As you read this post, my family is taking a bit of an extended break in Melbourne, Australia. The husband was able to take some leave and I jumped at the chance to take a bit of an extended break. After all, with Noey starting Primary 1 next year, this is just about my last chance to just take the kids out of school to travel during off-peak periods!
Usually when we plan to go on a holiday, I get stressed about stuff like packing and sorting out our accommodation and itinerary. This year however, I had an additional thing to worry about: What would become of my cherry tomato plants?
I never intended to grow cherry tomato plants. In fact, I wasn’t even the one who planted them — it was Noey who did, as part of a homelearning lesson planned by my friend D. This wonderful mummy planned a lesson on plants and part of the hands-on portion of the activity saw the kids planting their own cherry tomato seeds. My apartment dwelling kids rarely have the opportunity to get their hands dirty this way so they really enjoyed it!
The unwitting gardener.
And that’s how we ended up having two pots of cherry tomato plants. I’d come back with the very vague general notion that we’d leave the seeds where they’d get plenty of sun and water them regularly and see how long they’d survive. Not having intended to grow tomatoes, I was ill equipped to take care of them. I’m sure the plants would not have survived, and indeed thrived if not for the fact that my helper was very excited about the plants. “I’ve grown tomatoes before. It’s very easy!” she assured me. Clueless, I decided to let her take charge.
The kids were very excited about the plants at the beginning and were all too eager to douse their pots with water everyday. We also made sure to provide them with plenty of sunlight and were rewarded with the presence of spouts within a couple of days. Of course, the kids had liberally poured all the seeds in their seed packet into each of their little pots, so we ended lots of little shoots — way too many for our little pots.
We allowed the seedlings to grow till they put out sufficient roots and were about 10cm to 15cm high before we re-potted them. My helper salvaged two pots from the discard pile under my block and I bought a longish trough to transfer the rest of the plants into. We tried to save space and probably put in more plants than we ought to into the pots — two each in the single pots and about ten in the long pot. Probably not the best idea but I know we were reluctant to throw away healthy plants. So my advice to you on this is not to plant too many seeds in the first place!
We were surprised that the cherry tomato plants grew rather tall. Much taller than tomato plants, I am told. They did get rather unruly before we decided to stake them a bit by building a box around them. My MIL had the good idea of buying canes from the market for this purpose and it worked a treat.
My messy plants… before we decided to do something about it!
After a couple of months, we were rewarded with the first flowers!
Little buds that burst forth into yellow blooms.
We waited excitedly for fruits but the flowers just ran the course of their lifespan and withered and died. Boo. How disappointing. It was nearly two months later (four months after we first planted the seeds that we spied the first fruit developing! I half suspect that nearly killing them when we abandoned and did not water them for 5 days when we went for church camp stirred the plant into fruit-bearing action…
Our first fruit forming!
It took another month of patient waiting before the fruits started to ripen. It was actually quite fascinating to observe the daily progress and watch the fruits push themselves out of the flowers. You can still see the remnants of the style of the flower with the stigma hanging off the base of the fruit as it develops though it does eventually drop off when the fruits are ripe.
Fruits growing and ripening on the vine.
The one person who was eagerly watching the whole process with me was my little Mei, devourer of all things tomato in this household. I had to keep her busy little hands off the vines because as soon as she spots a red one, she’ll be helping herself to the fruit!
(L): Little Miss Helpful helping herself: (R): Fruits from our own garden taste extra sweet!
We picked the fruit off the vine as soon as they turned red and popped them in our mouths, but found that while decently sweet, the skin was rather thick and hard. Fruit left to ripen on the vine for about a week more tasted much better, but were at risk of other hungry creatures!
We found this crime scene on the balcony one morning. Likely suspect: a squirrel. My helper has spotted one prowling near the balcony and plants!
It’s been quite an experience. The plants were fruiting away over the past month but it remains to be seen if they will survive this period when we are away. Maybe it’ll be time for new plants when we return, though before I plant any, I’m going to have to think hard about contingency care arrangements!
If you’re keen to grow your own cherry tomatoes in a pot, here are some tips, based on my own experience:
1. My cherry tomatoes were grown from seeds from Known-You-Seed Co. Ltd. The variety was lycopersicon esculentum Mill. They were purchased from the nursery near NTU
2. I read that these plants need plenty of sunlight and I fretted a bit as my balcony doesn’t really get much (if any) direct sun. During the initial days I used to bring the plants downstairs to the courtyard for some sunning but later determined that it wasn’t really necessary since the plants continued to grow well notwithstanding the lack of direct sun, bending towards the light. So if you are not able to place your plants where they get lots of direct sunlight, don’t panic. They’ll still grow!
3. These plants need a lot of water. At some stage we started watering the plants twice a day to keep their soil moist.
4. I didn’t add fertilizer, but I did make sure to get some good quality potting soil. You might also have to top up it up and add more soil to the pot after some time. We added more when we started seeing roots on the surface.
5. These plants grow pretty tall and as they grew, we started pruning the leaves at the bottom (which started yellowing anyway). Pruning unwanted unnecessary leaves allows the nutrients to be channelled to the new growing parts, including the fruits.
6. I think the fruits benefit from ripening on the vine. As I mentioned above, I left them on the vine for about a week after they turned red and thought that the fruits were much sweeter with a thinner skin. I suppose you can also pluck them early and leave them to ripen on the counter but we’ve never been able to resist eating them straight away!
Have you successfully grown cherry tomatoes in a pot locally as well? Do share any tips — I’d love to know! Or have you grown any other plants or herbs successfully? Please share easy-grow useful varieties!
awww. i hope your tomato plants survive and carrying on yielding lovely little fruits for you! I'm not good with pots or soil. So I use growing bags for the tomatoes, chillies and herbs.
hey imp, i just realised my previous reply didn’t post! argh, sorry! my tomatoes are still fruiting and they’re even bigger now. yay! i think growing bags sound like a great idea. do they sell them locally?
