Mexico Midget Tomato Seeds - (Lycopersicon lycopersicum)

Mexico Midget Tomato - The Flavor of a Giant

The taste of a beefsteak tomato disguised into a package the size of a small cherry, the Mexico Midget is an heirloom tomato with an addictive, luscious flavor that will have you growing it year after year. Hundreds of fast-maturing, small marble-sized fruits appear on each plant over an extended growing season, often only stopping due to frost.

It grows like a weed and will volunteer freely, though oddly like other wild related tomatoes it takes a while to germinate on purpose. Hidden in the tiny red round fruits is an intense, rich flavor of any of your treasured beef-steak varieties. They probably will not make it out of your garden to your kitchen!

History

This heirloom tomato originally came from Barney Laman a gardener from Chico, California. He claimed they were the world's smallest tomato. The seeds were collected by Barney's brother, a New Mexico truck driver, who was hauling hay to Texas and collected them from someone who told him they originated in Mexico. The Mexico Midget surely has wild genes in its heritage.

Uses

Raw or cooked the tomato is one of the most widely used and versatile foods from your garden. Use fresh in salads, sandwiches, and salsas. 

Growing Tip

Tomatoes take about 3 - 4 months from direct seeding in the garden to start producing fruit; about 70 days from transplanting 6 - 8 week-old plants to start fruiting; and about 40-50 days from the flower opening to producing ripe fruit.  

Tomatoes suffer more transplant shock than other vegetables, but you can minimize this by hardening them off for a week or two first. This means setting them outdoors in their pots in a protected place so that they get some warm sun, a little gentle wind, and even some cool (not freezing) nights. This will help them adjust to some of the stresses of real life before having their roots transplanted into the ground. 

Tomatoes begin the ripening process by producing ethylene, a natural growth regulator, and releasing it. The fruit ripens from the inside out, meaning the center matures and turns red before the color reaches the outer skin. Faint white lines crossing each other at the bottom or blossom end of the fruit show that ripening has begun. Soon afterward, the blossom end starts turning pink – indicating ethylene is being produced. When the pink blush reaches the stem, the fruit is about 75% ripe. The pink color deepens to red, starting from the blossom end and working its way upward. 

Harvest Tip

A tomato’s flavor increases as it ripens, due to the increased nutrients and sugars pumped into the fruit by the plant. For a home gardener, harvesting when there is just a touch of pink at the stem end or when the fruit is completely red gives the best flavor. The fruit will be fragile, won’t tolerate shipping and must be used or cooked within a few days to enjoy peak flavor.

Once the tomato is ripe, test by giving it a gentle pull or twist. If it slips easily from the vine – with little to no effort – it is ripe, juicy, and delicious!

Ripe tomatoes can be injured by cool temperatures and must be stored at room temperatures, never refrigerated to avoid chilling injury, which leaves pockmarks or pits on the skin leading to early rotting.

If you need to harvest early due to weather or the end of the season, those fruits with a pink blush at the blossom end will ripen with almost full flavor. Those with the faint white lines can still ripen but won’t have the full flavor.  

Learn More

• Growing Tomatoes 101
• Determinate and Indeterminate Tomatoes - What's the Difference?
• Heirloom Tomato Growing Tips
• Heirloom Tomato Leaves - Potato Leaf vs Regular Leaf
• Blossom End Rot - What To Do
• Fermented Tomato Conserve
• Sicilian Eggplant and Tomato Sauce

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