Congratulations Yolos! First ripe NBD in zone 8 and largest NBD to date! That's a nice looking tomato!

That is a nice boat shape mater.

Here is how mine looks like, as of June 6

I planted it way down in the fabric pot and kept filling w/ medium. I think it has grown enough roots and it is ready to take off.

But all in all it is a true blue dwarf. It reminds me of a Bush Steak that I grew couple of years ago.

SEy

I might like to get in on this. I'm growing the variety. It has a nice truss of flowers on the top, so far. :)

Little Update:

Today I saw tiny buds are starting to form on my NBD.

So it will 50 days or so to get a ripe tomato from it. Like in August !

We shall see.

Sey

Has anybody tried undwarfing it with a gibberellic acid spray? That could be a cheating loophole to win in category #9.

Anyway, thanks for calling my attention to this for next year.

Dwarf Purple heart; my "gateway" dwarf

gate·way drug

noun

plural noun: gateway drugs

• a habit-forming drug that, while not itself addictive, may lead to the use of other addictive drugs.

I think my gateway heirloom was "orange strawberry", but for me, "Pinapple" was addictive.

I grew DPH last year. The plant grew very tall and it was late. But I liked the taste. I am growing it again. But so far they are under 18" tall and flowering.

Sey

Here is our largest New Big Dwarf to date and some photos our our two plants. They are 6' in height and still producing.

Hey Hudson,

Didn't you hear that it's supposed to be a DWARF? {LOL}

What are you feeding that thing????

My NBD is way behind because my first seeds refused to germinate and I had to use back-up seeds about a month later. It's chugging along though and slowly catching up with my other compacts growing in 3 gallon pots. I really hope that mine doesn't reach 6' in height.....

Linda

Hi Linda - haha - NBD is not a Dwarf in height - that's for sure! It is a Dwarf by definition though. The 3 gallon pot will probably keep it at a height that you want - assuming you planted NBD in a 3 gallon pot like the others. Give it plenty of water and fertilizer and it should produce for you!

Yup. It's growing in a 3-gallon pot. Will take good care of it and report back.

Have you seen this write-up?

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/New_Big_Dwarf

Linda

Yes - I think the plant height for a dwarf is a function (in part) of pot size. I grew New Big Dwarf last year - some in 10 gallon pots and some in our raised beds (both in the Greenhouse) - The plants in the raised beds grew even taller than the ones in pots (about 8' in height). I am willing to speculate the the NBD you plant in the 3 gallon pots will be good healthy producing plants - but shorter in height. Maybe in the 3-4' height. JMO Please do report back on your results!

My Payette tomatoes look a whole lot more like dwarves than New Big Dwarf does, so far (although New Big Dwarf looks more dwarf-like than most of the tomatoes). :)

I have a couple of NBD growing in Whiskey Barrels and the tallest one is 5 feet tall and I still have at least three months left in my growing season. Hope it is an indeterminate. It is pumping out ripe fruit better than any of the other tomatoes (except the cherry). Unfortunately I only used on of those cheapy ring cages and I have had to put tall stakes around the outside of the container to keep it contained.

Yolos - A Whiskey Barrel should produce some tall plants, already 5' high - but like you said - you will have to support them -

I have 3 NB Dwarf varieties growing this year. Dwarf Blazing Beauty, Dwarf Summer Sunrise, and Dwarf Wild Fred

Wild Fred or SS...lots of flowers on this one

This one I know for sure is Blazing Beauty...first flower truss this week.

Hudson - I examined the pictures of your NBD and see that your foliage is not as dense as mine. I can hardly get to the stems to cut the ripe tomatoes off because they are jammed in between branches. Did you do any trimming of branches to make the plant less dense.

HAPPY THE FOURTH !

My NBD is way behind. It is about to flower. Height wise it is about 2 ft. But it is healthy. I blame on our cool June into July. Today, The 4th, our high was around 65F.Speaking of Dwarfs, my other dwarf ( Dwarf Purple Heart) is in the same situation, way behind.

Sey

Yolos - I did not trim the NBD plants but I did tie the stems onto the cattle panel to spread it out and give suckers room to grow. That may have opened it up a bit. I decided to terminate the two plants today and harvested the remaining fruit. The plant was 6 1/2' tall and was still sending out blossoms with setting fruit. But, the fruit was ripening at 6-8 oz instead of 10-12 oz and the plant appears to have reached it's maximum height. And, I wanted the space for planting our 2nd crop.

Sey - I am surprised - NBD has been so robust for us! I hope you at least get a few ripe ones so you can evaluate the plant!

Sey - I am surprised - NBD has been so robust for us! I hope you at least get a few ripe ones so you can evaluate the plant.

