pollinate often... Infact in my experience, rarely. I plant them 2 feet apart roughly to give the tomatoes space for their growth. When they are at least 2 feet apart, they do better as the plant tends to grow more vigorously and give space between plants for airiness for pollination. I've had about 3-4 cross pollination happen in about 13 yrs out of around 1000 plants, so that tells you something. However, I do get often.... a characteristic from another tomato onto an original... In other words, I sometimes get a Ox of a variety that is suppose to be a classical beefsteak on the same plant. That would tend to be a cross pollination characteristic, but not affect the intended tomato's original flavor. I may start developing my own varieties in future which takes a lot of time invested in breeding them to stabilize them. In doing so, you have to hand pollinate to make a new variety and then keep planting that seed to stabilize over many years... it takes a long long time invested to do this.
This is great to know! Following up on this, did you save these seeds from the tomatoes in this container? And if you did, did they cross the following the next season? We have a small garden, and we were thinking of using blossom bags, but if it isn’t really needed, we will leave them as is. Thank you for sharing this!
Hi there. Thanks for your video. I'd like to plant a couple of dwarf tomato project seeds but need some help. Could you please help provide some advice as to which three beefsteak and three cherry varieties are best suited for zone 7b with hot and humid summers? Thanks.
Hi oldporkshops, Sorry I've been away for a while.... back now. Okay, so I have grown about 10 varieties only. Based on what I know of my 10, none are cherry varieties as cherry varieties don't do well for some reason here close to the ocean, still don't know why. They produce very late even though I get alot. I do have a suggestion of one of the regular cherry varieties that isn't a dwarf that will do extremely well.... That is the Blonpkomf.... it is a apricot small round cherry and produces about a 1000 sweet tomatoes on one plant.... it is incredible and a Heirloom German variety. You should be able to find it online in the US. As for other varieties of cherry tomatoes that I have grown, none compare to this one above in abundance and flavor, I found. The bigger cherry tomatoes that are about 1 inch to 1 and a half inch in diameter, would be a regular heirloom again "Bumble Bee" and " Green Vernisage" both excellent in flavor but not dwarfs. I haven't grown any cherry dwarfs yet but may in the future just to try to see if they produce early enough in my area. As for beefsteak in dwarfs, the best ones I've grown are "Fred's Tie Dye" as outstanding flavor and this year I'm regrowing some varities to see how they do in raised beds... and I'll let you know as the dwarfs I find didn't do well in containers but do much better in raised beds. So, I'm sorry I can't tell you much in terms of dwarfs too much, but I'll find out in about a month or so left for this year.... I'll taste them and see what the results are and will get back to you. So over all, Dwarfs don't do well where I am in containers as a whole. Some do well in raised beds and that result I will let you know soon. I will never grow dwarfs in containers where I am again, they do terribly and over all I find the plants do well in raised beds like the heirlooms do. Hope this helps, and thank you for your questions.
Hello there, Thank you for your very detailed reply. I've looked for Blonpkomf but Google had no results. I suppose you meant Blondkopfchen? If so, I've found many seed sellers with this variety. Thank you for recommending this one.
It is my first year with the dwarfs and I've started them indoors in gallon milk jugs containers and some in 5 gallon grow bags. I saw in your video "How to Harden Off Your Heirloom Tomato Seedlings" that you too used gallon milk containers. If I may offer one suggestion? Instead of cutting halfway from the top, I cut my milk containers above the handle. There should be a line where the bottle slopes upward towards the opening up top. I follow that line and cut using it as reference. I do so for two reasons. First, it allows me to still use the handle to carry the container around. Oh and I drilled five holes at the bottom for drainage too. Second, I remember from high school biology that a plant's roots is usually the same height as its height above the ground. As such, I try to match my container to give it as much soil as it is projected to be high. The seed packets I bought from Tomato Growers have the estimated height printed on most of the packets. Hopefully, it is going to make a difference. I'll let you know.
Another thing is that the air where you are might be too salty. This too can affect plant growth, but I see that your other plants are thriving, so this probably isn't that much of a factor.
I sincerely appreciate you sharing your experience and recommendations and look forward to hearing from you after you can harvest the varieties you grew this year.
Cheers.
