The Crafty Cultivator

For 2020, I am trying to write some more details about the different tomatoes (and possibly other vegetables or fruits) that I’m growing. Partly for my own interest and records, and partly so there is another little bit of info out there for anyone curious like me.

First up is Tiny Tim. This is one of my most favourite tomatoes to grow. It is a true dwarf, and only grows to be around 18 inches tall at a max. They have been right around 12 inches every time I have grown them. Tiny Tim matures quickly… it’s Days to Maturity is around 50 days.

It is a determinate variety, so it grows, sets fruit and then it’s done. All the fruit comes at the same time. This makes it nice to be able to harvest everything all at once. My Tiny Tim plants are usually COVERED in so many tomatoes that I need to stake them or else they fall over from the weight of all the fruit.

This is one of the earliest tomatoes I remember growing with my mom. We went to the local garden center, picked out a few different types of tomatoes along with a bunch of different flowers. I don’t distinctly remember the taste of them, but I do have a very distinct memory of filling the containers with soil, putting the little plants in, watering them in and keep them alive throughout the year.

Because this is one of the varieties of tomatoes that I have grown since I started gardening on my own, and I have been saving my own seed for a few years now, I don’t have seed packet pictures to share like I usually do. I have shared photos of the McKenzie seed packets that I’ve used in previous years if you really want to look back at previous years.

Normally, I wouldn’t have started these this early, since they are so quick growing, but I started 4 little peat pellets on March 14. This is because we finally took the plunge and got a fancy new grow light, so we can start growing a few things year-round. There are a few other tomatoes in my collection that I want to try indoors, but Tiny Tim seems like the best option for this. I will probably be sowing a few more in a couple weeks for outside.

I was interested in the history of this one because it is one of my favourites. I wasn’t able to find a ton of history on it, but I did find out a little. So here are my few little notes from my quick time on google:

• It was first offered in 1945 – This is what I found as the information most seed companies offer, so I wanted more.
• Its’s parents were Window Box and Red Currant
• Victory Seeds has this lovely tid-bit of history on their website:
  • “Bred by Dr. Albert F. Yeager’s breeding program and introduced by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station in 1945, it was described as, “… a very small fruited type, capable of being matured in a 5-inch pot for purposes of Christmas decorations, and not recommended for field growing.“

Sources:

Garden Focused

Victory Seed

So I did go back into some of my old photos to try and get some photos of previous years of Tiny Tim’s, but I couldn’t find any worth sharing. I guess I will need to up my photo-taking game this year. I apologise for there being no photos in this post, so here is one of Wilson earlier today (yesterday, when I’m posting this). This was the 3rd time I was out shovelling to keep up with all the snow blowing in during this storm we are having.