Topic: Tiny... Tommy Toe tomatoes?

[Jeannine]

 I have a 6 pack of super looking Tommy Toe tomatoes,all identical, green, healthy, robust and very very small, Sown at the same time as others which are now a foot tall.. Tommy Toe is not a small plant.

This is the first time I have grown them,the seeds came from someone on A4A a couple or so years ago, I am sorry but I can't remember who. I am wondering if the person who sent them to me has experienced anything simialar.

Looking at them I would swear they are a mini tom, yet I know they are not..very puzzled!!

XX Jeannine

[cleo]

Strange indeed,I`ve not grown them for a few years now but they were not dwarves

[Jeannine]

Really weird Cleo, I will run them on and watch.. maybe Moneymakers in disguise,, ho ho a Mini Moneymaker, I might make  a fortune over here with those.. I'll save you some seeds!!

X X Jeannine

[Jeannine]

Update on this one.

The toms have remained small, was going to chuck them out then started looking at records.

It is not the first time I have grown them I was mind boggled with a similar named tom.!!

I have actually grown them for about 4 years, and in fact I might be able to explain my own mystery.

Last year I grew them and 1 plant had a funny looking branch , the fruit on it grew smaller and different, I had forgotten I kept the seeds from those fruit.

Yesterday I checked my packets and on the notes which I write on them as do my seeding the  last time I planted Tommy Toe was 2009.. so then I started to look through everything and found a packet marked Tommy Toe??, these were the seeds from fruit of the funny branch and yep , there it was planted 2010.

So what the heck they will look like I will have to wait to find out, they are very small, compact, very strong healthy plants but so tiny, and they came off a Tommy Toe plant, nowre - marked with a label that says Tommy Toe??

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

How exciting, let us know how they develop, your own mini variety  ;D

[Jeannine]

Update on my plants,, they are about 8 inches high now and starting to flower, I have them well isolated and under lights  with a fan to aid pollination, they look very healthy. I have heard that the  seeds should come true from the odd branch so am getting very excited now. The flowers are a bit different, they almost seem to be stuck togethet at the tips, I am told it doesn't affect pollination and is not uncommon.
So I shall be looking for a name for my babies  maybe..

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

I'm just wondering how the fruit on the 'funny' branch looked when you say it was different was it just smaller? Did it still look and taste similar to Tommy Toe?

[Jeannine]

The whole branch was  much smaller than the others, it looked really weird,like it didn't belong on the  stem, the fruit looked like Tommy Toe but it  was a bit smaller and the taste was not quite as sweet. The rest of the plant was fine.

Today I noticed we have two tiny tomatoes so under lights with the fan we have got pollination.

The flowers are all at the top of the plant, but of course the plants are very tiny so anything could happen.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

Update..

All 6 plants have grown the same , they put out early fruits, taste was not bad at all. They are currently covered in flowers and are clearly determinate.

Plants have only grown to a foot tall .I doubt very much that they will grow more.

I have taken some advice on them and am told by a well known tomato expert that the branch was a somatic mutation and the plants grown from seeds from that branch would come true.

That is certainly true.They are identical in every way.

So it looks like ,by sheer fluke, I have my own tomato... looking for names now Tommy Toe?? doesn't seem right.

I may have seeds to spare  later in the year

Fruit size is small, smaller than a cherry and very cute

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

My 'Jeannine's Gem' is currently in isolation on my sunniest windowsill and doing ever so well. Lots of flowers, so far one set tomato is way ahead of the others which are just starting to set now. It a little over a foot in height.

Is the fruit red?

I like the name above but what about something from the original? like Little toes, Tiny Toes or Pink Toes

[antipodes]

I have two tomato plants growing in a spot where I planted either Totem, or Pannovy variety.
The plant is small, like we are talking no more than 40 cm high, and it is covered in tight heavy bunches of fruit, not cherry or cocktail tomatoes just smaller salad types. I am intrigued by this plant! The plant is very compact, no more than 30 cm in diameter and no branching out.
I will save the seeds for next year! Very strange!

