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eurolarva

Tiny Tim Fruiting

eurolarva
11 years ago

This is the first year I have grown these. They were started indoor from seed and most were transplanted into my garden and one was put in a planter with a combination of sand, mushroom compost and rocks. Both the garden and the potted plants produced a set of fruit but are no longer budding and look like they are ready to die. I know these plants are determinate. Does that mean only by size or are they like roma where they only produce one set of crop at the same time.

In the garden I use miracle grow every two weeks. It has been very hot here and we have been getting excessive amounts of rain during the heat. Some times as much as 1.5 inches in a couple of hours. The rest of my garden (early girl, Roma, ace 55 and Rutgers) onions, zucchini, and peppers look fine. It is just the tiny tims that look like death

Comments (7)

  • cole_robbie
    11 years ago

    Yeah, that's "determinate." Container tomatoes have to be determinate so that they can grow well in a container. Indeterminates tend to get root bound if the container is not huge.

    Did you like the tomatoes off the Tiny Tim? I ended up tossing out most of my Tiny Tims due to early blight. I did keep Terrenzo, Tumbler, and Tumbling Tom to see what the fruit tasted like. The Terrenzo plants were not as compact and pretty, but the tomatoes off of them were far superior to the other two varieties.

  • eurolarva
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I liked the taste of the tiny tims. I was experimenting with them with the new 400 watt metal halide system I bought. From what everything I read I figured they would keep flowering but that is not what I am seeing. I will grow them again next year though. Most of the cherry type tomatoes are 70 day and these were quite a bit faster. Just looking for something to start eating good tomatoes (not store bought). I may start a couple of more seeds now and stagger them to see what I can do going into fall and winter.

  • cole_robbie
    11 years ago

    I sold a lot of the variety "bitonto" in containers. But I didn't keep any to try the fruit. They reminded me a lot of Tiny Tim. You might try that one, too.

  • grow4free
    11 years ago

    I'm surprised your Tiny Tim's are about to give in. In my experience, they are just about indestructable. I started one in June of last year, dug it up before Thanksgiving and put it in a container because it had blossoms, replanted it in February and darn if the thing didn't produce more tomatoes. I dug it up again and moved it to another location and it lost most of its roots and turned yellow and looked like a goner. But darn if it didn't survive and start new growth from the bottom.

    It's over a year old now but still hanging in and I keep giving it water out of respect.

  • capoman
    11 years ago

    I got anxious to try my first Tiny Tim, so tried an immature orange one. It was awful. Hope it gets better when it turns red. I actually like less then ripe cherry tomatoes, but certainly wasn't the case with the TT's.

  • grow4free
    11 years ago

    Yeah, they can put out some bad ones. You have to let them get completely ripe. They are hard and take forever to ripen.

  • zark97
    9 years ago

    I believe 2014 was the first time I grew Tiny Tims. Started the seed in late January.. Got a few toms off them while still indoors in early spring. Planted them with other toms in raised beds. They kept making more tomatoes as the season went on. I believe they peaked late August, loaded with many handfuls of little red tomatoes. The taste was ok compared to the many late season heirlooms I had growing. But I am a little confused about the determinate classification. Those little guys made toms early and just more and more as the season wore on. They were still making fruit at the end of October. I have a photo or two of them. Think I will push a seed or two in the starting soil soon.