Dwarf Tomato Project makes this a banner year

Gardening seasons have a way of blending together, but I suspect I will always remember the 2021 gardening season as one of the most difficult I’ve had. While parts of the garden struggle in the heat and drought, there is one high point worth celebrating — the outstanding tomato crop.

I suppose I have the heat and drip irrigation to thank for that, although its shocking the humidity hasn’t taken its toll. I also attribute this year’s success (so far, anyway) to the Dwarf Tomato Project, whose tomatoes make up the bulk of my crop.

I was first introduced to the Dwarf Tomato Project by Craig LeHoullier, who might as well be known as Mr. Tomato since he has emerged as the United States’ pre-eminent expert on the favorite summer fruit. LeHoullier, lamenting that there weren’t many dwarf tomatoes available, teamed up with Australian Patrina Nuski-Small to begin cross pollinating dwarf tomatoes with heirloom varieties. The goal was to produce delicious and beautiful full-size tomatoes that grow on plants half the size of the sometimes monstrous indeterminate heirloom plants.

All of the varieties created through the Dwarf Tomato Project are designated “open source,” which means they may not be patented and can be freely used for future breeding and selection.

Volunteers in both hemispheres joined the effort in 2006 via an online discussion board, and the group worked to grow, test, stabilize and name the best varieties. By 2019, more than 100 new dwarf varieties of tomatoes were released, and I’ve been experimenting with some of them since.

This year has been the best test of them because, unlike most years, the plants are healthy and laden with ripening tomatoes. There are few things I like more than to have more tomatoes than I know what to do with.

But even better than that is how relatively manageable they are to grow. Anyone who has struggled to stake a massive indeterminate tomato only to have it outgrow its support before a tomato even ripens knows the struggle. But the heirloom plants generally stay at 4 feet tall or shorter. This makes them perfect for growing in raised beds.

And I’m enjoying revisiting flavors of tomatoes I’d given up on growing simply because the size of the plants was a challenge. ‘Brandyfred’ is a cross between Brandywine, one of the very best tasting tomatoes when the stars align, and ‘Dwarf Wild Fred.’ That deep, rich flavor that you only find in purple tomatoes comes through in the dwarf hybrid.

The breeding leads to some beautiful fruit as well. ‘Dwarf Firebird Sweet,’ which I’m growing for the first time, might be the most beautiful tomato I’ve grown. It has pinky-red skin with golden stripes and rosy red flesh perfect for slicing into slabs and layering on a divine BLT. It’s beautiful, but not too pretty to eat.