Supersweet 100VF Hybrid Cherry Tomatoes

An Intro to Supersweet 100VF Hybrid Cherry Tomatoes

MY STATUS: Grown Successfully to Harvest  

Supersweet 100VF Hybrid are a type of round cherry tomato with a resistance to verticillium and fusarium wilt.  Like all the tomato varieties I've tried to grow here, they are indeterminate, meaning that plants will continue to produce fruit as long as the weather is sufficiently warm--a good choice for Pohnpei's endless summer temperatures. Plants can grow to a height of 4 feet and take 80-90 days to mature. Fruit are small, but cherry tomato plants tend to be more prolific than large varieties. I used Ferry-Morse Start Smart seeds purchased at Home Depot in Southern California in early winter. They were kept in the fridge for about 4 months.

SUN, SUN, SUN

I feel like I've said this a lot: successful tomatoes depend on lots and lots of sun. The plants may survive in shade, but they will not produce fruit. One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to get my tomatoes out in the open where they can get maximum sun and still be protected from rain and wind. Right now they get about 3 hours of direct sun in the afternoon (on a sunny day), which is just not enough. I tried building a PVC structure, but that didn't stand up to the crazy gusts of wind we get here. Now I'm thinking about something constructed of metal or wood.

RAIN PROTECTION

Another statement I've repeated a lot: Keep the tomatoes out of the rain. Depending on how hot and sunny it is, they may need water two or three times a week. More than that and they will develop fungal and/or bacterial infections, rot or drown. Use the four-inch soil test to determine when to water: if the soil is moist at a depth of four inches, do not water.

BUGS

After bacterial and fungal infections, pests are the next biggest threat. Many varieties of worms, beetles, mites, aphids, and whiteflies consider tomato plants scrumptious. As soon as I get a complete verified list of the pests found on Pohnpei, I'll post it on this blog. Hornworms, which are notorious for ravaging tomatoes elsewhere, don't live here. Whiteflies are the most common tomato pest on Pohnpei. So far I haven't found any complete protection. View the whiteflies post for more information.

CROSS-POLLINATION ALERT

If you're growing multiple types of tomatoes at the same time and in close proximity, they can cross-pollinate. This won't affect the current generation of plants in any way, but if you plan to gather seeds from your plants for a second generation, you could end up with some strange unintended hybrids.

CONTAINERS?

A while back I pulled up one of my tomato plants and found that its roots had pretty well filled the 6 gallon pot it was growing in. This is not a good thing. Once a plant has no more room for its roots to expand, it stops growing. I will probably try larger pots this time around.

What I Did

DAY 1 - SOWING

I planted my seeds in small biodegradable starter pots filled with store-bought garden soil--three 1/2 inch holes and a few seeds in the bottom of each. I covered the seeds, watered the soil, and put the pot in direct sun. Seedlings were thinned a few days after germination to the three most robust plants. They were later thinned down to the two best plants.

DAY 62 - TRANSPLANTATION

Being busy and not playing much attention to these plants, they grew slowly and were quite overlarge by the time I got all the conditions in place for a transplant. Sixty days is a heck of a long time for tomatoes to be in starter pots, but that's okay. The garden can't be priority number one all the time.

I was also building a roof-top structure that I could keep my plants (and especially my tomatoes) in, so that they'd get the maximum sun Pohnpei has to offer without being exposed to the rain and wind. the "house" is pretty sweet and has done wonders for all the other plants. I'm crossing my fingers about the tomatoes.

Another thing I wanted to do was adjust my growing strategy for the tomatoes, since the first run failed, in part, because the plants didn't have enough room to expand their root systems. Rather than spend a bunch of money on huge containers, I collected discarded pig feed bags from people around where we live. Every local on Pohnpei has a large supply of these empty feed bags, because everyone grows pigs. The bags are huge, super heavy duty (rip-proof), and are self-supporting when filled with soil. But since I already had 6 gallon pots from the first tomato attempt, I cut the bottoms of my bags off and set them in those pots, then added my gravel layer and soil. This makes them easier to move, when necessary. Each bag took 2 1/2 bags of potting soil, and though they are not much wider than the pots are, they are triple the depth. That will give each plant 3X the vertical room to grow.  Once I got some of the sack-containers ready, I did the transplants in the manner described HERE.

So far no whiteflies! If it's the marigolds, more power to them!!

DAY 64

The plants are loving the room, the sun, everything. Growth has been very fast. Leaves are lush and the plants look great. Even better--still no whiteflies. Not one. :)

DAY 70 - FLOWERS

Several clusters of flowers have developed and are in full bloom. I've started shaking the plants a few times a day to encourage pollination.

DAY 85 - DEVELOPING TOMATOES

I'm pretty shocked by how different these plants are from my first attempt at tomatoes. The growth has been incredibly fast. The entire summer of sunny days has certainly made a difference (even if we paid for it by baking every day). The garden shelter is a huge success. The tomatoes love it. So is the decision to plant in pig feed bags. Whiteflies continue to be absent and there have been no signs of diseases. Plants are nearing the roof, and I'll have to start training them out the side for more room. There are roughly fifty developing tomatoes on one of the plants and slightly less on the other. I've never seen so many flowers on a single tomato plant before.

DAY 107 - LOOKING GOOD

I'm on the doorstep of a harvest here. These plants have been quite amazing. They are LOADED with fruit and continue to flower like crazy. I've had to tie up many of the branches, because the weight of all the tomatoes was causing them to break. There are few fruit that are ready now, but I'd say a day or two more and I'll pick a nice batch.

DAY 110 - FIRST HARVEST

Today I picked my first fruit. They varied in size as you can see from the picture. All were sweet and delicious -- absolutely perfect. Another few days and I'll get a real harvest.

DAY 114 - ROLLING ALONG

I'm harvesting now a little bit almost every day. A few fruit here and few there. The BIG ONE is still ahead. The plants continue to put out flowers and fruit all over the place. It's actually crazy how many fruit appear on each branch. The twice daily blossom shaking must be doing the trick. I'm sure the unseasonably dry weather is helping, too.

DAY 128 - EVEN BETTER

Things continue to pick up every day.

DAY 140 - MASSIVE SUCCESS

My plants have now reached their peak and I'm getting around 30-50 sweet, delicious tomatoes per week from each plant. They're fantastic! I suppose they can't go on like this forever. I'd expect that things will start to slow down relatively soon, so 3 months is probably about the longest you can string plants like this out in Pohnpei's climate.

DAY 180 - DONE

It's been just over two solid months of fruit and now things have dropped off as I predicted. There are still some ripening fruit, but I don't see any new flowers and the main stem is becoming woody -- all signs that these plants have run their course.