I've grown all three and do not believe they are the same. In fact, I am pretty sure they are not. Texas Wild's leaves are different from the leaves on Matt's Wild Cherry, so I am sure those two are not the same, and the fruit of Mexico Midget is significantly smaller than the fruit on the other two, so I know it is not the same as them. Having established that, if you're coming to the Spring Fling, I can bring you a Mexico Midget plant as it is on my grow list (and, in fact, already growing in the ground) for this year. I always have backup plants that never make it into the ground, so I've got the backups for MM sitting in my greenhouse hoping to be adopted at the Fling.

Be sure you know what you are getting into----it is the fruit on Mexico Midget that are midget-sized---roughly the size of an English pea, more or less. The plants themselves are vigorously growing indeterminates that grow without ceasing and which you will struggle to control and contain. Also, it takes about 100 hours a day (okay, slight exaggeration there) to pick all the Mexico Midget fruit because there are so many of them. I finally stopped growing Tess's Land Race Currant (the largest tomato plant I've ever grown) even though I love the fruit because I couldn't afford to spend three hours a day picking all the TLRC fruit and still have enough time to do everything else that needs to be done in a day. Mexico Midget is highly productive, but not quite as much as TLRC, so I can spend less time picking the fruit. By the way, I planted both SunGold and Mexico Midget at the end of their raised beds so they could grow out into the pathway for a couple of feet, which is kinder than planting them in between two other tomato plants and then having them swallow up the other tomato plants beside them. Each is at the end, alone, of a raised bed, and their beds are separated by a 2' wide path. By June, the path between their beds will disappear as the two plants meet in the middle and merge together. If you are going to grow MM, selects its spot carefully because it will outgrow whatever space you give it.

As for the fact that they are drought tolerant and keep producing in the heat, both things are true.....but they also are true of each and every single bite-sized (or smaller) tomato variety I've ever grown, and I've grown dozens of varieties that produce bite-sized and smaller tomatoes. Most of them will continue setting fruit until your high temperatures are well above 100 degrees. They stop setting, though, if it stays well over 100 (maybe over 103 or 105) for days and days on end. It might even be the hot nights over 80 that slow them down more so than the days that are well over 100.

I wouldn't actually attempt to squeeze in any of these three tomatoes----you need to pick a spot where you normally would put three tomato plants, and put this plant in the middle of that area and plant it there alone. In a year when they are happy, which is most years, they grow incredibly wide. My planting at the very end of raised beds of tomatoes is the best I can do in terms of giving them space in a raised bed, but there's bush beans to their east and snap peas and cabbage to their north, so those will be harvested and out of there before the Mexico Midget plant can get too enormous and when I plant succession crops to their north an east, I just will leave a few feet near MexMid unplanted so it can escape its cage and spread out all over everywhere.

You also can save your own sanity by clipping off the clusters of ripening tomatoes instead of individually pulling each individual tomato.

I love Tess's Land Race, but it is a job to keep it picked. I ran out of seed and when I tried to buy it, they were out of stock. I forgot about it this year until a few days ago. I need to order seed for that one for next year.

i have some tx wild cherry plants and if they survive apple juice, fertilizer OD and hardening off I will bring to the Fling.

Carol, I love Tess's Land Race too but it just wears me out. Maybe the problem is that when I grow it and Principe' Borghese in the same year, the two of them wear me out. I've dropped both of them for the time being so I can recover from the summer of 2012 when the weather was nice and rainfall was plentiful, at least until maybe June, and I could easily spend 8 hours of day only picking tomatoes. I'm through doing that. At least with larger tomatoes, I can pick more of them in less time.

Kim, lol. Your tomato seedlings have had a really adventurous start to this season.

Dawn

If all of you had to pick just one to plant which would it be? And can it be grown in a container? If so how big of one? Sorry for all the questions, I'm so new at this. Thanks!

HomeGrown, Do you mean to pick one of the three varieties we are discussing, or one tomato variety period?

Dawn

One of the varieties you are discussing.

Of those three I probably would pick Matt's Wild Cherry. It seems to have the best tolerance of foliar diseases of those three.

Thank you, Dawn, I appreciate your input. It doesn't sound like a terribly good choice for my narrow raised beds and very small backyard. Also, its interesting that other cherry tomatoes are similar in terms of producing in drought/heat. I am growing several of those this year.

Shelley, You're welcome. Are you growing Cherry Falls? It produces tons of tomatoes in a very compact area. All bite-sized tomatoes produce in heat so you can choose which ones you want to grow based merely on your preference in terms of flavor, size, shape and color. Sweet Baby Girl is another one that produces tons and tons of fruit on a smaller plant that behaves itself and stays where you want it to grow.

One year I grew oodles and oodles of the smaller plants in my cattle feed trough just outside the back door and we could step out the door and have a handful of bite-sized tomatoes in just a minute or two of picking. I was astonished at the huge yield from small plants growing in a rather shallow container. Between those and the ones in the main garden, I was dehydrating bite-sized tomatoes almost every day throughout the entire summer.

I am careful to plant fewer bite-sized plants nowadays because they produce so well that it is hard to stay caught up on the harvesting of them all.

Dawn

Yes I did start several Cherry Falls seedlings this year. I am looking forward to seeing how they work out for me. I have them in the raised bed next to the four dwarf tomatoes (two each of Purple Heart and Sarandipity). They are all growing along the side fence - I wanted my most compact tomatoes there as the side yard is only 6 or 7 feet wide and I didn't want people to need a machete to get to the back yard lol ;) I'm growing Viva Italia in the next bed, then, moving further up the fence to the corner of the back yard, as well as the other side yard where there's no traffic, I'm growing Black Cherry, Sun Gold and Sun Sugar along with Indian Stripe, Brads Black Heart, Heidi, and Super Sioux. I will definitely look for Sweet Baby Girl - thanks for the recommendation!

I think that tomatoes from The Dwarf Project are perfect for your garden if they will produce well in our heat. I have tried several before (Rosella Purple, Dwarf Mr. Snow and some other one whose name I forget) but it was in horrible dry, hot years where they did not produce well at all, and they started producing really late. I am growing seven varieties from The Dwarf Project this year and all of them have done very well so far. With more normal weather conditions this spring than in the other years I grew them, I am hoping for better results. The ones I started from seed on Super Bowl Sunday are growing in the ground (I was going to plant them in containers but decided I wanted one of each in the ground too) and about to bloom any day now....if not today, then tomorrow.

You do practically need a machete to make your may down my garden paths in summer. It is nice and neat and orderly in April, and by May is nicely filled in and looking good. Then, in June it becomes a jungle. I kinda like the jungle look, but it does make working in there challenging at times.