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I have a question for all of you: For the last 3-4 years I’ve grown cherry tomatos in 2 urns at the entrance of my rose garden. I replace about half of the potting mix each year with fresh Miracle Grow, or Schultz’ mix and then plant starts of Sweet 100s in the pot. They’ve always done well, even when I forget to water them.

But (here’s my question) they are always a little different. Some years the tomatoes are big and fat, almost the size of a big gum ball. Other years they are tiny. Some years they are sweet. Other years they are not so sweet. This year those little tomatos are very small (marble sized) and as sweet as candy. I have never tasted such a sweet tomato, as a matter of fact. All of the plants have been named Sweet 100s, yet what they produce is different.

Why?

They got no fertilizer this year and irregular watering. Yet, they are the best I’ve grown.

Tomatoes that have been grown with very little watering are always smaller and sweeter. Believe it or not, I had never heard of "dry farming" tomatoes before this year, and I did some research. Early Girl is famously grown by dry farming in Texas and Arizona and people are on waiting lists every year to receive their tomatoes. There are other varieties that are grown in New Mexico and Southern California.

From one website that I saved:

"Seriously, you’ve never really had great tomatoes until you’ve had dry farmed tomatoes. They are generally smaller and pack full of concentrated tomato flavors that have not been diluted by too much water while growing. The skin of a dry farmed tomato is a little stronger than that of the regular tomato, which is an added bonus because that means the dry farmed tomatoes don’t bruise as easily. Joe’s dry farmed tomatoes are seriously good, and good in practically anything."

I tried some Better Boys this year with minimal watering. They were extremely good, but half the size of the ones that were watered regularly. It is a trade-off. Generally, the plants are given an adequate amount of water until they start setting the first fruit, and then the watering is left to nature ... unless they wilt and start to die and then you have to water a bit.

Isn't it funny how I had that seemingly odd bit information floating around in my head from earlier in the year and you come up with a question that makes it actually useful?

I'm pinging Red into my comments because I had a thought all of a sudden. Paste tomatoes are usually sweeter and have a better flavor than slicing varieties, but they do not have a pleasant texture for slicing. Can you imagine how good paste tomatoes would taste if they were dry farmed? Man, that sauce would be good!