I'm growing Silvery Fir Tree in my front garden (in ground and in container) and it is setting fruit now. It is small and nice looking - determinate.

Green Zebra is a compact indeterminate. So is the plant I grew that I thought was green zebra but I think it must be Yellow Jubilee.

There are alot of dwarf tomatoes coming out. Tom & Silvia can tell you more about them, and you can find some at Tomatogrowers.com.

I grew a Camparti F2 (saved seed) that never got over about 4 feet tall but spread about 5 feet. Tomatogrowers has Mountain Magic which is suppose to be a Camarti like tom.

I would really like to whomp on your HOA. For gosh sakes, these are growing in your backyard. They are seriously complaining about growing food for your family? They need a reality check.

~dianne

Barbie, I am really sorry that you are having problems with the HOA. I always bring my neighbors to tour the garden, that way they see that is an asset to the community, not an eyesore and I also share some of the harvest.

About the compact type tomatoes I have to tell you that I grew a lot of them, few are satisfactory, the others are not memorable.-(

It also depends on what you are looking for, tomatoes for salad cherry type? or for cooking like medium to large varieties?

I would advice you to look in the seed catalog about any tomato that you might be interested and then ask the feedback if anybody grew them.

This past season the satisfactory for me were
New Big Dwarf- medium to large tomato,
Sophie's Choice- medium
Tumbling Tiger patio- bigger than cherry striped nice looking and good tasting fruits
I also grew in past seasons
Florida 91- large red tomatoes
Margo- resistant to disease, but crunchy skins like Juliet.-(
For paste
Chico tomato
For colors
Green grape- yellow green when ripe

And I also have the ones that were not memorable, if you ask me I will give you the review.

Silvia

Better Bush did well for me. They never got taller than 4 feet, had very thick strong plants with dark green leaves. They were full of medium size tomatoes.

Keep the reviews coming.

I am considering setting up an arch(cattle panel type) over my bluberries. It would give them sun through the winter for berry production, and shade in the heat of the summer when the beans and tomatoes are tall - then I could tie the tomatoes down to the arch keeping them from sight at 5' just under the 6' fence. They could travel over the arch and growth then could effectively go to 10' of vine. But, this would be limited to a very few plants and would limit my berry prodution as the BB would need to be kept trimmed below 4.5'
I don't like having such a small gardening area, but I suppose giving my kids a place to play is important. More than that the stupid HOA won't let me plant anything fruiting in the front. I still plant some beans, sunflowers, blueberries and cabbage there though. I also have the guava and cherries on the side. *Teehee* Stupid people don't even know what to look for. (I like it that way.)

Silvia - I'm looking for a cooking type and a slicing type. Honestly anything better than grocery store is OK. I just can't stand the green taste of those. *gag* I am experimenting with Tom's currants - I have one growing into my orange tree. No one has notice it at all. The tree supports it entirely (it's 5' now) and I'm wondering if I could get away with one on each side of the larger tomatoes without hurting the trees nutrition, spreading disease or getting noticed. I don't actually like cherry/grape type tomatoes except when there are no others to be had but don't mind the smaller size just prefer the traditional tomato taste

Barbie

Barbie, if you are going to put a nice trellis for the tomatoes, I would recommend a beefsteak type, they were all good this season for me and got high marks from all the people that tried them, once they are tied to the trellis, they will be fine. You can have one variety on one side and another on the other side and even some dwarfs since they don't take that much space. One that is semi-determinate and you might want to try is Bradley.
About having the tomatoes around the citrus, be careful that it might not be good for the health of the tree. A tree is more important to save than any tomato and I know the currant tomatoes are very strong growers.

Silvia

Sorry for your HA problems, all I can say is HA!

Compact INDETERMINATES:

Husky Cherry Red
Better Bush
Better Bush Improved
Husky Red
Mountain Magic
Sugary
Tomande
Black
Sweet Baby Girl
Stupice
Matina
Kimberly
Imur Prior Beta
Clementine
Urbikany
Kotlas
Fruhe Liebe

Tom

Have you thought about growing your regular varieties of toms,but just pinching the tops when they get to the height You want?Also,not sure Your HOA would like it(depends how well hidden your veggie garden is),but what about just letting the toms sprawl across the ground-you will have more of an issue with pests & harvesting,but it would keep the plants low.
Do You have a copy of Your HOA rules & regulatations?If it were me,I'd been checking over the fine print to see if there are any restrictions on growing veggies.Best of luck.

The restrictions are visual restrictions, and in growing food in view. I have thought about letting them sprawl, but I only have 120ft of garden space. If I did that, I would only be able to have tomatoes. :-(

Tom- GREAT list. I have Tomande a new variety for me -they came in on my Fall order so that is something to start with. I know I can pick up Better bush at Lowe's (seed or plant) if I get desperate.

Barbie

Barbie, I have seeds for them all, send me an email if you want to try any of them.

Tom

So none are hybrid - that answers my next question. I can seed save. I am doing some research today - then I will send you an email. Thanks so much!!!
Barbie

Several are hybrids and 95% of my seed is commercial, I always identify the source when I send out seed.

Tom

I'll second the Sugary recommendation. It's indeterminate, but not big. Mine are tied up to lattice, and it's easy to sort of let them go crazy sideways. Also, they are probably the best tasting cherry tom ever. (I don't love eating tomatoes, but those are super yum and easy.)