KarenO's Dwarf Tomato Project: Developing Delicious Varieties for Container Gardening
The Dwarf Tomato Project has been a great success, with many varieties of dwarf tomatoes now available. KarenO is an independent breeder who is also working on her own Short and Sweet 2022 breeding project. She is growing out various generation growouts of dwarfs, including Sweet Baby Jade, Emerald City, Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers, and Munchkin. She is also growing Multiflora potato leaf beta cherries at F4 and two F2 micro cross growouts.
KarenO is hoping to find some good fruit qualities in her selections and is looking for early bloomers as well. She posts photos and videos of her progress on her Northern Gardener page. She has around 150 dwarfs this year in the yard, mostly in pots. Her plants are doing well despite the cold spring weather.
KarenO's Sweet Baby Jade plants have adapted very well to the climate of Spain, according to Nico. Charley has seen big tomatoes on his Cold Set tomato plants that are bigger than his Red Robin Dwarf Plants. He is interested in finding some dwarfs with fruit characteristics like KarenO's coreless heart varieties for his rain gutter-bucket growing system.
KarenO's upcoming releases include Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers and Emerald City. They all have different flavor profiles, with the idea being small dwarf plants with big plant flavour. Polaris, Taiga and Midnight Sun will be available in 2023, with Artisan Seeds selling Midnight Sun and Taiga.
KarenO is also working on a new project called the Dwarf Tomato Project. She has been collecting and breeding dwarf tomatoes for many years, and she is now focusing on creating new varieties that are suitable for container growing. She is looking for plants with good disease resistance, high yields, and unique flavors.
KarenO's work is inspiring other breeders to create their own dwarf tomato projects. Charley is working on his own project, called the Cold Set Tomato Project. He is selecting for cold tolerance in his plants and hopes to have some releases available in 2023.
KarenO's work is helping to make dwarf tomatoes more accessible to gardeners around the world. Her short and sweet 2022 project is sure to be a success, as she continues to develop new varieties of dwarf tomatoes that are both delicious and easy to grow.
What is the Short and Sweet 2022 project?
KarenO is growing all her various generation growouts of dwarfs, including Sweet Baby Jade, Emerald City, Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers and Munchkin at F7-8. She also has some Multiflora potato leaf beta cherries at F4 and two F2 micro cross growouts. She will post photos and videos on her Northern Gardener page as the season goes on.
How many plants is KarenO looking at growing out?
KarenO can grow out quite a few little dwarfs. She is looking at fruit qualities not things like fuzz or antho or varigation so she will grow as many of the best looking small plants that she has room for. She has about 150 to choose from but she wonât grow them all, sheâll grow the ones she likes the general structure of to start with and then hope for something interesting to show up among them.
What are the updates on KarenO's new (F7?) beefsteaks?
KarenO is growing all of them again and they are being trialled by some good friends as well this year. She has some nice seedlings and will take some pictures and start a new thread for those separately.
At what time does a hybrid dwarf tomato become stable?
Generally, a hybrid dwarf tomato becomes stable after an F-8.
How do you sell an F-1 - 7-8 for customers to understand?
To help customers understand, it is important to explain that F1 stands for "First Generation" while F7-8 stands for "Seventh/Eighth Generation". This means that the hybrid dwarf tomato has been bred over seven or eight generations in order to achieve stability.