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Cherry tomatoes are a miniature tomato variety with good yields and great fruit flavor.
Compact bushes can be placed in a greenhouse or greenhouse, but it is quite possible to grow them in pots placed on a windowsill, loggia or veranda.
For more details, with tips, recommendations, possible subtleties and nuances, read further in the article.
Small but Fruitful: Benefits of Cherry Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes got their unusual name not only for their appearance, but also for their taste. The fruits of this variety are very aromatic, slightly sweet, with light fruity notes.
Among the benefits of Cherry:
- Excellent yield. At home, up to 20 fruits are formed on each branch of the bush. All of them ripen at the same time, so they are often harvested with whole branches. Up to 1.5 kg of small-fruited tomatoes can be harvested from a bush per season.
- Long fruiting period. Outdoors tomatoes bear fruit all summer long. The development of ovaries is inhibited when the temperature drops to 8 degrees. At home, tomatoes can be harvested until late autumn and even winter, then the plants enter a dormant period.
- Self-pollination. Tomatoes do not need insects to carry pollen. Sometimes the gardeners themselves intervene in the pollination process, shaking the pot or wires along the inflorescences with a cotton swab to stimulate the early formation of ovaries.
- A variety of varieties. Breeders have bred dozens of varieties of cherry tomatoes, differing in size, color, flavor nuances of the fruit.
Cherry tomatoes can be bright red, yellow, orange, green, pink, cherry-brown. For growing at home, compact and productive varieties Thumbelina, Cherry, Cherry Lisa, Bonsai, Minibel, Balcony gold, Balcony red, Date, Businka are suitable. There are also ampelous varieties that are convenient to plant in hanging baskets.
Home growing options
How to grow cherry tomatoes at home? They can be grown in a greenhouse or outdoors. Tall specimens that are attached to trellises look very impressive. Such bushes reach 2.5 m in height.
More compact bushes with a height of 1-1.5 m are often placed in tubs or pots. Such tomatoes grow successfully on verandas, loggias, balconies... Some growers use tin buckets as a container for tomatoes. It is noted that tomatoes planted in such unusual vessels practically do not get sick with late blight, develop well and give a bountiful harvest. At home, cherry tomatoes are placed in tall pots. The ideal place for growing is a sunny window sill, a glazed loggia or a balcony.
A photo
You can clearly see cherry tomatoes at home in the photo below:
How to plant seedlings yourself?
To properly plant and grow Cherry tomatoes at home, you need to know a few simple tips, which we will talk about below. Miniature tomatoes can be grown by seed, sowing them on seedlings, as well as by rooting stepchildren. Beginners should try both methods and then settle on the one that seems most suitable. Usually, sowing seeds begins in March, in which case the tomato fruiting period will last until December. First you need to sort out the seeds, discarding the empty and ugly ones.
To accelerate germination, the seed is soaked in a growth stimulator for 12 hours, then washed with clean water and wrapped in damp gauze to swell. Ready-made soil mixtures are not suitable for cultivation, they are very poor in composition and will not ensure the normal development of seedlings. The ideal soil consists of a mixture of garden soil, rotted humus, peat and washed sand.
Calcining or spilling copper sulfate with an aqueous solution will help disinfect the soil. For greater nutritional value, ash or complex mineral fertilizers are added to the soil... It is worth adding chopped charcoal. The soil mixture is thoroughly mixed and loosened. The prepared seeds are sown in containers and covered with a layer of soil 8-10 mm thick. The surface of the soil is sprayed with water from a spray bottle, you can spill it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. The containers are covered with foil or glass and placed in a warm and dark place. After emergence, containers are exposed to light.
After the appearance of the second leaf, the seedlings dive. When diving, it is recommended to gently pinch the root tip to stimulate the development of the root system. Then the soil surface is poured with a warm solution of potassium permanganate and sprinkled with calcined sand. Seedlings need to be hardened by periodically removing the film from the surface of the container. The room temperature should not drop below 22 degrees during the day and 18 at night. The ideal daylight hours for tomatoes lasts up to 16 hours; with the onset of dusk, planting will have to be illuminated with lamps.
You can grow seedlings without picking. For this, the swollen seeds are planted in cups filled with soil, 2 pieces in one container. After germination and formation of 3 true leaves, the weaker sprout is removed. Soil is poured into the cups as the seedling grows and develops. It is much easier to propagate tomatoes by stepchildren. Shoots, separated from an adult bush, take root in a container of water. Within a week, the seedlings can be moved into pots. Thus, it is convenient to propagate plants of the variety you like, as well as quickly replace old bushes.
Caring for tomatoes at home
Young plants are planted in high cylindrical containers with a volume of at least 5 liters. In cramped and small pots, you will not be able to achieve a good harvest. A drainage layer is laid out on the bottom. Tomatoes do not tolerate stagnant water in the soil; with constant flooding, they can stop growing. The containers are placed on pallets and placed in a well-lit area. The ideal option is windows or loggias facing south, southeast or southwest.
Small-fruited ampelous varieties are planted in deep hanging baskets, the bottom of which is also filled with a drainage layer. A portion of the hydrogel placed in each container will help to reduce the frequency of watering and maintain soil moisture. It is important that the selected basket does not have sharp edges. Stems overhanging the edge can break. Ampel tomatoes are hung in a well-lit place, protected from gusts of wind.
And what should you do to grow cherry at home on a windowsill in winter? In the cold season, over the tomato plantation, you will have to equip the backlight. With a lack of lighting, the stems turn pale and stretch, flowering and the formation of ovaries stop. The room temperature should not exceed 28 degrees and fall below 18... If the plants live on an open balcony or veranda, with the onset of the first night frosts, they must be moved indoors. Tomatoes placed on the windowsill love frequent airing and periodic spraying with warm water. It is better to keep windows open in hot weather.
Tomatoes love moderate humidity without flooding and drying out the soil. For irrigation, use soft water at room temperature. Watering the plant at the root is not recommended; it is advisable to use a watering can to moisten the soil. Watering regime depends on the weather. In dry and sunny conditions, it is worth watering the bushes twice a week, in cloudy weather, the intensity of watering is halved.
Miniature tomatoes are very sensitive to soil nutrition. It is not recommended to overfeed the bushes with nitrogen-containing fertilizers. They stimulate the growth of green mass to the detriment of the ovaries. Ideal fertilizers for tomatoes are superphosphate, ash and rotted humus. During flowering and fruiting, feeding is carried out every 2 weeks simultaneously with watering. In greenhouse conditions, cherry tomatoes can be fertilized with diluted mullein or chicken droppings.
So we found out: is it possible to grow cherry tomatoes on the windowsill and how to do it? With these simple tips, you can enjoy real homemade cherry tomatoes.
When grown on a balcony, cherry tomatoes can be affected by pests... Periodic spraying and frequent airing of the room will save you from aphids and spider mites. In severe cases, the bushes can be sprayed with insecticides suitable for fruiting plants, but the chemicals should not be overused. Copper preparations help against late blight.
The grown bushes need support. Heavy branches are tied to strong metal or plastic pegs, ampelous species can be attached to trellises or left to subside freely. An important point is the formation of a bush. In garden tomatoes of large-fruited varieties, the lateral stepchildren are usually removed so that the plant does not waste energy on the formation of additional green mass. At home, some of the stepsons should be left..
They give the bush a beautiful shape, in addition, ovaries are also formed on the lateral processes and fruits are formed. It is worth remembering that beautiful rounded bushes are slightly less productive, but they look more decorative.
