what causes teeny tiny cherry tomatoes?

[habitat-gardener]

Several of my cherry tomato varieties were putting out miniature versions of themselves in late summer. These were the same varieties that were splitting in my garden. The mini versions were about 10-20% of the size of the cherries, so for cherries that weighed in at 5 per ounce, I was getting more like 25-50 per ounce! Even many of the tiny ones were splitting.

I wonder if this was another relic of drought stress. I tried to water deeply and infrequently. We don't get any rain at all in the summer, but we do get day-night temperature fluctuations as much as 50F (from the 50s to the 90s-100s), and temperature highs in the 90s most days. I've heard that slight drought stress, followed by watering during the fruit-expansion phase, can cause splitting.

[karstopography]

I’ve noticed the size shrinkage with several cherry tomato varieties, black cherry, rosella, sungold, coyote, pink tiger. I attributed it to excessive heat and drought conditions. Basically everything was 1/2 its normal size. Splitting wasn’t an issue here, though. I was very stingy with the watering.

I not too long ago took out all my cherry tomatoes except coyote. Coyote is recently back to producing full sized, for it, cherry tomatoes. So instead of pea sized now they are more like twice pea sized.

[worth1]

Not optimum growing conditions.

[slugworth]

heat and drought

[habitat-gardener]

I’ve noticed the size shrinkage with several cherry tomato varieties, black cherry, rosella, sungold, coyote, pink tiger. I attributed it to excessive heat and drought conditions. Basically everything was 1/2 its normal size. Splitting wasn’t an issue here, though. I was very stingy with the watering.

I not too long ago took out all my cherry tomatoes except coyote. Coyote is recently back to producing full sized, for it, cherry tomatoes. So instead of pea sized now they are more like twice pea sized.

Half the normal size is what usually happens. One-tenth of THAT size has never happened before! And it was much hotter last summer.
For instance, Black Cherry is supposed to be 20g. Mine range from 3g to 12g, averaging 8g, which is normal in my experience.
What is unusual this year is these minuscule 3mm fruits I'm seeing on Chocolate Sprinkles, Artemis, and a few others.

[Wildcat82]

My cherries are always way smaller than advertised due to the heat here.

Sun Gold and Supersweet 100 - per Johnny's seeds, these should be 15-20 grams while I get 3-7 grams during the year.
Black Cherry - per Johnny's seeds, these should be 20 grams while I get 8-14 grams during the year.

For cherries, Black Cherry and Juliet hold their size better in high heat. Coyote is almost always about 1-2 grams regardless of the heat conditions.

IMG_3178.jpg

[Wildcat82]

I’ve noticed the size shrinkage with several cherry tomato varieties, black cherry, rosella, sungold, coyote, pink tiger. I attributed it to excessive heat and drought conditions. Basically everything was 1/2 its normal size. Splitting wasn’t an issue here, though. I was very stingy with the watering.

I not too long ago took out all my cherry tomatoes except coyote. Coyote is recently back to producing full sized, for it, cherry tomatoes. So instead of pea sized now they are more like twice pea sized.

The heat basically precludes growing any slicers/beefsteaks here since they won't set in high heat. Meanwhile small cherry varieties like Sungold and SS 100 turn into current sized fruits here. For my garden, the sweet spot is the larger cherry/saladette tomatoes in the 1-3 oz range. They are small enough to set yet retain enough size to be worth picking.

[Shule]

I think the answer depends on the variety. Some varieties stay consistent, seemingly no matter the conditions. Black Cherry has been variable for me, too; mine was bigger in the shade in less friable soil.

Another issue you might encounter is low potassium. Potassium helps a lot with fruit size. Potassium sulfate works well in the ground. It also works excellently as a foliar spray (when the plants are large; that's an efficient way to do it).

Copper is supposed to help fruits absorb water; so, that might play a role, too.

Soil fertility in general may effect it, too.

Also, you've got viruses and things that might affect fruit size.

[slugworth]

Before global warming I used to get tomatoes over 16oz all the time.
This year my biggest was 10 oz and I almost soiled myself.
I haven't had one that big in years.
We didn't have a drought,just the heat.

[worth1]

Before global warming I used to get tomatoes over 16oz all the time.
This year my biggest was 10 oz and I almost soiled myself.
I haven't had one that big in years.
We didn't have a drought,just the heat.

I've personally only gotten giant tomatoes at the very beginning of the season and I'm not counting fused blossoms.
No idea if it's the heat or the tomato plants need more fertilizer.
A scientific experiment with controls would have to prove it one way or the other.
There's probably one out there but in a research paper or book not intended for the general public that most of us can't understand.

Someone with vast knowledge should write a so called "Trade book" on the subject.

Many academics won't write trade books but some so.

[karstopography]

If anything, I’m was getting consistently larger slicer/beefsteak type tomatoes this year over past seasons, but I think that’s due to a combination of factors such as growing tomato varieties with a higher ceiling on size, more space between plants, better nutrition, etc. But, even those large type tomatoes shrunk in size as the summer heat increased so that the tomatoes ripening at the end of July were noticeably smaller that those same type tomatoes were in June.

Cherry tomatoes in my garden year after the after have always shrunk down as the heat of summer and the dry weather increases.

The biggest (and the best) ripe tomatoes here, cherry or otherwise, come in June. Our hottest weather always comes after June.

[slugworth]

one batch of tomatoes I planted on the edge of a mound of sidewalk edging are still nice and green springlike fresh.
The roots and part of the plants are actually in the shade and I let them sprawl towards the sunlight.
I think the foliage can take the heat,but the roots are finicky about the temp.