Perhaps, everyone is familiar with small-fruited tomatoes: someone just buys these tomatoes for the holiday table (note that much more expensive than normal), and someone he grows. In recent years, their popularity has steadily grown, and the reason is pushing the consequence and Vice versa.
At first, they were a hard-to-reach coveted wonder, and high demand encouraged breeders to work on the breeding of varieties and hybrids that could grow ordinary summer residents. And now the offer is so great that the existing variety encourages you to buy seeds of new species for breeding in their area, it’s very interesting!
The advantage of small-fruited tomatoes, in addition to their higher nutritional value, is that they create a holiday around them. A plant with poured and ripen fruits is elegant, children certainly choose on the table and a bed of cherry — they can be eaten as a whole. Fresh and canned, they decorate both everyday and festive dinners, proving to be a sort of delicate snack along with gherkins — for one bite.
Branch of small-fruited tomatoes ripen
I became interested in small-fruited tomatoes a few years ago. I want to share with you some varieties and hybrids that I have grown myself in the greenhouse and outdoors.
Grade ‘Ildi’
Plant varieties ‘Ildi’ indeterminate, for a season drawn up to 180-190 cm or Forms a complex fan-shaped brush with a huge number of fruits a bright yellow or orange. The first brush is laid after 9 sheets and further through 3.
Complex brush ‘Ildi’ with ripened fruits
Side-shoot removing is definitely required, but more especially at the initial stage of cultivation after planting in the ground. We can not say that the plant increases the extra shoots very aggressively.
Sown on seedlings 55-60 days before planting in the ground. Seeds are small, their germination is good even without pre-treatment, but they germinate relatively long, shoots can wait up to 10-12 days.
Sowing seedlings in individual glasses
This variety is recommended to grow into two stems. This is done to ensure that the plant is not spending power on the rise and new of the ovary, and tried to preserve all the fruit and pouring them. Each brush is voluminous and requires quite a lot of space, so when growing in a greenhouse it is necessary to take into account: place closer to the passage or exit.
My experience shows that when grown in a closed ground to limit the plant growth — an optional condition. I left to develop one copy of this variety until the end of August, and he coped with a more serious load. Its fruiting continued until the start of winter, on each of the two sleeves has ripened for 7 brushes. The weight of each tomato was 12 g.
Weight of one tomato ‘ Ildi — – 12 g
Ripe fruits have a very pleasant sweet taste, almost without acidity, the skin is quite dense. When calculating it turned out that one brush formed 56 ovaries, the other number was approximately the same. And all of them poured and kept up, but not hard.
The first fruits began to shoot in early August. What they are on the slice, you can see in the following photo.
Tomato ‘Ildi’ cut
In the end I want to note that it is possible to find seeds of European. European ‘Ildi’ have fan-shaped brushes with the number of fruits on each more than 70 pieces, the shape of the fruit is slightly elongated.
The Cultivar ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
Sort ‘Clackamas Blueberry’ (‘Clackamas blueberry’) can be considered rare. He was bred by the famous American breeder Tom Wagner, the author of more than 70 wonderful varieties of tomatoes, and released “into the world” in 2012.
Tomatoes varieties ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
The plant is indeterminate, grows quickly enough, during the season can reach a height of 170-180 cm. Forms a complex brush with the number of ovaries to 10-12 pieces, but not all ripen, as a rule. The colour is so formed tomatoes — green with bluish streaks, the fruits are bluish black and ripe red.
Right-to — plant varieties ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
Stem and leaf veins at an early age also have a bluish-black hue, but later become dark green. First brush tied after the 9-10 sheet and then through 3.
Tomato of this variety forms an exceptionally large number of Stepsons, so it is required to form the plant throughout the season.
Blooms ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
On the Internet, there is little information about this variety, and on my experience I saw that it can be grown in a greenhouse in two or three stems, removing the remaining Stepsons regularly, at least once a week. In the open ground, the plant stretched out quickly, but the fruits were tied less, and they cracked.
In the stage of full maturity the fruit is red, and starts to do it from the bottom, so the top part remains dark. When tearing off the sepals, a cute spot of light color in the form of a flower opens.
Ripe tomato varieties ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
Fruit is fleshy with soft smooth flesh of rich dark red color. The first ripe tomatoes begin to shoot in early August. The taste is pleasant, with barely noticeable acidity, slightly sweet. Fruit weight is 40-45 g.
Fruit Of ‘Clackamas Blueberry’
Grade ‘Honey drop’
‘Honey drop’ – the variety is intended primarily for greenhouse cultivation. Indeterminate plant, for the season in the closed ground grows up to two meters in the open — up to one and a half.
Ripe tomatoes of the variety ‘Honey drop’
Seedlings should be sown in late February-early March. Seedlings react sensitively to the lack of light and begin to stretch. I did without finishing, installing at the beginning of growing cardboard screen, pasted with food foil.
Formed ‘honey drop’ in two or three stems. The plant is quite compact, felt good when placed on greenhouse beds width of 60 cm with a step of 40 cm in two rows with a shift.
Planted seedlings of tomato cultivar ‘Honey drop’
Most seed producers indicate that the tomato leaves of this variety are similar to potato. My plants don’t differ, have grown standard sheets of conventional size and shape. As for the Stepsons, their education is moderate. When breaking off the stump of a tree, from the same axils not re-grow.
The most interesting in this class, of course, fruits. The plant forms a neat brush, which hang like lamps, calibrated shiny pear-shaped tomatoes in the amount of 10-12 pieces.
Grow tomatoes of the variety ‘Honey drop’
Maturing, they become bright yellow, green strokes remain on top of the neck. The fruits look extremely decorative and create a festive atmosphere on the table. The weight of each tomato is 15-18 g.
But to their taste my attitude is ambiguous. Seed producers vying touted sweet taste and honey aroma. Unfortunately, my “droplets” did not meet expectations: the taste was rather neutral, and the pulp was loose and starchy.
Fruit varieties ‘Honey drop’
However, in the billets they were great! When pickling a mixture of fine tomatoes, none of the tomatoes varieties ‘honey drop’ burst, they turned out to be very good consistency and pleasant taste, retained its high decorative.
All these small-fruited tomatoes look very interesting and like both adults and children. ‘Ildi’ and ‘Clackamas Blueberry’ have a pronounced sweet taste, ‘honey drop’ somewhat did not meet my hopes and promises breeders: it was unsweetened and a bit starchy.
Marinating the mixture of small-fruited tomatoes ‘However’, ‘Clackamas Blueberry’, ‘Honey drop’
It should be noted that all these plants are resistant to diseases: seedlings did not hurt, and they were not touched by the Phytophthora even at a time when growing in a greenhouse next door tomatoes were amazed.
What are the small-fruited varieties of tomatoes do you like?