**************

Hudson, I am surprised too.

Some of my plants like Big Beef, Better Boy, Big Boy are aver 6ft tall and setting fruits despite cooler than average temperature. My Silvery Fir Tree plants next to NBD have been loaded with fruits and flowers for a while now.

I have NO other plants without flowers and fruits at this time.

I have a theory: The seeds must have been inferior. I only managed to germinate just one after several attempts. Next year I will look for another source for seeds.

Sey

UPDATE - July 5

The first flower has opened. Surprise. hehe

There's a possibility yet - Sey!

Hoosier - On the Dwarf plants it seems a larger percent of the total production is on the small side compared to Indeterminate varieties - at least that has been my experience. Especially early and late in the production cycle - more so in the late though.

My NBD plants put out huge fruits in the beginning of the season but have now gotten much smaller. I wonder if it is a fertilization issue. I think I need to add some more liquid fertilizer. The two in pots next to the house have developed a white fly problem. I shot them with water tonight. If that does not work I will try insecticidal soap tomorrow night. If that does not work, then I will try neem oil.

Not NBD, but all dwarfs. These are the ones with stripes ! Chocolate Lightening, Fred's Tie Dye, Adelaide Festival, not necessarily in that order.

Nanelle - thanks for posting here. Good looking fruit! Thanks for sharing!

They seem to be taking FOREVER to ripen! Seems way more than the DTM listed for me.

These NBD are my most prolific tomatoes.

Nice - and big ones too!!

My camera's missing, but I got my first ripe New Big Dwarf tomato, today. It was large and pink, and it tasted good. I'm saving the seeds, now. I think I'll grow it next year; it seems to have potential, and good flavor. I'm guessing it'll be more productive after it gets acclimatized more through subsequent plantings. The Payette tomatoes still haven't ripened (but there are more of those, although they're half the size or so).

I am calling it a quit !

After over 90 days my NBD has yet to set a fruit. The plant itself is healthy at about 3ft +.

NBD is not the only one being like that ; OLD GERMAN , DANIEL BURSON, COSTOLUTO, BOXCAR WILLIE ... are among those out of about 30 varieties.

I blame this on a bad year. But then I have many others that are doing alright.

Thanks to SFT. I am picking ripe tomatoes. Several other are getting close.

So the conclusion is that somehow NBD did not like my growing conditions. period.

Sey

I agree Sey - what else can you do!? It is amazing how different varieties respond to the environment! I crossed about 5 varieties off my list from their poor performance this year. I even pulled them at the point I knew they were not keepers for us!

Only a few varieties I planted out of about a hundred got early ripe fruit, this year. Most of them have been taking a long time to ripen, but most have been setting fruit, at least (some a lot more than others; New Big Dwarf has only set a few fruit across multiple plants, actually). If I pick tomatoes green, they seem to ripen fast, this year, so far, unless that was a coincidence. I attribute the late-ripening to the year, based on how some similar varieties performed last year. Same with the late fruit-set for many varieties. The tomatoes to perform the best for me this year seem to be such as Matina, Mountain Princess (the indeterminate Mountain Princess), Creole, Aussie, Maglia Rosa, Purple Bumble Bee, Chocolate Pear, Jackie, and possibly Big Sungold Select (if I could get to the fruit to see it). Jackie and Chocolate Pear haven't been terribly productive, but they have been early. Several varieties have been very productive with sizeable fruit, but later than the aforementioned (e.g. Pink Cheeks, Red Trifele Russian, Celebrity F1, Burgundy Traveler, and Punta Banda). Pink Cheeks is loaded. Red Trifele Russian and Burgundy Traveler set their fruits fairly early (they'll likely ripen soon). Celebrity F1 got lots of large fruit to size fast after it started setting, and it continues to set more, it seems. Yellow Trifele seems to have a lot of promise, but it's covered in other tomato plants (so, it only has about three sizeable fruit, which it set before the other plants grew on top of it). I might recommend that one for you guys to check out. It's a compact variety (not a dwarf, though).

Not a contestant, but wanting to share my best NBD this season....

I am growing NBD in a 3 gallon container. It had a late start as the first seeds that I planted refused to germinate. It seems ideally suited for its container because it is only 2' tall and not bushy, but has only produced a total of four tomatoes, one of which is currently ripening on the counter.

I don't think this variety is worth a repeat because of low production.

Linda

Here are two more of my NBD.

They were set out a little later than my others. They seem to have pooped out, while the NBD is producing, in spite of a recent stretch of triple digits temps. It is on an old Gardener's Supply self-watering containers in which it is about five feet tall.

There must be some inferior seeds out there!

