It means you'll only get 2 tomatoes until it puts out some more flowers :P I grew some of those last year - they reached over 7ft in height. Some may have been 8ft! I had several things go wrong with my growing and harvest last year (including a late start), but despite that I still pulled around 1000 cherry toms off of 5 plants. I'm sure I could have done much better had conditions been different. One thing I noticed (hey it was my first year last year!) was that where the soil splashed on the bottom of the vine, the vine wanted to throw out roots instead of leaves and tomatoes, so I'd recommend some sort of mulching (newspaper?) around the bottom to avoid soil splash. Those plants are fairly tolerant and will take a fair amount of abuse compared to other tomato plants. Do make sure you've got some good method of suspending and supporting them, and that they're getting plenty of sun. The amount of sunlight appears to be directly proportional to the amount of tomatoes you'll get. I had some in the back that were more shaded and though they looked nice and green, they didn't produce near as well as the ones in the front.

What???! 7 feet tall and 200 tomatoes per plant?? Oh my goodness!!! This is hilarious! That will teach me not to do any homework first! Guess I'll go to the garden center to get something to stake it up with! Thanks for your reply, you have no idea what a good belly laugh I've had at myself!
Karen

It all depends on what sort of conditions you keep it in :) My mother had one last year that she kept in a 1 gallon pot. It got to be about a foot tall and she got like 30 tomatos.

They certainly won't set any blossoms or start on any fruit this week with Dallas hitting 100 degrees. Hopefully it will back off to 80's for a few days/weeks so you can get more flowering.

Until you get more flowers you'll get 2 tomatoes if both blossoms set fruit. A well grown (Super) Sweet 100 will produce 1000 or more fruit and will get to be about 15 feet tall. That is for a well grown plant. Being a newbie your actual mileage may vary.

I've grown (Super) Sweet 100 for more years than I care to admit. I shall include a hyperlink to a picture of one I grew last year. The picture was taken July 12th and our first frost was in October so you can imagine how big the plant got. It was just under 10' in the picture and my guess is it was just under 20' at the end of the year. Yes it was a pain to drag out the ladder to pick the fruit and I almost fell off the darn thing a couple of times. :-)

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:90247}}

Yeap, they grow tall and many yeilds too. I picked about 327 last year but only 2 months worth.

Wow you guys - great pictures! I'm in an apartment, and don't own a ladder, can I stake the plant sideways to a patio railing? Guess it's "baptism by fire"!

Karen

I'm not sure what you mean by staking a plant sideways. However, I'll point out that you can 'train' it. In the hyperlinked picture below I trained a Sweet Million to grow up the latticing under my deck. BTW, the plant is tied to the lattice with rope or velcro plant ties (I used both). I assume you could train your plant to grow around your railing in a similar fashion.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hey, Karen - I'm trying to learn to grow tomatoes in Dallas, too. Come summertime, I think we're going to need all the help we can get!

Dan

Put in my first sweet 100 plant this year. It grew to over 7 feet in height, then it started growing back down the sides. Total flowers/fruit are well over 300 tomatoes. Biggest problem was just simply supporting the plant. Pick the tomatoes before they become fully red, otherwise, they split open and are no good. I plan to grow a couple of these plants next year.

I am a newbie gardener, and am trying to raise some Super Sweet 100 tomatoes this year from seed. I was wondering if it was possible to grow these in a hanging basket, and let the branches hang down over the sides instead of staking. Is this possible?

Thanks so much!
Emily

Hi learningtheropes -
It's possible. You don't have to stake. Some people just let the plants sprawl on the ground if they're growing in a field. I tried that one year and felt that it increased the bug and worm factor too much, but with the hanging idea you'd avoid that. You'll have a couple of challenges. One will be getting a hanging basket that's big and strong enough for the plant (as you can see from the past posts, 7+ feet is pretty common, and cherry tomatoes are especially vigorous.) The second will be that you may have branches snapping off from their own weight, especially where they rub on the edge of the pot. You can buy upside-down tomato growing bags, which would at least eliminate the rubbing on the edge issue. I haven't tried the hanging growing myself, but I know I've seen posts where people showed their own home-made upside down planters as well. Maybe search on it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Hopefully a link to the Topsy Turvy planter

This is my first experience with Sweet 100s. I got a Sweet 100 plant for Mother's Day this year. It has grown from about 8" to over 6' tall. The top was "clipped off" during a thunderstorm recently, taking with it 2 bunches of blooms that had not yet opened. Will that curtail the growth, or will it continue to get taller again? Also, I had a problem with the lowest bunch of blooms falling off before opening. What would cause this to happen? I am in Georgia. When can I expect blooms to open and produce fruit? *Note: It is planted in a large clay pot.* One last question: Should I remove "suckers" or allow them to grow to produce more tomatoes?

