How to grow cherry tomatoes in your garden

Cherry tomatoes are distinguished from their relatives by their miniature size and exceptional flavor. This has made them extremely popular today. The fruits pair well with many dishes, imparting a distinctive flavor. Today's article discusses the characteristics of the variety, the different types of cherry tomatoes available, how long it takes to grow tomatoes, and the various cultivation methods.

Content

1 Selecting a variety
- 1.1 Video: "Tall Cherry Tomatoes for Greenhouses"
2 Growing

Selecting a variety

Cherry tomatoes look like regular tomatoes. The only significant difference is their miniature size. This characteristic is what gives them their interesting name. After all, "cherry" is an English word that literally means "cherry." If you examine the tiny fruits closely, you can indeed draw a parallel with cherries.

Tomatoes come in a variety of colors: traditional "cherry" red, orange, pink, yellow, green, and even purple. The color of the fruit depends on the plant variety.

Cherry tomatoes are sweeter than their relatives. There's even a variety with sweet fruit called Sweet. Some connoisseurs detect a berry flavor and melon aroma in these tomatoes. These tomatoes can be used in salads or preserves. These small fruits, whole or sliced, are also used for culinary garnishes.

These tomatoes are also called "red cherries" due to their berry-like appearance. Cherry tomatoes come in many different varieties, each with a different name: Honey Drop, Honey Miracle, Beads, Sweet, and others. They differ in fruit color, shape (from round to teardrop-shaped), and plant height. The description of each variety includes information about the specific plant types, how many cherries can be harvested, and their appearance.

At home, it is better to grow short tomatoes, and in a greenhouse or open ground, you can plant both tall and short varieties.

When growing cherry tomatoes at home, you should start with the following varieties:

A balcony miracle – the plant reaches half a meter in height, and each bush can yield up to two kilograms of fruit.
Minibell is a bush of medium height and size with smooth fruits.
Lycopa is a bush half a meter high, with fairly large, elliptical red fruits.
Liza is a half-meter tall plant with a yield of up to ten kilograms from each bush.
Mio is a plant with medium-sized fruits and a yield of about 15 kilograms per bush.
Micron – bushes half a meter high with a yield of 12 kilograms.
Sweet means "sweet red cherry." This is an early-ripening, medium-sized tomato. It gets its name from the sweetness of its rounded fruits. "Sweet" means "sweet" in English.

Growing tomatoes in open soil will be productive when using the following varieties:

Honey Drop – meter-long bushes, the fruit of this variety is yellow, teardrop-shaped.
Beads are meter-long bushes with small fruits.
White currant – tall bushes, the fruit of this variety is yellow with a whitish tint.
Cherry-shaped – meter-long bushes with large dark fruits.

The best varieties to grow hanging are:

Cherrypalchiki are tall plants. Their fruits are oblong and bright red.
Gorodzhanin – half-meter bushes with weighty fruits.
Garden Pearl – plants half a meter tall with pink fruits.

Video: "Tall Cherry Tomatoes for Greenhouses"

In this review you will find a description of different cherry varieties that are intended for greenhouses.

Growing

There are different ways to grow cherry tomatoes:

in beds in open ground;
in greenhouse conditions;
in the apartment;
in hanging baskets.

A rich harvest can be obtained from a hybrid variety that is resistant to pests and diseases, as such plants produce good fruit even in poor conditions.

The best varieties for greenhouses are those characterized by continuous growth. Tomatoes with limited growth are best avoided in greenhouses, as they are trained into a single stem and planted in the ground as early as early May. This increases the risk of frost damage.

It's worth noting that, regardless of growing conditions, tomatoes require periodic side shoot removal to ensure proper development. However, side shoot removal should be done while the shoots are still young. Otherwise, removing side shoots will cause significant stress to the plant. Once fruit appears, remove all leaves below the flowers from the stems. It's best to perform side shoot removal on a clear, sunny day.

Growing cherry tomatoes in open ground

Tomatoes should not be planted as seeds in open soil. This should be done in late May. In this case, the cherry tomato harvest may not be until autumn. However, given the variety's description and its heat-loving nature, a cold autumn may result in no harvest at all.

Therefore, cherry tomatoes are grown using seedlings, following the following algorithm:

Planting of seedlings begins in spring and continues until mid-April.
For planting seeds, use 10-centimeter-high boxes.
The seeds must be planted in special soil: a mixture of peat, humus, fertilizer and charcoal.
You need to make holes in the soil and place the seeds in them.
Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil and water with warm water.
The box must be placed on a windowsill with a temperature of 25 ⁰C and 12 hours of natural or artificial lighting.
After a week, when the first sprouts appear, the box should be placed in a cool place.
Seedlings require watering as the soil dries out. Cherry tomatoes do not tolerate drought or excess moisture.
When several leaves appear, the sprouts are planted in separate small containers with the same soil composition as during the first planting.
The sprouts need to be planted deeper into the soil than before.
Seedlings in separate containers require an air temperature of at least 16 ⁰C.
Periodically loosen and water the soil around the seedlings.
You should only pinch out tomatoes when necessary.

Seedlings can be planted outdoors only after frost. Before transplanting, harden off the seedlings by placing them outside for several days. If frost is expected, keep them in a sheltered location.

Description of planting cherry tomatoes in open soil:

Stop watering the crops one day before planting.
The soil into which the plant is to be replanted must be thoroughly loosened.
Make 10-centimeter holes in the area with a distance of one meter between them.
The seedlings from the containers should be transplanted into the holes.
Water the transplanted plants generously and, after the moisture has been absorbed, sprinkle them with soil to strengthen them.
Afterwards, water the sprouts.

Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse

Growing tomatoes in a greenhouse is a profitable venture. All you need is a small space with constant heating and lighting. In these conditions, you can harvest tomatoes year-round.

Tomatoes can be planted in a greenhouse from seeds. If the room is unheated, the vegetable is grown from seedlings.

A distance of 40–70 cm between bushes in a greenhouse is considered optimal.

The room where vegetables are planted needs ventilation. In summer, it's best to plant the crops outdoors.

Staking tomatoes is essential, regardless of growing conditions.

How to grow cherry tomatoes on a balcony

Growing vegetables indoors is similar to growing seedlings in the open ground or in a greenhouse. The only significant difference is the use of a larger container – up to 20 liters – for growing mature seedlings. However, this criterion is individual for each gardener.

To successfully grow tomatoes on a balcony, you need to maintain a temperature of at least 16°C and provide 12 hours of light. These conditions are easy to follow if the balcony faces south or east.

Tying up and ventilating plants on the balcony is not necessary.

Cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets: growing features

Only certain cherry tomato varieties that don't break under the weight of their own fruit are grown in such conditions. Therefore, the tomatoes must be small to avoid overloading the plant's branches.

Hanging baskets can be purchased at specialty stores, or you can make your own at home.

Seedlings can be planted in early May. The care instructions for cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets are the same as for growing them on a balcony.

Cherry tomatoes are a unique vegetable. However, the description of their characteristics suggests they are easy to grow at home.

Cherry tomatoes have long captivated many hearts with their extraordinary flavor and distinctive appearance. Grow cherry tomatoes, because these tomatoes invariably evoke the best emotions and delight their owners with a bountiful harvest almost year-round.

Video: Growing and Caring for Indoor Tomatoes at Home

This video demonstrates how to grow tomatoes from seeds at home.