The Dwarf Tomato Project (DTP) is a beautiful initiative co-created by two keen gardeners, one from each hemisphere, to “create a selection of tastes, colours and sizes that would equal heirloom varieties with plants having an advantage of being more compact and therefore more manageable.” These varieties are at risk of extinction and the DTP aims to save quality seed from these rare and interesting varieties for future generations to enjoy.
Check out the original project website: Dwarf Tomato Project
The Dwarf Tomato Project is part of the Open Source Seed Initiative, an organisation dedicated to maintaining fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide in order to ensure the availability of germplasm to farmers, gardeners, breeders, and communities of this and future generations.
How It All Began
The Australian counterpart of the project, Patrina Nuske-Small, was looking for help from groups to grow and steward the seeds, and Canberra Seed Savers decided to become one 👏👏👏 We officially onboarded in the spring of 2021, and have since had five successful seasons. We started out with 12 wonderful and enthusiastic growers with a small number of varieties, up to last season where we had xx growers and over 40 varieties! This makes CSS one of the major stewards of DTP seeds.
What Are Dwarf Tomatoes?
Dwarf tomatoes are compact, low maintenance tomatoes ideally suited to container growing on patios or in small spaces, and don’t require staking! The DTP is special because these seeds have been bred in Australia, on the far south coast of New South Wales. They are bred to produce determinate (small, stocky) tomato plants that produce a range of fruit – from cherry size to big beefsteaks – and a big range of colours.
They also have fabulous names: Sturt Desert Pea, Loxton Lass, Kangaroo Paw, Crimson Rosella and Uluṟu Ocre, Maralinga, Kookaburra Cackle, Sweet Scarlet, Boronia, Fred’s Tye Dyed, and Tasmanian Chocolate, just to name a few!
The DTP has been affected by the Tomato Brown Rugose Virus, which hasn’t yet reached the ACT but means that we are being very stringent with our growing and collection requirements and quality control. Please read our virus page for more information (link).
How It Works
Each season, we have two groups of people who contribute to getting DTP seedlings growing:
🍅 Germinators: Grow seedlings from seed, to grow yourself and/or share with other growers;
🍅 Growers: Collect young seedlings to grow at home and save seed to donate to the DTP seedbank
Both options are really valuable contributions!
Germinating: Seeds for the DTP are normally distributed in the last two weeks of August, ready for early spring planting. People germinate and raise around six seedlings each of 1-3 dwarf tomato varieties. We request that you keep one seedling of each variety and bring the others back (around the end of October) to swap/for distribution to growers. We provide potting mix, pots, advice and support to help you germinate seedlings.
Growers: Young seedlings are distributed to growers at distribution day, grown to maturity (and kept well-labelled!), and at the end of the season, growers save seeds from approximately 1-4 tomatoes (depending on the size of the tomato!).
Seeds are then collected and put into cold storage in the CSS Seed Bank, ready to be circulated into the community and for next season.
There are various events over the season – of course seed and seedling distribution days, but also a tasting for mature tomatoes, sometime near the end of the season. This one is fun!
Meet the Team
The DTP is coordinated by board members (link to board page) Thea and Joh,. Thea is tomato-crazy, and successfully grows many varieties each season, and Joh is a logistic mastermind, creating all the spreadsheets and organisational love behind the scenes, as well as being an expert grower. They are supported by a growing group of germinators and growers, and together they make up a group of Canberran tomato enthusiasts who are mad keen on growing unique, tasty, colourful, heirloom, dwarf tomatoes.
Get Involved
We’re always looking for new growers! If you’re keen to be part of the project next season, keep an eye out for a call out for growers in late winter/early spring, or email xxxx to get in touch with Joh and Thea to see how to apply.
Currently the CSS DTP group steward over 40 diverse varieties – see our info sheets for a list of varieties and info to know what you can grow next season. We always have heaps of seeds so getting involved and giving it a go, even if the season ends up not working out for you, can be fun and rewarding and a great way to learn about growing tomatoes. There’s also plenty of support and advice available throughout the season!
As part of our celebration of the season, the Dwarf Tomato Project growers got together on a lovely warm February afternoon at the Canberra Environment Centre for a tomato tasting event. Growers brought in many varieties and an official DTP tasting was held! As well as being a fun and social event, this helped us to be able to compile information about the characteristics of the various tomatoes and to learn which varieties are most popular – we are in the beginnings of having a very extensive range of pooled knowledge 🤓
Topped ranking tomatoes as voted on on the day were:🍅 1. Uluru Ochre
🍅 2. Adelaide Festival
🍅 3. Fred Tie Dye
🍅 4. Tasmania Chocolate
🍅 5. Sweet Sue