My NBD got off to a slow start because my first packet simply refused to germinate and I waited 3 weeks. I planted it in a 3 gallon pot which seemed perfect because it only grew 2' tall. So far, I have picked four tomatoes off it, and there are probably only three more to come if I am lucky, so growth and production seem to be very slow and stingy. Of course I did not prune.

The flavour was actually very good.

Linda

Mine are planted in Whiskey barrel size pots and are about 6 feet tall and are the most productive tomato in my garden except for the Juliet Grape tomato. Different weather?? Seeds?? Fertilizer?? Soil?? Pots??

I think it's the seeds. I had other compact plants growing in exactly the same sized pots, same soil and same fertilizer and they all did much better than my poor NBD.

Linda

I think you are right, Linda.

I remember had a hard time germinating it. Finally I got one going. It was ways weak and slow from the beginning even inside under light. It also took a long time to start growing outside and even longer to flower.

I have to say something here: I have had problems with the seeds that I got in trade and donation. NEVER a problem with my own saved seeds, NEVER.

Sey

I agree with Sey & Linda. This was a bad year for seeds that I purchased. The NBD seeds were good this year and I had no complaints about them but some of the other varieties I planted were either a poor germination percentage or not true hybrids - which was biggest problem this year. Replacement seeds just doesn't make up for wasted growing time and failure. It would be nice if I could order seeds - plant them - and actually have grow what I ordered ! Saving my own seeds may be the best option!?

I like to get my seeds from vendors that grew their plants in areas similar to mine, if possible (however, most places are pretty different). The reason I like to do this is acclimatization. If a plant gets used to growing in a greenhouse, or a vastly different region, it might take a few years of growing in your climate to get it acclimatized sufficiently. I think acclimatization to your own personal soil and water is as important as acclimatization to the climate, however. Seeds from my friend a couple miles away just don't grow the same in my soil. Even my neighbor's yard is different with seeds from the same seed packet.

When I say they don't grow the same, I mean the production and taste is different. The plants can still seem healthy.

Shule: When I say they don't grow the same, I mean the production and taste is different. The plants can still seem healthy.

Seems like those are factors that are highly dependent on things like nutrition, watering, soil content and structure, etc. And those can vary from garden to garden--even from bed to bed. Sun is also a factor. Some yards get more sun or sun at different hours of the day, etc.

New Big Dwarf - freeze expected tonight

I was away from home most of the growing season. Returned first week of Sept and noticed the vines were quite tacky looking but still alive. Decided to leave them alone and see of some of the scattered blooms would actually set fruit. These are the only NBD tomatoes I might have a chance to taste. It is going to freeze tonight so I'm bringing them in and hope at least the large one finishes ripening so I can have a taste.

I hope everyone had a good crop and are looking forward to next season.

Mary

Hudson, I must question your NBD's being true, maybe you have crossed seeds? Can you tell us your watering & feeding procedures? I honestly think if you are growing NBD to heights much over 4 feet or so, it's not NBD you're growing.

Hi Mark,

I have purchased seeds every year from Tomato Growers. You may be right that they are not true? I grow NBD in a GH so I don't mind if they grow tall. Let me just say that that for the last 3 years I have purchased new seeds every year from Tomato Growers - and every year - their performance in every way appears identical.

I hand water in an automatic environmentally controlled greenhouse and fertilize weekly with a water soluble tomato fertilizer. The growing medium is vermiculite, peat moss, compost and about 10% top soil.

I did notice that one year we tried to grow a few NBD plants in small containers (5 gallon). Those NBD plants only grew to about 4' in height.

Hudson's tomatoes are almost always very impressive looking. The amount of control a greenhouse gives him and the diligent care he puts in really shows.

NBD is a dwarf but is indeterminate. If it encounters great growing conditions long enough, it could conceivably get much taller than advertised. I think for most conditions, especially smaller containers and/or outdoor stresses, the plants will stay smaller.

I have a small number of NBD seeds from Victory, Hudson, if you'd like to try a plant or two from a different source. For me, they grew to about 2-3 feet in not very large containers and being pretty neglected and getting a really bad case of tomato pinworm. Still tasted good, though. PM me if you'd like a few.

Thanks Gorbelly - I started saving seeds at the end of this season and will probably wait a year or two to grow NBD again. I have been helping with the Dwarf Project and plan to use the Dwarf space in my GH to grow out my assignments. Thanks for the offer!!

In addition to having a climate control greenhouse, Hudson knows how to care for his plants , soil, watering, fertilizing, lights, support system, pruning. He can grow just about any variety with great success.

Sey

Thanks Sey - I appreciate the compliments!! Winter has really shut us down now! Low temps in the next two weeks remains around 5 degrees F with highs in the low 30's. And yet - we are only weeks from the 2017 season!! :)