While diving deeply into online tomato seed catalogs, I stumbled into dwarf tomato hybrid plants. I had a hard time believing the claims of tomato plants that could be grown in 6-in pots, with some varieties growing less than a foot tall. I decided to give three varieties a try for fun. The three varieties I grew were Micro Tom, Red Robin, and Tiny Tim. I grew plants both indoors and outdoors for comparison. The seeds were purchased from online seed stores Tomato Fest and Urban Farmer.

Much to my surprise, these tomato varieties were indeed dwarf and the tomatoes that grew on them tasted good, with the Tiny Tims tasting the sweetest. The Micro Toms and Tiny Tims were the smallest variety, and I planted them in 6-in pots to test the claim. Here are photos of the indoor plants.

Tiny Tim

Micro Tom

Tiny Tim

Micro Tom

Micro Tom

Tiny Tim

Tiny Tim

I started these plants in mid-July and had tomatoes to eat by mid-October. The indoor plants grew bigger than the outdoor plants, but the outdoor plants produced more and better tasting tomatoes. Here are some photos of the outdoor plants, including the Red Robin.

I planted them in 12-in clay and hanging basket planters. I put in three plants per planter. The indoor plants and the outdoor plants ripened around the same time.

And now to go over Red Robin. This was the most frustrating of the varieties to grow because it was difficult to get the seeds to germinate. After failing with the first attempt, I had to use the moist paper towel method to germinate the seeds before planting them in soil. I was rewarded for the effort with very handsome houseplants. Here are some photo of them.

Problems I encountered:

As I mentioned before, it was difficult to get the Red Robin seeds to germinate. The other varieties germinated just fine and broke the soil within a week. The other problem I had was whiteflies all over the indoor plants. I brought the plants outside for a couple of days and sprayed them with a solution of insecticidal soap and neem oil to take care of the problem. The outdoor plants did not have any pest problems.

Also, be aware that these are determinant tomato plants, which means that the plant will produce all of its tomatoes at once and then die shortly after all the tomatoes are ripe. To have a continuous supply of tomatoes, you must plant in succession.

Conclusions:

If you want to grow cherry tomatoes indoors in your house or as an office conversation piece, then dwarf tomatoes are for you. They are low maintenance, can be grown in 6-in pots, and the fruits are tasty. They are also a good solution for patio gardens or for gardeners who don’t want to deal with the hassle of maintaining indeterminate cherry tomato plants. I recommend the Tiny Tim and Red Robin if you are a salad lover. The Micro Toms taste fine, but the tomatoes are the size of large peas, so I consider that variety more of a decorative plant than a functional plant. If you don’t have a sunny window, a small desk grow light should be enough to grow a single plant.

If you are interested in growing these plants yourself, I recommend purchasing seeds from Tomato Fest and Urban Farmer. Also, Home Depot and Lowe’s sell very cute pots to grow your little tomatoes plants in.

Also! Look out for more small-size tomato plant growing experiments in 2017!