Micro Tomatoes were created to be self-pollinating, small in size, and delicious in taste.
Let’s get nerdy about self-pollinating.
It starts with the birds and the bees… *smirks*
Just kidding.
It really starts with flowers.
Fruiting plants (typically) have yellow flowers.
Before we go any further.
In the plant world tomatoes are FRUIT, botanically speaking.
In the food world tomatoes are called vegetables, culinarily speaking.
Fruit because of how it grows.
Vegetable because of how we choose to eat it.
Okay now that we’ve cleared that up… onward!
The fruiting flowers can show up two different ways.
Plant type #1, a watermelon for example, grows both male and female flowers. The male pollen needs to be moved to the female flower, usually bees make the moves.
Plant type #2, a tomato for example, has a flower that contains both male and female parts.
If we were talking about watermelons, I would say we have to have the (birds and) bees in order to grow the fruit because the male pollen has to get to the female flower (sometimes within 24 hours).
Since we are talking about tomatoes, the theory is the flower “should” be able to pollinate itself, however, as with everything in nature… it depends.
Some tomato varieties need the help of the bees to cross pollinate between different flowers.
Some plants do better when the wind drops pollen from one flower into another.
And some tomatoes can pollinate themselves without any trouble… the micro tomatoes we grow are some of the best self-pollinating varieties of tomatoes you can grow.
This means you don’t need bees, wind, or yourself to jostle or spread pollen.
The ability for these plants to self-pollinate so readily makes them really productive indoors, or anywhere you’d like to grow them (they grow beautifully outside too).
To finish the pollinating story…
Once a female flower has received the male pollen the fruit begins to form.
The flower wilts and falls off, sometimes it sticks to the bottom of the tomato like a little tassel.
In most tomato varieties once, the flower is pollinated it takes about 4 weeks for the fruit to fully develop. I haven’t studied micro tomatoes, but the tomatoes do take time to form so the timing sounds about right.
Our micro tomatoes are typically very generous with the number of flowers AND tomatoes on each stem of the plant.
Most of our plants have several branches/stems/arms filled with tomatoes.
One plant we are growing right now has so many flowers I’m certain it could replace two large clamshells of grocery store cherry tomatoes.
Isn’t that exciting?
No more driving to the store.
No two days on the counter with them turning mushy or moldy.
Fresh tomatoes ready for you when you’re ready to eat them.
Visit this page for more details on how to start growing your own
With gratitude and gardeners grit,
Laura
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