Randy:
Thanks so much for your information. It was very helpful. The plant lost about 18" of it's top, so I have to assume that the growing tip on the main stem was removed.

I had removed the suckers at first, but they are now growing back, so I have decided to let them grow this time, especially since it was "topped" during the t-storm. (It was well supported and tied, but the wind did a number on it.)

I'll let you know how it does. It's been 30 days since I received my 8" plant and it is growing well (over 6' tall now) and seems very healthy and green. The top group of blooms seem to be doing much better than the lower group (the ones I said fell off before blooming), and seem prolific. They look ready to bloom anyday now. I'm just disappointed that I lost 2 other groups of blooms in the storm.

Two other questions:
Since it is planted in a large clay pot (my ground is rocky and hard as cement) in good veggie-quality potting soil, how often and how much should I water it? It has good drainage (rocks in bottom,and the clay is porous).

Also, after planting it, and growing for awhile, I happened to read where it said you should plant the original plant 20% below soil level to get a bushier plant. I didn't do that. Will that have any bearing on fruit production/quality?

"...how often and how much should I water it?"
It depends on a lot of factors especially the heat and the size of the plant. Once the plant gets big you'll probably have to water it once or twice a day in hot weather. Signs of wilting indicates it needs watering. Another thing you can do it try to pick up the container. The heavier it is the wetter it is. Of course you can stick your finger down in the dirt up to the second joint. If it is dry down that far then you need to water.

"...I didn't do that. Will that have any bearing on fruit production/quality?"
Since the plant is doing well and growing well you're probably just fine, just keep it in mind for the future.

Continued good luck.

Randy

Randy:

Once again, thanks so much for your prompt response! You've been more than helpful.

It has been a long time since I got into 'serious' gardening, and I just bought a couple of plants to try my hand at a potted garden.

I'm now more conscious of sunlight, moving the plants 3-4x a day to make sure they get several hours in the sun, and only moving them to the covered patio during hard rain.

I'm recommending this site to my daughter and others that I know that are trying their hand at growing these fun plants.

Thanks again for your help!!!

Hi Karen,

We are second year tomato growers, and last year we ate more off our vines then we could count!! This year we planted new vines and changed the soil. We live downtown and have been growing them in a planter on our deck which gets sunshine for most of the day. The plants are well supported by a trellis that allows lots of light and sunshine, and we have additional pot stake supports. They are about 4ft high and growing with half flowers and half toms. The soil is kept moist and watered daily. This year some of the smaller branches are turning yellow and the leaves on these wilting branches are spotted. Are we over watering or is there something eating away at our beautiful toms??

Thank you in advance,
Selina

Hi all,
I'm trying to figure out why some of my leaves on my SS 100 are turing yellow. Am I watering too much? I have plenty of flowers and I'm afraid I'll spoil the batch. The soil is neither too dry or moist. Any thoughts?

i live near tulsa, oklahoma, and was wondering where i could purchase sweet 100 tomatoes. i don't want to buy them online if i don;t ABSOLUTELY have to

I'm in the DFW area and find the Sweet 100s at any nursery (Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart).

I tried another cherry variety last year and it didn't do well. The old folks who live behind me said they do Sweet 100s and that we'll get fruit until November. I planted two plants about two weeks ago, and they have already doubled in size and one even has blooms already!

I have a problem in sweet 100? i have a shortage information about sweet 100 (cycle-cultivation-fertilization and nutrients and best enviormenal requirements-harvest and storage? some one help me

that is my email for more contacts ehab_whiteheart@hotmail.com

can someone help me by give information about the cycle of sweet 100 takes how long? and production per plant?

I've just brought some upside down tomato plant hangers. Like the topsy turvey. I brought sweet 100's as I wanted a smaller tomato variety so it could still grow given the gravity factors. Having never grown tomato's before I'm quite happy I can avoid staking and bugs. I'm moving into an apartment soon so will hang it by the window and make sure it gets enough air, hopefully it will last ok, given that the apartment is like a greenhouse in summer. In terms of planting the tomato plants into the upside down hanger, I have some soil and fertilizer, but I was wondering how often I need to add fertilizer and seeing as it's growing upside down, will I need to worry about pinching or just do a little here and there? Any other advice would be great also.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1314260}}

Is this a gmo variety?

Here is a link that might be useful: Lionel Standish Records

I just stumbled upon this thread and had to pitch in: one of my sweet 100 cherry tomato plants grew to over 20 feet tall, produced over 1000 tomatoes for a total weight of over 40 pounds. Yes, 40 pounds out of a single vine! Im saving the seeds from that plant for next season!

Full disclosure: this plant grew in full sun, southern exposure, was fed lots of organic chicken compost pellets and was trained vertically up a wire. Zip ties are also your best friend.

It occupied about 2.5 square feet of spaceI love growing things vertically :)

Khaled