Help me choose a compact habit tomato for winter indoor grow

[Nematode]

Hi T'villers,
Title says it all. Looking for a compact habit tomato to grow indoors this winter. Probably should start them soon.
Smaller the better on habit, but flavor comes first. Don't care what size tomato. Compacts/dwarfs are not something I have looked at before, and I know you can jump start my selections.
Thanks!

[Labradors2]

A micro for windowsills with half-decent taste would be Red Robin which can be grown in a gallon-size pot.

If you have more room, I would suggest Maglia Rosa which I grow in a 3-gallon pot. (Some people use even smaller containers). I am really enjoying the taste of these right now .

Linda

[SQWIBB]

Totem F-1

[slugworth]

I have red robin and clones of the plant(s) for extra mileage

I haven't tried Red Robin F1 in the windowsill, but I have it in the garden, in the ground, now. I tasted one for the first time, yesterday. Here's my analysis of the flavor: Mild, and not sweet (nor acidic), but satisfying. It's a cherry tomato (not as large as I had hoped). The fruits have been kind of blocky for me. They have thick walls. The plant is definitely compact, and it gets a lot of flowers. I don't know how much fruit I'll get by weight from it, though.

You might try Snow Fairy. I'm not sure how it does indoors, but it's a nice compact plant (though taller than Red Robin F1). It looks nice and gets large cherry tomatoes with decent taste.

Red Robin F1 is probably more prolific than I let on in my last post.

Here are some pictures of my plant (a lot of the fruits are hidden under the leaves; they get bigger than the ones you can see):

Today:


A while back:


A different while back:

[greenthumbomaha]

What will your growing conditions be? Indoor grow lights or sunny windowsill?



My dry indoor conditions in winter (forced hot air heating) have resulted in two consecutive years of terminal spider mite infestation on my tomatoes. I think the thick heavy foliage on a 2 foot plant is too dense under my conditions. I have a few micro dwarfs outside now, but the tiny clay pots and 100 degree temps are hard to keep up on watering

At my lake cabin I originally had portable oil heat radiators for heat, and it kept the house from freezing but averaged only about 20 degrees above outdoor temps. I could grow veggies and flowers (even rosemary which doesn't recover well from drying out.). I've since installed a geothermal system for my own comfort, and it killed everything green that first year. Last fall I overwintered peppers in a room without a heat vent and kept the door closed. I rarely needed to water. I wonder if the micros would thrive or just hang on in lower temps.


Lot's of success stories here, so consider conditions in your grow out.


- Lisa

[KarenO]

Working on done that taste good meantime I would say Aztek and Venus are two that taste pretty good for micros
Kareno

[Nematode]

Some interesting ideas there!
Growing conditions will be 70f and full sunlight intensity LEDs.
Mites ugh, always someone ruining the party.
Not too much to lose, will try a couple of the recommendations.
Had no idea micro dwarfs were a thing until now, if they taste better than store bought I'll be ok with them in winter.

[GrowingCoastal]

Out of the micros I grew last year Vilma and Little Lise were good tasting red cherry sized micro dwarfs.

[clara]

I'd suggest Whippersnapper, Jochalos, Florino, Peardrops (NOT Peardrop!), Perla Ogrodu to name a few.

Here are some pictures of a Red Robin F1 fruit I picked today. It was more acidic than the last one, but otherwise very similar.

[Labradors2]

You might be interested to know that Red Robin isn't F1 so you can save seeds . I don't find it acidic. Perhaps it needs to be a little riper?

Linda

[Nematode]

After some research, it appears that dwarfs can have all the flavor of indeterminates, the micros are very compact, but suffer in the flavor dept.
Is that right?
I might be able to do a couple of the smaller dwarfs, over 3' tall is a problem with my current grow box.

Labradors2,

I originally heard that Red Robin was OP, but then I saw it listed on a few sites as an F1 hybrid (and couldn't find the OP claim; so, I just supposed it was an F1 hybrid). I collected some sources today that support both ideas.

These sources say Red Robin is OP:
https://www.totallytomato.com/P/00612/Red+Robin+Tomato
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/produ...n-tomato-seeds
http://www.reimerseeds.com/red-robin-tomato.aspx
https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/74494/
http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Red_Robin

These say it's a hybrid:
http://www.territorialseed.com/produ...ry_tomato_seed
https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/74494/ (see betta5's review)
https://bonnieplants.com/product/red...cherry-tomato/

This link seems to indicate that both exist: https://secretseedcartel.com/product...-dwarf-cherry/

I don't know whether mine is supposed to be an F1 or an OP, as I got it in a trade, but I do know mine has three locules in the picture, for what it's worth (and Tatiana's has two). I wouldn't be surprised if I had an F2 hybrid here. Other pictures I've seen depict the fruit as round.

I wouldn't call it an acidic tomato. I was contrasting it with the first fruit (which didn't have any acid taste in it that I remember). I did notice a little bit of an acidic taste in the pictured fruit.