10 Best Dwarf Tomatoes for Small Garden Spaces

Most tomato plants can be pretty vigorous and quickly take over small garden spaces. Without maintenance, many tomato plants can even reach heights of 6ft+. So if you don’t have excess space to spare, but want to enjoy picking your own tomatoes, there’s an amazing variety of dwarf tomatoes to choose from.

Home-grown tomatoes can often remind many of us of our parents’ or grandparents’ gardens. Being able to grow your own, no matter how small your garden space, can be a really rewarding and nostalgic experience.

These dwarf tomatoes have compact growth and typically don’t grow above 4 feet. This means they’ll stay neat and compact and won’t overwhelm your space. It also makes them one of the best vegetables to grow with children as their lower fruits are easier to pick.

This also allows you to fit a wider variety of plants into your space — especially other dwarf fruit and veg plants!

Dwarf tomatoes are still very high yielding vegetables, so you’ll still get amazing harvests. However, this means you’ll usually still need to provide some support to bare the weight of the heavy fruit-laden stems. Especially for heavier beefsteak varieties!

What makes a dwarf tomato plant ‘dwarf’?

Dwarf tomatoes are tomato plants that are naturally much shorter and more compact. They’re not quite as tiny as micro tomatoes, but their smaller height and width make them ideal for mini garden spaces.

They usually have a thicker central stem and darker green leaves that are noticeably more crinkled (rugose) compared to larger tomato varieties.

Whether you have a narrow balcony or limited space on your patio, planting dwarf tomatoes allows you to enjoy fresh homegrown tomatoes while still creating bumper harvests.

It also simply allows you to fit a wider variety of plants into your garden! A smaller dwarf tomato container and flower pot could replace the space a large container for a bigger cordon tomato would have claimed.

Best dwarf tomatoes for small gardens

This list brings together some of the best dwarf tomato plants that you can find online. Each is highly productive, unique, and tasty, and should be easy to find!

Dwarf tomatoes usually range from about 2-4 feet in height. They grow well in containers and are a perfect size for adding to a pot near your front door or on your balcony.

I’ve included a small trailing tomato variety too, but these are generally better for hanging baskets. For other small outdoor containers, the rest of these dwarf tomatoes are perfect!

I’ve listed the maximum size and spread of each dwarf tomato to help you decide whether you have the space for one.

1. Dwarf Hannah’s Prize

It’s impossible to talk about dwarf tomatoes without mentioning the Dwarf Tomato Project! Several of the tomatoes on this list are a result of their dedicated work in creating a wide variety of dwarf tomatoes in various colors, shapes, and flavors for us small garden growers.

The ‘Dwarf Hannah’s Prize’ is an excellent variety from the Dwarf Tomato Project. It produces an excellent yield of bright red, rounded, slightly ribbed tomatoes.

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 3-4 feet (90-120cm)

Maximum Spread: 2-3 feet (60-90cm)

2. Dwarf Champion

A very old heirloom variety from the 1800s! Dwarf Champion produces a lovely, compact plant with medium-sized deep red, almost pink, tomatoes.

Lots of the tomatoes created by the Dwarf Tomato Project have been crossed either with Dwarf Champion or another tomato related to it!

A very similar and equally popular variety is the ‘Burpee Golden Dwarf Champion’. However, this one has bright, lemon-yellow tomatoes.

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 3 feet (90cm)

Maximum Spread: 1-2 feet (30-60cm)

3. New Big Dwarf

This dwarf tomato definitely doesn’t have dwarf fruit! New Big Dwarf is an old heirloom variety that produces a great yield of large, pink tomatoes. Impressive for such a compact plant!

It was the result of a cross between Dwarf Champion and the biggest known tomato (at the time), the Ponderosa. It was created way back in the early 1900s and is still much loved today.

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 2-4 feet (60-120cm)

Maximum Spread: 1-2 feet (30-60cm)

4. Boronia 

Boronia produces wonderful, chunky, beefsteak tomatoes with a flattened shape and partial ribbing at the top. It’s a semi-determinate tomato that’s a cross between ‘New Big Dwarf’ and another variety called ‘Paul Robeson’.

It has a deep, dusky purple color when ripe, and was named after an Australian flowering shrub with beautiful dusky pink flowers. They’re very productive dwarf tomatoes!

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 3-4 feet (90-120cm)

Maximum Spread: 2 feet (60cm)

5. Fantastico 

A winner of the 2014 All America Selections (AAS), Fantastico tomatoes are ‘fantastic’ for patio containers and also hanging baskets.

