Dwarf Tomato Plant Trial

We trialed three varieties of dwarf tomato to see if people can grow these delicious fruits in a limited space.

Varieties chosen were; Totem, Red Robin and Rotkappchen.  All of these plants were grown from seed obtained from Premier Seeds Direct and sown in February.

All plants were raised in a cold greenhouse.  We are located on the Cumbria/Scottish border in Hardiness zone 8b.

Seeds were sown about 20 to a 10cm pot with 100% germination rate and the seedlings pricked out as soon as they were about 5cm tall into single 9cm pots.

We feed only with organic liquid seaweed.

Totem

The smallest and most compact of the plants standing to a final height of around 20cm.  It cropped very well with rich flavoured, cherry size tomatoes.  The fruits tend to hide under the leaves so we took out about one third of the leaves to allow healthy air flow.

Red Robin

Even from the seedling stage, these plants just roped away and were always ahead of the others in size, flowering and fruiting and ripening.
A taller, very sturdy plant which grew to a final height of about 60cm.  Quite a heavy cropper, so we did have to stake the plant for support.
A lovely, fleshy fruit with good flavour each about 6 – 9cm in diameter.

Rotkappchen

A more graceful, thin stemmed plant which really did need support.  The prolific fruits grew to about large cherry size but had an intense flavour.  This was the most acidic of all the fruits.

 

All of the plants were transplanted into a 3 ltr pot with general purpose compost and were very easy to care for.
Fruits started ripening in August with Red Robin in the lead and we continued to pick until mid October.
There were no problems with disease or pests.

Overall yield from fifteen plants totalled about 12Kg.  I didn’t count the ones I ate whilst tending them in the greenhouse. 

We are certainly happy with the yield and ease of growing in a small space compared to that of traditional taller varieties and it will continue to be our method of growing tomatoes in the future and will likely be adding some of the other varieties to our list.
The smaller varieties will be well suited to growing on a window sill.

Dwarf Tomato varieties

There are a number of dwarf and micro tomato varieties available in the UK;
Tom Thumb
Totem Organic
Red Robin
Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim organic
Rotkkapchen – All above available from Premier Seeds Direct
Dora (F1 organic) – New for 2021 from The Organic Gardening Catalogue
Micro Tom – Simply Seeds.

We obtained no sponsorship or commission for this article.  All seeds were purchased.

 

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