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Old February 28, 2017   #120
ddsack
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3
Posts: 3,220
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None of mine from this same F3 and a sibling are not coming micro either. Makes me wonder if the "Sun Dwarf" gene is involved - they stay tiny only when they have lots of light.... The parents of these stayed under 12" outside last summer.

I think I'll do some trials this summer. I'll grow siblings from F5 seed of one of these that has disappointed me and keep some inside and grow the others outside. Perhaps, in order to find something that will work inside under lights or on a window sill, I won't be able to count on anything grown outside.....
Dan, last fall, I trimmed back and brought into the house some of the very productive microdwarfs that were a nice compact size grown outdoors last summer. Once in the house, all they got was daylight from a south bay window. And we had many grey days without sun, and of course the shorter day length of winter. No doubt they would have done better with some artificial light to supplement. All the micro's developed very long internodes, and grew up around 24" and climbing - much taller than when outside. I had too much trouble fighting mildew, so ended up tossing them just before New Years. I believe lack of enough natural bright sun will affect any tomato plant into becoming unnaturally lanky. I experienced this with indoor plants from the Dwarf Project in previous years too.

I gave a couple of the fall outdoor micros to my sister, and she had the same result, even though she has a nice big sun room. The good news was that she continued to get a few ripening fruit and it was setting more blossoms. But hers had trouble with mildew also, so was tossed after the last ripe tomatoes were picked.
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