I am growing 10 varieties of tomato from seed and in an occasional series am profiling each in turn. Today is the turn of Garden Pearl (Gartenperle). (Others I’ve covered so far are Alicante, Black Cherry, Carbon, Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker, Shirley and Sungold. Still to come are Red Robin, Tigerella and Tumbler.
To eat, Garden Pearl is:
- Small, cherry size, bite size.
- Sweet, flavoursome, extremely sweet, very tasty, very sweet, sweet & tasty, rich & tangy.
- Reddish pink, pink-red, deep ruby red, pink to rosy red, red, pearly red, pinkish red, pinky red, pink.
To Grow, Garden Pearl is:
- Bush, dwarf bush, dwarf trailing bush, compact bushy habit, neat compact habit, vigorous.
- Outdoors.
- Specially bred for patio pots, tubs,window boxes and hanging baskets.
- Self branching , cascades from 10 to 18 inches long so needs to be raised off the ground.
- High yielding, prolific, very prolific, heavy cropping, abundance of fruit.
- Early to crop and continues to crop all season long.
To buy Garden Pearl:
- Seeds come in packets of around 40 to 50 and work out at about 3.5 to 5 pence each.
Garden Pearl seems to work best when grown in container off the ground. This can be as high as a hanging basket, in a pot which sits on a table or other raised elevation, or if on the ground, in a pot with 18 inches sides to give the trusses clearance from the ground.
Have you grown Garden Pearl? What would your recommendation be on the best height off the ground to grow it ?
Photos of Garden Pearl seedlings 2.5 weeks after sowing.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I have just planted garden pearl in a raised growbag. Trying to find out if I take off the side shoots as it grows? Also have red alert and I understand one leaves the side shoots to do their thing!
Cheers, Mike
Hello – Thanks for stopping by and getting in touch.
Garden Pearl is a bush/determinate variety which means it has its own self limiting/stopping mechanism when it comes to growth. Whereas the types referred to as cordon/indeterminate have no such ‘built-in ability’ so require gardener intervention !
With bush types no pinching out of the sideshoots is required – just let it do its own thing .
Which is as you say exactly what to do with Red Alert as well. I haven’t grown that so double checked – and that too, is as you thought, a bush/determinate variety. So you get to enjoy all the tomatoes but only half the work !! Good Choices !
hi to you all. im growing three garden pearl one in a raised container about 2 feet off the ground and the other 2 in hanging baskets about 12 inch diameter. the one in the large raised container is by far the more productive. i have cut some flowers back on the plants to allow a bigger tomato to grow which has worked. too many flowers would not be a good thing but will still grow a smaller tomato. good luck to you.
Hello
Thank you for stopping by and getting in touch.
I think Garden Pearl looks good in a raised container – it seems to suit its lax style !
Interesting that it is doing better in that than in the hanging baskets. Maybe it just needs that bit more room to spread its roots out and the larger container provides that.
I hope you get a good harvest from all your plants – I remember last year Garden Pearl was good for lots of fruit.