Tiny Tim Tomatoes, Countertop Hydroponics
Our Vining Tomatoes got out of hand without proper trellis and trimming. Our next experiment is to use dwarf tomato plants within the countertop aeroponic system.
Tiny Tim Tomatoes ordered from Amazon have been perfect for indoor growth of cherry tomatoes. They have produce much larger tomatoes than the previous vining tomatoes.
We believe this is because the entire plant remains under constant grow light. In our vining experiment, the vines quickly outgrew the growing area and we had to supplement the light later in the plants growth cycle.
Tiny Tim is a determinate variety, we are curious how long the plants will continue to flower while indoors since there will be no frost point.
Start by soaking the grow plugs in water
Add 1-2 tomato Seeds per sponge to increase germination chances. (once sprouted, pluck the weakest stem)
Cover with humidity dome until you see the first leaf grow off the stem
Once true leaves form, follow directions on the package of General Hydroponics Flora Grow Series.
Consider this phase “1st true leaf or Growing”. We’ve found using the “growing” column creates a stronger Hydroponic nutrient EC level which has been better for tomatoes.
EC levels should be between 2.5-3.0 with a ph. of 5-6.
Large Healthy Leaves
Keep the light source close to the plants. Check every day or so to ensure the leave aren’t burning. The closer the light, the less energy plants will spend growing towards it and can focus on root development.
After about 2 months the Tiny Tim Tomatoes started flowering and producing large indoor cherry tomatoes.
Timing the growth phase is important with tomatoes. We were late switching the hydroponic nutrient solution to pre-flower and flowering. The result was many flowers dried up and fell off the plant.
Our first growth in the HI-Source Aeroponic Grow System, we started pre-flowering solution 4 weeks in to prevent immature flowers. Remember, every tomato flower is a potential fruit.
Takeaways
Dwarf varients are much easier to contain within a countertop hydroponic grow system like a ahopegarden or aerogarden system. You don’t need to order the expensive hydroponic plug starters. Just research dwarf varieties and grow them!
Pay close attention to the pre-flowering and flowering stages of hydroponic tomatoes.
Once we adjusted the nutrients to include more Flora Bloom, the flowers began to grow larger and pollinate. Remember, you must manually pollinate indoor tomatoes. Videos and instructions can be found in the previous vining tomatoes post. This time around we routinely turned a fan on to simulate wind, we continued to shake the stems to stir up the pollen from the tomato flowers.
