The cultivation of wild tomatoes has almost only advantages: they are robust, less susceptible to disease and require less fertilizer. But when it comes to location, they have special requirements.
In contrast to stick tomatoes, wild tomatoes often have a bushy, sprawling habit. The tomatoes are therefore less suitable for growing on the small balcony, unless they are grown as hanging tomatoes in buckets or hanging baskets to save space. Once you have found a suitable location, you will be rewarded with numerous, marble-sized mini tomatoes that taste very aromatic. Wild tomatoes have other merits, but they differ in care from their tamed relatives.
Wild tomatoes are easy to care for and often resistant
The fruits of wild tomatoes, such as currant tomatoes, are often very small in stature. © Shotshop/Imago
Since it is usually not necessary to prune the wild tomatoes, they grow two to three meters in height and about two meters in width per plant – supported by a trellis or on a fence. Due to their originality, they are often resistant to fungal diseases such as late blight and brown rot, so they tolerate rain better and do not need rain protection.
Whether with red, orange or yellow fruits, there are now numerous varieties of wild tomatoes on the market, including:
- 'Red Marble': From mid-July, red sweet fruits.
- 'Golden Currant': yellow-fruited variety that is only about one meter high, but all the wider.
- Currant tomato: with red or yellow tomatoes that ripen from July.
- Peruvian wild tomato: harvest the tiny red fruits until frost; copes well with drought.
- 'Humboldtii' (Humboldt tomato): red fruits with a slight raspberry aroma.
- Galapagos Wild Tomato: Red and yellow varieties with broad, fruity panicles.
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Unpretentious in terms of fertilizer and watering
In terms of cultivation, wild tomatoes are no different from other varieties of tomatoes. When planting, however, you should pay attention to some distance between the plants due to their wide growth - especially in the greenhouse, it can quickly become cramped.
In the open field, wild tomatoes also have the advantage that they usually need less fertilizer and water than their large-fruited relatives - in the pot it may be a little more of both.