They’re a determinate bush tomato variety that produces cascades of tasty cherry tomatoes on the outside of the plant. This makes them very easy to pick, and also a pleasure to watch them ripening too.

Suitable for: Hanging baskets, small containers outside.

Maximum Height: 12 inches in hanging baskets, 24 inches in containers

Maximum Spread: 18-20 inches

6. Patio Choice Yellow

A sweet little yellow cherry tomato that’s perfect for patios or balconies. For such a compact plant it produces an amazing high yield of tomatoes, with reports of 100+. For an 18-inch tomato, that’s a great harvest!

It has good disease resistance and is easy to grow, requiring little to no staking. This sunshine yellow tomato was also a vegetable winner in the 2017 All-American Selections (AAS)!

Suitable for: Large windowsills, small containers outside.

Maximum Height: 18 inches (45cm)

Maximum Spread: 16-20 inches (40-50cm)

7. Tatura Dwarf 

The Tatura Dwarf is an old, determinate heirloom tomato variety that was developed in Australia. It was grown commercially, so you know it’ll definitely produce a great crop!

It produces lovely, bright red, rounded tomatoes that are particularly popular for sauce making.

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 3 feet (90cm)

Maximum Spread: 1-2 feet (30-60cm)

8. Dwarf Beryl Beauty

Beautiful and unusual, this amazing dwarf tomato is another variety from the Dwarf Tomato Project. Beryl Beauty produces wonderful, bright green, 3-5 ounce tomatoes. They’ll often develop a pale pink bottom when fully ripe.

Craig LeHoullier, one of the leaders of the Dwarf Tomato Project, calls the Beryl Beauty “a top 10 variety among all of our project releases”.

You’re unlikely to find these tomatoes at a local nursery, however, you can buy the seeds online and help to keep these amazing heirloom varieties going!

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 3-4.5 feet (90-140cm)

Maximum Spread: 2-3 feet (60-90cm)

9. Tumbling Tom 

The Tumbling Tom is a low-growing tomato that stays very compact. It’ll reach about 12 inches high with 24-inch stems and will be happy sitting in a 10-inch pot (25cm). It’s also one of the most popular trailing tomato varieties for hanging baskets.

Lots of other trailing tomato varieties are also ideally suited to small spaces. Their smaller size and naturally trailing foliage make them ideal for small hanging pots or windowsill boxes.

Suitable for: Hanging baskets, small containers outside.

Maximum Height: 8-12 inches (20-30cm)

Maximum Spread: 16-20 inches (40-50cm) 

10. Tidy Treats 

Fed up with the wild growth of larger tomatoes? Then Tidy Treats is an excellent alternative! It’s indeterminate, but as the name suggests this dwarf tomato has compact and easy-to-manage growth.

You can enjoy picking delicious cherry tomatoes on a plant that takes up less space. The tidiest tomato plant!

Suitable for: Container growing in small outside spaces

Maximum Height: 35-60 inches (89-152cm)

Maximum Spread: 20-35 inches (51-89cm)

Recommended pot size for dwarf tomatoes

Although smaller and more compact, you’ll still need to provide good nutrition for your dwarf tomatoes. A 4-8 gallon (18-36 liters +) pot is best to ensure that the roots have plenty of access to nutritious compost and plenty of water. Grow bags are also a great option too!

The bigger the pot, generally the healthier your dwarf tomato plant will be. However, if space is really. tight, a small 4 or 5-gallon pot will be fine. Just make sure to stay on top of watering and fertilizing.

Are dwarf tomatoes determinate?

Dwarf tomatoes are generally a cross between indeterminate tomatoes (grow wild until frosts, fruits continuously) and determinate tomatoes (grow to a certain height, and all fruits usually ripen within the space of a few weeks).

The vast majority of dwarf tomatoes are indeterminate, which means that although smaller, they are still considered indeterminate.

However, some tomato varieties that are often considered ‘dwarf’ may be naturally small, determinate ‘bush’ tomatoes. The ‘Tumbling Tom’ and ‘Patio Choice Yellow’ tomatoes are both determinate bush tomatoes that have a naturally compact shape.

Should dwarf tomatoes be pruned?

Although most of these tomatoes are technically indeterminate, pruning is definitely not recommended for these dwarf tomato varieties. It can greatly impact the harvest you’ll collect from them!

Featured Image: Photo by F. D. Richards / Flickr / (CC BY-SA 2.0)