This award has to go, without a doubt, to the all mighty tomato. Like I mentioned in my “How it all start ” post, my gardening endeavors began with tomato seeds I had saved. So, of course, these fruits hold a sentimental value. If I were to judge their place in the next year’s garden plan, on how unbelievably bad those first grown tomatoes tasted though, they wouldn’t be very strong contenders, I must say…
But my love for tomato jam was stronger than any gardening disappointment. Plus, I knew that the amount of sugar added in a recipe like that, would be able to improve any tomato flavor, I just needed to get enough fruit. And so I planned to do just that, and grow more tomatoes the next year, 2022.
That was also the time we moved into a new apartment, with a much cherished balcony, and thus the perfect conditions for growing anything! Sweet, innocent me didn’t know yet at that point, just the impact that sunlight exposure and pollinators had on said growing plants endeavors. But I learned, with time and dropping tomato flowers, all the important factors in that equation.
In the summer of 2022 I grew two different types of indeterminate tomatoes in medium sized pots. That’s 12-20L pots if you’re wondering. Besides that, I had two more determinate varieties, one that was gifted to me and one that I started from seed called “balcony lover”.
It was all a tad much, I remember. But, as I have no notes whatsoever on that gardening year, I’m fully basing this on memory.
If you’re not familiar with tomatoes, one thing you should know is that all the flavorful, sweet and juicy varieties are indeterminate. The determinate kinds grow shorter plants, but are also quite boring, meaty, and mostly paste tomatoes. They made for a great tomato jam at the end of summer, but not so exciting for fresh eating.
Just as I was getting super discouraged with the impossibility of trying all those amazing tomato varieties I kept learning about in gardening channels, and after cutting off the tip of the indeterminate tomato plants probably for the third time so they wouldn’t reach the ceiling and risk taking over the upstairs neighbors’ house, I luckily stumbled on the Dwarf Tomato Project webpage.
In short, two amazing human beings, Craig LeHoullier and Patrina Nuske-Small, teamed up across the world, to cross those amazing indeterminate varieties with the tiny dwarf ones that grow up to only around 40 cm in hight. In all those crossings, they, along with volunteers around the world, have managed to get more than 100 different tomato varieties that promise to produce the most delicious fruit, while growing up to 150 cm at most.
To say I was happy is an understatement. I cannot put into words just how brilliant I thought the whole project was, and how thankful I was that they shared their knowledge with the world.I also could not help getting greedy fast, wanting to try all the varieties and wishing I had 20 balconies instead of 1.
But alas, I’ve been ever since on a quest to find the absolute best varieties to grow in this part of the world and with the temperatures and sun exposure I get on my balcony throughout the summer and early fall.
Three years in and I have two selected varieties I always save a pot space for. These are slicing tomatoes that make up the absolute best BLTs (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich), and the best tomato salads. But overall, I have tried nine different varieties.
Some didn’t grow very well. Some took too long to ripen. Most were not super tasty, as the plants don’t get a lot of sunlight on a covered balcony,and the temperatures remain relatively cool, around 25 degrees maximum. All were super fun to try though.
That is because different varieties have specific leaves on the plant, or a particular smell. Some are more fuzzy than others, some have a more traditional tomato leaf shape, some more a potato-like one. And then,of course, the tomatoes themselves have all different shapes and colors, which made it for a complete transformation of my balcony every year.
Here is a very succinct list of the Dwarf Tomato Project varieties tested so far and my final thoughts on them:
- Adelaide Festival - amazing, just grow it!
- Confetti - beautiful striped variety and the tastiest so far, at least for me
- First in field - the earliest to flower and to ripen, relatively small fruit, but bigger than cherry tomatoes, good in salads and ferments
- Ruby Slippers - very tasty, but relatively small fruit
- Hazy’s Dream - super tasty tomatoes, but takes too long to ripen
- Health kick - paste tomato, quite good for sauces or salads, very susceptible to blossom end rot, a calcium deficiency that can be easily fixed. Keep an eye for a gardening troubleshooting post, I will share how to fix this issue in there.
- Sarandipity - Super prolific, but sadly not very tasty
- Wherokowhai - Good taste, and more prolific than confetti
- Orion’s Belt - The absolute cutest tomato plant I ever grew. Also the smallest, growing up to 60cm only. Check the gallery from 2024 if you’re curious! Sadly not amazing in flavour…
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