Micro Progress

[GoDawgs]

I've got two groups of micro tomatoes going, three started Oct 30 and five started 12/14.

The older group of three outgrew the light stand so I had to rig up something. Pickles suggested moving a table under two plant hangers and hanging light fixtures from them. Good suggestion! There’s room for a second fixture, which will be needed.



These older micros are full of unripe tomatoes. I wish we could get some warmer afternoons so I could put them on the porch for a dose of real sun but the weather hasn’t been cooperating. This is ‘Jochelos’, now 8" tall and 9" wide, will eventually have golden cherries. Not shown is LIlle Lise which is in the middle of the three.



And this is ‘Red Robin’, already 10” x 10”.



This is the most recent group of five varieties: Groovy Tunes, Chibikko, Gelbes Topftomaten, Birdie Rouge and Pinocchio Orange. They were all started Dec 14 and are on the regular light stand. Two of them are growing a lot faster than the other three and needed repotting a few days ago. ‘Groovy Tunes’ on the left has pretty chartreuse foliage and is 5-6” tall, 8” wide. The larger one on the right is ‘Chibikko’ and is 8” tall by 7” wide.



These micros have really scratched the winter “I gotta plant something” itch!

[Labradors]

An excellent experiment GoDawgs! I hope you will keep us posted on you results, especially the taste tests .

I'm having similar problems with plants outgrowing the light. Hubby extended the "feet" of the Root Farm LED light, but it still needs some more height.

The oversized variety is:

Linda (from Ukraine) - way too tall at 26". I obviously misunderstood that this one is a micro!

Red Robin 18" - seems taller than usual
Ocharovaniye komnatniy 18" and bushy

House and Birdie Jaune are smaller and still in 4" x 6" pots.

All have green tomatoes, so that is exciting!

Linda

[AKgardener]

Those look great! I was just thinking about starting a new batch of micros since I have an inch to plants some stuff

[rossomendblot]

Red Robin is my favourite so far. Good production and nice taste. Not too fond of Pinocchio Orange or Hahm's Gelbe (really productive but quite tart) so far but I will give them another go, being more careful not to overcrowd the grow tent as I lost some plants to botytris.

[Labradors]

Red Robin has always been my favourite too. I have some Pinocchio Orange seeds on the way, and was hoping they would be good. I don't like tart!

I have to look up botytris as I've been overcrowding them and one of my plants has leaves that are dying all over the plant .

Linda

[HL2601]

I am really interested in your groovy tunes since is a new introduction. Thanks for sharing!

[zeuspaul]

I just put Red Robin on my list. Any other OP recommendations? Now that I have a grow light set-up I want to try growing tomatoes inside.

[AKgardener]

My husband thinks the Vilma are the best so far

[zendog]

I just started some micro tomato seeds today. I planted Lille Lise, Hardin's Miniature (from the MMMM), Aztec Yellow (also the MMMM), Vilma, Jochalos, Pinnocio Orange and Halms Gelbe Topftomate. I've grown Halms a few times and also grew Vilma last year, both are good, but Vilma is closer to a "real" tomato in taste. I'll be interested how the others taste.

[rossomendblot]

Red Robin has always been my favourite too. I have some Pinocchio Orange seeds on the way, and was hoping they would be good. I don't like tart!

I have to look up botytris as I've been overcrowding them and one of my plants has leaves that are dying all over the plant .

Linda

Pinocchio Orange isn't that bad, Hahms Gelbe is much more tart. That said I am pretty bad at deciding when yellow/orange tomatoes are ripe so...

Botytris is a fuzzy grey mold, we often get it in the greenhouse towards the end of the season when temperatures drop and condensation appears. You can stop it spreading if you pick off infected leaves, keep humidity down and increase air flow. Once it's into the stem the plant just keels over. I had far too many plants in the tent, not enough airflow and a lot of condensation. After opening both side vents condensation isn't an issue anymore. I will sterilise the inside of the tent before potting on my new plants.

[Labradors]

Thanks for the info rossomendblot. I don't think there was anything fuzzy, just dead leaves all over the plant. It's hard to space out the plants yet allow them all to get enough light, so I know that it's due to overcrowding.

Linda

[Labradors]

Zeuspaul, I've heard good things about an orange micro called Jochalos.

Linda

[GoDawgs]

I like Jochalos too and grew it over the summer along with Lille Lise , Red Robin and Whippersnapper. Those were the first micros I ever grew. The first of many in the future!

[wykvlvr]

Some of my plants aren't too happy. I apparently was over watering and had the plants too close as I ended up with both fungus gnats and what I think is powdery mildew... Gnats are slowly getting abolished thanks to tips from in here and I have been plucking affected leaves from plants I am trying to keep going. Sadly my most affected are Tiny (who still hasn't bloomed) and my two Micro Tom. I can trash the Micro Tom and sterilize their area but It will hurt losing Tiny without any seeds from it.
I do have some plants which are doing well even and I am still getting a trickle of ripe tomatoes from the F2 to taste and save seeds from...
I ordered a new light today one of the Viparspectra ones so I will be able to rearrange the plants and spread them out more. I am also thinking of getting a small fan for more air movement.

[GoDawgs]

That mosquito dunk treatment took care of my problem. I think there were eight dunks in the pack... a lifetime supply at the rate I'm mixing up little pieces!

[AKgardener]

I would have to say I definitely don’t feel bad for putting mine in the pots they were in thry really don’t need to much space cause most of them don’t get that tall I do love growing them

[Labradors]

AKgardener: what size pots did you use? I've planted some in 1-gallon pots, but left others in 4" x 6" pots due to lack of space under the lights. When I recently potted one up, it didn't show growth out of the bottom, but was a mass of roots.....

Linda

[AKgardener]

I used 1 gallon pots and they did wounderful I never had a problem with the roots growing out the bottom some got taller then they said and some stayed the height they were supost to be .these were mine

QVCM5782.jpeg

[wykvlvr]

Most of mine are in 0.7 gallon pots right now. Last spring I had them in 6 inch pots, up to 3 gallon grow bags. For most of the varieties anything over the 2 gallon grow bags was a waste of space.... I had 3 plants in a 30 inch long window box and they were actually my most prolific plants... My long winded way of saying most will do well in 3/4 of a gallon or bigger but none really need HUGE pots or buckets like dwarfs, etc