Hi,
Those plants look lovely!
Which nursery did you purchase them from?
Near NTU.. but any further details?
Thanks!
Hi. I chanced upon ur blog today…. just wondering how’s ur tomato plant doing? And are u still growing anything? 😊
Hi, thanks for popping by and leaving a comment! My tomato plants continued fruiting for a couple of months and then they died. So I dug them out. I’m growing bell peppers now!
Cool!!! I recently just got my bell peppers to germinate too. Kinda flying blind with it at the moment.
Pls do update and share how ur bell pepper is doing.
Just want to check… u mentioned that u didn’t fertilise ur cherry tomatoes plant, but u used a good potting soil. What is the type of potting soil is that?
U didn’t use any water soluble fertiliser as well?
Hi Julie, haha, I’m flying blind too. Here’s a pic of my bell peppers, taken this morning: https://instagram.com/p/8uCoP7muyq/?taken-by=mummybean They took a really long time to turn to turn red.
For the cherry tomatoes, I used nutrient-enriched soil. I’ve recently switched to using organic potting soil though. I didn’t add any fertiliser myself, mostly because I was too lazy to go get any. I guess you can decide whether to use some depending on how your plants are growing.
Great article! I got here searching for “grow cherry tomatoes singapore”. Wasn’t sure if they’d grow in our climate, but now I have all the info I need thanks to you! Will plant my seeds later. Incidentally, have you also tried growing mustard? I received some seeds recently & am still deciding whether to set aside some precious space to plant them. Someone also gave me kale seeds but they are growing very very slowly (barely 1cm after 2 weeks); I suspect the climate just isn’t suitable. I use organic potting soil for all my edibles btw.
Hi, thanks for popping by! No, I haven’t tried planting mustard, so I can’t help you there, sorry! I did have a friend grow some kale so I think it would grow, though maybe our weather isn’t most ideal. I’ve recently been growing chilli and bell peppers. I tried my luck planting the bell pepper from seeds dug out of bell peppers bought from the supermarket, and I’m really thrilled that they managed to fruit. Here’s a pic of them taken this morning: https://instagram.com/p/8uCoP7muyq/?taken-by=mummybean
I recently started using organic potting soil too 🙂
That is amazing! Had no idea bell peppers could grow here too! You really have green fingers!!! What other edibles have you tried growing? What about xiao bai cai and other veggies? I have heard of this veg farm called “Sky Garden” (or something like that, can’t remember the actual name but I think it contains the word “sky”) that grows shanghai qing and endives here, and I know Yili Farm and Kok Fah Tech Farm grow Chinese spinach (xian cai) and cai xin, so all these veggies must be able to grow in our region; I have never heard of anyone growing them in their own garden though, and I wonder why…
I also got grow cherry tomato but the fruit very small ,smaller than marble>? : (
Maybe not enough fertiliser? I found a good one – “Besgrow”, for ZZ plants, $4.50 per packet at Sheng Siong. It says it’s for ZZ plants but I used it on all my plants and they really really like it!!! The leaves become bigger and the plant becomes stronger overnight! Try it! They also have another type for flowering plants, also by “Besgrow”. I tried it and my plants keep flowering! Highly recommended!
I was getting disheartened growing my cherry tomatoes and did some research online about it.. and cherry tomatoes are unlikely to fruit in temperatures above 28 degree celcius. I was amazed when I saw that your tomatoes managed to fruit! I’ve had mine for 3 months plus and the flowers kept dropping! T.T Perhaps, my home temperature is higher than yours and we have more direct sunlight. I kept my plant at the balcony but decided to bring it in the house since it’s slightly cooler. My cherry tomatoes were bought from fairprice and I saved one and quarter it, placed it in soil and it grew! Those vine grown roma tomatoes. ^.^ I fertilize my plant once every two weeks with an organic fertilizer and epsom salt dilute once a week but I’ve stopped since I realize that tomatoes don’t like getting their leaves wet. Now, I’m thinking of spraying it again, maybe it’ll help with the growth. Anyway, I’ve grown bell peppers too and they love having epsom salt spray all over them. In fact, they need them in order to grow properly. Epsom salt formula contains magnesium and soil lacking in it will result in bell pepper rotting. Guardian pharmacy sells them, I bought mine at 100am shopping mall. Watson don’t sell. The ratio is 1 tablespoon of epsom salt to 1 litre of water. I usually spray it like a mist over my peppers.
There are many other herb plants that I’ve grown too and I recommend basil and mint – be careful because once they get a fungus and spread, they will wipe out all your herb plants T.T tough lesson learnt. Mint loves water but too much and they will suffer. I tried dill, thyme and rosemary as well, they can’t survive my care and idk why. =\ Mexican oregano grows v well too but mine died after about a year.
My garden also has the following and they grow v v well in Singapore. =D
+orchids
+marigold
+baby spinach
+sharp spinach
+sesame
+lime
+lemongrass
+kaffir leaves
+curry leaves
+red lipstick palm tree
+lemon
sounds amazing! do you have a blog or somewhere where you post updates on your garden?
Can I pl check if you staked your tomato plants when they got taller or supported them in any way, esp after they bore fruit? My tomato plants are currently above 30cm.
Also, can I pl check–from the picture, looks like the tomato plants were placed in a balcony. May I pl ask if they ever got exposed to light rain droplets or, did they get exposed to full outdoor rain? Just wondering? Am thinking where to put my tomato plants (currently taller than 30cm) after I repot them into a larger pot. Was wondering if they’d be OK completely outdoors or better in a half sheltered area? So wanted to check what your situation was? Thanks