[Jeannine]

The  toms are red Jayb.. I was kind of thinking of Tiny Toes,  but still undecided..it will come to me.

Well done to you.. you are my benchmark.

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

Red sounds good to me. I'm excited growing 'Tiny Toes' and can't wait 'till the fruit tasting stage ;D I really hope my lights arrive soon so I can put it under. Its looking good as a windowsill plant at the moment, but lately we have not been having much sunshine. Fruit continues to set, with lots of new flowers forming.

I've been comparing it to Tommy Toe, which is daft I know, but as I've got one in the greenhouse its kind of hard not to  ;D

Trouble is I've not been very wowed by Tommy T  :o but in its defence its growing in between Sungold, Suncherry and Rosada, which are all favourites for me. Isis Candy is also gaining ground on it!

I hope to still have some of the other dwarfs fruiting, by the time I get a ripe Tiny T, which I hope will be helpful in making a comparison. I also have some Sweet and Neat toms which are only slightly ahead and should be harvesting at the same time.

I'll hopefully save seed this end too. I look forward to knowing its name, perhaps once you have a shortlist you should try a poll and see which is the most popular?

[Jeannine]

Bumping this one up.

Following on from above.
 JayB got a plant from me and grew it on, she sent me seeds, I believe she said they were even smaller plants than the original )please correct me if I am wrong). A week or two ago I sowed some very old seeds Of Tommy Toe (regular plant from 2009 seeds).. I also sowed seeds of the original odd branch tomatoes  we called Tiny Toes and I sowed seeds from Jay's smaller still plant we called Tiniest Toes.. they have all germinated.. This is very exciting so I thought I would share it. They are all side by side and I have my eyes on them LOL

XX Jeannine

[Hector]

Look forward to seeing how this develops. Exciting :)

[Jeannine]

Just to add a bit of info. The original seeds obviously came from a commercial grower(even though they were sent me from A4A) as when I sowed them they were chemically treated seeds , they were pink.

XX Jeannine

[Jayb]

Bumping this one up.

Following on from above.
 JayB got a plant from me and grew it on, she sent me seeds, I believe she said they were even smaller plants than the original )please correct me if I am wrong). A week or two ago I sowed some very old seeds Of Tommy Toe (regular plant from 2009 seeds).. I also sowed seeds of the original odd branch tomatoes  we called Tiny Toes and I sowed seeds from Jay's smaller still plant we called Tiniest Toes.. they have all germinated.. This is very exciting so I thought I would share it. They are all side by side and I have my eyes on them LOL

XX Jeannine

So pleased you are having a chance to grow these out  I really had fun with them and they were a joy to grow. I think I read somewhere (can't remember where sorry) that one mutation can lead to another, which could be why the seeds saved from Tiny Toes produced a slightly different plant that became Tiniest Toes, from memory the leaves are slightly different from the original tiny Toes I grew and fruit colour.

I haven't grown either of them for a couple of years as I've been doing more mini-micro plants (they are so adorable!). I'm pretty sure I used them in a few crosses too. I'll have a little look and report back.

I've quite a few different lines now, mostly all homebred with lots of different traits, I had a pants year last year and didn't keep up with much but I'm hoping to get some started this coming week. Micro Blue is about the closest to stable and is a real cutie.

[Hector]

Will be eyeballing our mini Toms this year after reading this, looking for something different :)

[Jeannine]

Thanks Jay, as you know I too like the tinies but I have never had the peace etc just lately to get on and try. This year I have sown all the tinies I have, and they have all popped. Some are from you. Including the three mentioned above I have 12 varieties under lights right now. My plan is to grow them in the greenhouse , then take some cuttings for through the winter under lights.

I id have a list of Micro tomatoes but I can't find it just to see what I am missing.LOLI
Did you ever have any luck with the Triton pepper seed I sent you. I sowed some but it hasn't taken this year.

I am going to open a post about mini veggies shortly which is what I am doing this year.

[Silverleaf]

What's the advantage of tiny plants, by the way? Can you space them closer together?