@@oldporkchops Hello there oldporkchops, Thank you for sharing your ideas , I so appreciate any imput in exchanging ideas.... Could you send a picture of how you cut your gallon, I'm not quite getting how you do it and what the advantage is, but sounds very interesting... I always handle the jug by the bottom and side for stability... When further growing in the jug for the last month before I put it in the ground I, bend over open the top and leave it bent to give the plants room to continually grow up on my greenhouse shelf and save the jugs for one more year of use after washing them.
Because I generally start with 8 seeds and then eliminate them as they grow down to the best 2 before my final planting, the jug has plenty of room to grow at 2 plants per jug, 12-14 inch tall plants so at that later last month stage the root room will be fine. When I transplant into the same jug at 5 inch tall seedlings, I make sure I plant the roots close to the bottom so they have room to spread burying most of the plant and even a little sideways bent root if tall.
I don't drill holes for drainage because I'm careful not to over water the seedlings so you don't have to drill holes, keeping the jug self contained to hold water when I'm watering them outside in the greenhouse. It takes a little experience and nack in knowing how much your seedlings need in water which I'm sure you have. As you know, tomatoes don't like to be drowned in water and the greenhouse heat evaporates the water quickly needing to water every 2 days or so.
The salt issue in the air isn't of concern here.... it is more the night coolness of the ocean where we are that can drop down 10-20 degrees if you can believe it.
It is good to flood your soil once in a while to release any salt minerals accumulated in the soil to keep it balanced when livng in a place like ours especially, but even in a regular place it is beneficial because the minerals do accumulate from watering. A little trick I've learned to help the balance.
Please do send me a picture of the way you cut your jug, I would be so interested to see it visually. Thank you so much for your experience and please do let me know your further growing developements.... so nice to exchange our ideas and knowledge. Thank you for your wonderful comments....
@@RascalandCrowFarm Hi again, I've emailed you a picture of my milk jugs.
Yes, got it thank you....
Do you sell dwarf tomato seeds?
Hi MM Ma, I've been having a hard time growing them... I tried container and in ground. The in ground, in raised beds do much better I find, even though they are a container plant. I am holding off selling seeds until I get a robust good crop. I have grown about 8-10 and they haven't done that well I find. You can find them online and see how they grow for you. I am still experimenting with them to see if I can get a better crop. I had 4 plant failures in crops last year with new varieties I planted. It is my feeling that Dwarf Tomatoes are very environment sensitive and that any weather change for them can easily ruin their crop or growth which has been my experience for the last 3 years in growing them. So, I am waiting for good crops in order to guarantee a good seed harvest. Until then, I won't be selling any. My rascalandcrowfarm.com site is under construction right now.... I will post on my site when I have it up and running when I do get a good seed crop. Thank you for your comment!
@@RascalandCrowFarm Hello. Thanks for sharing your experience. Based on what you shared, do you think planting these dwarf tomato seeds indoors in a controlled environment would be better? My indoor environment has about 8 hours of sunlight and is above 70 degrees Farenheit (about 30 deg C) 10 months of the year.
You can purchase seeds from Victory Seeds. Also Tomato Growers, and a few others.
Hiya, when you save seed do you take measures to avoid cross pollination or do tomatoes not readily cross pollinate?
Hi Aimee.... Thank you for your question... They don't cross pollinate often... Infact in my experience, rarely. I plant them 2 feet apart roughly to give the tomatoes space for their growth. When they are at least 2 feet apart, they do better as the plant tends to grow more vigorously and give space between plants for airiness for pollination. I've had about 3-4 cross pollination happen in about 13 yrs out of around 1000 plants, so that tells you something. However, I do get often.... a characteristic from another tomato onto an original... In other words, I sometimes get a Ox of a variety that is suppose to be a classical beefsteak on the same plant. That would tend to be a cross pollination characteristic, but not affect the intended tomato's original flavor. I may start developing my own varieties in future which takes a lot of time invested in breeding them to stabilize them. In doing so, you have to hand pollinate to make a new variety and then keep planting that seed to stabilize over many years... it takes a long long time invested to do this.
@@RascalandCrowFarm Thank you so much for your reply, that’s very interesting!
This is great to know! Following up on this, did you save these seeds from the tomatoes in this container? And if you did, did they cross the following the next season?
We have a small garden, and we were thinking of using blossom bags, but if it isn’t really needed, we will leave them as is. Thank you for sharing this!
Hello , we’re these grown organically?
Yes, all of our farm is organic.