I have recently become interested in dwarf and micro dwarf tomatoes. Dwarf tomatoes are increasing in popularity due to the work of the Dwarf Tomato Project which is essentially a citizen science initiative to breed more new varieties of dwarf tomatoes. Dwarf tomatoes are useful because they are a better size for growing in pots for many gardeners topping out at around three or four feet tall. They also have leaves with a unique texture called rugose and sturdy tapered stems. It can be thought of as a third tomato type to go along with determinate and indeterminate. Micro dwarfs are similar but even smaller and might get between eight and fourteen inches tall.
Without knowing I had done so I first grew a dwarf tomato in 2017, a tomato named Krainiy Sever a name which means “Extreme North” in Russian. I direct seeded it as part of my direct seeding experiment, and it grew to be a plant with remarkable architecture. The sturdy stalks needed no support, stayed upright, and kept the tomatoes off the ground. I have intended to eventually get around to crossing it with other tomatoes. This year 2021 may be the year I accomplish that. It turns out that that interesting architecture is due to the tomato being a rugose dwarf. Rugose dwarfs have been around for a long time. Historically they were sometimes referred to as “tree-type” because of the sturdy tapered and self-supporting stems. Thus, the remarkable architecture of Krainiy Sever is somewhat common in dwarfs.
In 2020 I unwittingly grew my second dwarf tomato an Idaho heirloom called Payette. I grew it as a seed increase project for Snake River Seed Cooperative. I was curious about the variety because when it was bred now over fifty years ago the breeders went back to two wild species searching for resistances to the tomato disease known as “curly top”. Payette is thus an interesting tomato and has been grown commercially in Idaho. I grew a great crop of it and got plenty of seed to send to Snake River Seed Coop. It is a great locally adapted regional tomato variety bred in neighboring Idaho.
Payette Tomatoes
Fermenting a very large amount of seed!
In 2019 and 2020 I grew a third tomato which is supposed to be a second and third generation of the hybrid variety Lizzano. It seemed to have the rugose leaves of a dwarf and be about a foot tall in my garden. I believe it would qualify as a micro-dwarf.
I recently purchased two new packets of micro dwarf tomatoes. They came and I got a packet of Aztek, Gold Pearl, and Pinocchio as a gift from the seed company.
I am eager to make some new hybrids micro and regular dwarf tomatoes in my collection and begin some breeding projects to develop more. I would like to have some dwarf tomatoes with the wonderful architecture of the dwarf tomatoes but with anthocyanin skin, stripes, and the wonderful flavor of some of the other tomatoes I grow.
Micro-dwarf tomatoes I hope will have another utility in my future science classroom. They were original developed as model organisms and can go through several generations a year. That means that in a school year you could get two generations of tomatoes! So that students could learn about genetics and participate in real plant breeding of patio and indoor tomatoes! Then students could go through the process of naming them and submitting their new varieties to the Open-Source Seed Initiative. I see this as a great way for students to do real science while working towards improved resilience in local food systems. There is also no reason that their work would need to be strictly limited to small tomato plants or to tomatoes alone. Small tomatoes can easily be hybridized with larger varieties and the resulting hybrids can be used to develop both small and large new varieties.