Tumbling Tom is one of the safest tomato type to grow in a pot. They sprout in less than 5 days and you can already harvest your first fruits in only 80 days. The fruits are juicy and sweet and you can have more than a month of continuous supply.
After messing up my first try with tomatoes, I did research and tried to plant the best type for pots and so far I can confirm Tumbling Tom is an amazing variety to grow on your balcony. And I tried both red and yellow.
The yellow tomatoes are slightly faster in growing than the red ones and definitely bigger and sweater. But the red ones have their charm being this tiny and are a bit more acidic, so a lot closer to the classical taste of tomatoes.
- From the moment of setting the first fruit, it took exactly 30 days for the yellow Tom to be ready for harvesting.
pruned tomatoes ready after 80 days - The red Tom set a fruit only 4 days later than the yellow one and it took only 26 days to full ripening, so because it is smaller it ripens faster.
It is my first time I grew this type and I would like to share my challenges. They are in fact just two: how does the pruning work for determinate tomatoes and how do you make them “tumble”.
To prune or not to prune…
Tumbling Tom is a determinate type of tomato, meaning that it will grow to a determined size and for a determined period of time. I watched numerous videos trying to find out if I need to prune them or not, and could not really find the exact answer. Sucker leaves are usually… well, sucking the life out of your plant. Letting them grow can inhibit the development of fruits. But the sucker leaves of determined types can transform into fruits themselves. So what to you do with your sucker leaves? And do you top your plant?
I did both and here are the results:
- From left to right: 2 red Toms, 1 smaller yellow and 2 bigger yellow Toms
- I pruned the taller tomatoes, both the red and yellow and left the tiny yellow one unpruned for testing.
- In 3 days the pruned tomatoes brought buds already.
- After 6 days the difference in height between the pruned and unpruned tomatoes became very visible.
- Therefore, the pruned tomatoes had to be transplanted faster, since they were growing too tall.
- It took another 16 days until the unpruned tomato was ready for transplanting.
- The day when the unpruned tomato was transplanted and having only the first buds, the pruned tomatoes brought their first fruit.
- However, even if they did bring fruits a lot faster, they grew incredibly tall. The difference was now ridiculous. Therefore I had to top them as well to stop them from growing even further.
my shy unpruned tomato looking small on the right of the picture
- The first tomatoes ready for harvest were ready after 80 days from the pruned Toms. And after 92 days for the unpruned ones. So not a huge difference.
pruned tomatoes ready after 80 days
unpruned tomatoes ready after 92 days - I had to let the pruned tomatoes hanging so that they can expand back up, but the unpruned ones had a decent height and no tumbling was necessary.
the unpruned tomato grows straight – in the right lower corner of the photo. The rest of the tomatoes had to be left hanging. - The pruned tomatoes grew smaller than the unpruned ones. I can judge only the yellow, since I did not have unpruned red Tom.
Conclusion for pruning
Pruning the sucker leaves from Tumbling Tom will bring fruits 2 weeks faster than not pruning, but will also make your plant to grow very tall and difficult to manage if you don’t have much space. It can also end up in the fruits being a bit smaller.
Therefore, the best is to not prune it, let it grow as it needs. It will take a bit longer, but it will be easier to manage and it will give you big fruits. In case it gets too tall, you can top it at any point it becomes unmanageable.
How does Tumbling Tom tumble?
Difficultly! You might not need to go through the “tumbling” part and let it grow as a bush if you don’t prune the sucker leaves.
But if you do prune your plants for faster harvest or it just grows to tall, you can simply let it fall, BUT you need to support it at the bending point with strings. You have to let the plant bend as much as it wants, don’t be too abrupt with it. It will only take 24 hours for it to adjust and start looking for the sun and make a small loop in the stem. This will balance it nicely.
The more it grows, you need to re-check the support and readjust in case it needs extra.
Here’s how NOT to tumble them
If you do not support it at the correct bending point and there’s to much weight on the stem, it will snap. And it will hurt, you, not the plant.
No straightening, crutches or bandages will help, I tried.
But the plant will reborn after a month or so and you might be lucky to have some late unexpected harvest.
If last year I grew my tomatoes too late and the cold season stopped their ripening, this year I grew them too soon and the hot temperatures killed my third round of flowers. So not a perfect round still, but the learning process is rewarding. I harvested seeds and I am ready for the next season next year!
It is truly amazing to have tasty tomatoes from your own balcony and I was lucky enough not to have pests this year. So just going for breakfast outside and picking them directly from the plant, they are warm and beautiful and I eat them without even washing them. It’s just something I have to recommend to everybody.
