The Quick Guide to Growing Cherry Tomato Hydroponically

This serves as the second in a series of "Quick Guides" written by GTG's owner himself. Hopefully, this will allow you to successfully grow cherry tomatoes through hydroponics.

Hello there! In this edition of Quick Guides, we'll be discussing how to raise cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are smaller-sized tomatoes usually eaten in salads. These command a higher price versus regular-sized tomatoes. One of the first challenges in growing your cherry tomatoes is finding the seeds. In Metro Manila, seeds are fairly available in hardware stores (such as Ace Hardware) and grocery stores (such as Puregold or SM Hypermart). Sometimes, seeds from consumed cherry tomatoes can be used for planting, except if the said cherry tomato is a hybrid. How can we know? We can't, so it's a 50-50 chance.

If you wish to take seeds from the fruit itself, be sure to wash off the fluids or slime from the fruit and give it a day's worth of drying. No need to put it out of the sun; just let the water evaporate. Do enclose them in a container if rodents are present in the area - they eat tomato seeds.

Got your seeds? Great! Let's get started.

THE GIST
Scientific name: Solanum lycopersicum (Lycopersicum esculentum is its old scientific name; no longer used)
Varieties tested: no specific variety (cherry is a tomato variety in itself, although subvarieties may exist)
Approximate Growth Timeline: [Sowing to emergence: 4 days][Pre-growing: 14 days][Growing at setup: approx. 30-45 days][Flowering and fruit development: continuous until death] = total approx. 80 days (first harvest, continuous until plant death)
Sunlight: Full, at least 6 hours; 4 hours bare minimum

HOW TO
1. Cherry tomato seeds are manageable despite its small size. Sow seeds 1.45 times greater than required. For instance, if you want 4 plants, sow 6 seeds. This is because seeds generally have an 80% germination rate, plus an allowance for sickly seedlings. Rule of thumb is to sow more than needed (but not too many).
2. Prepare your germination tray. Add a layer of coco coir (around 20mm) then poke shallow holes, one for each seed. Once all seeds have been sown, slightly bury them by leveling the bed. Water with water only, no need to water with SNAP solution at this stage. Place this in a shaded area, however, indoors is alright. Expect germination within 7 days, the earliest around 4 days.
3. Once the seeds have germinated, expose them to the sun, preferably greater than 2 hours. Depriving them of sunlight will result to thin and spindly seedlings.
4. Once the first true leaves appear (the leaves that grow after the very first), start watering them with SNAP solution. They should stay in the tray for around two weeks before transplanting.
5. Once the pre-growing stage is done, select the best seedlings based on leaf count, stem strength, physical appearance, etc. Carefully lift the coir around them to safely uproot them and transfer to cups, one on each. If roots are tangled, carefully pull the seedlings apart. A few broken roots would be fine.
6. Mind the gap. For a styrofoam box that fits eight lettuce, add only two seedlings. They can't be too crowded, otherwise, they might not grow well.
7. Prepare to provide them support such as stakes. They will grow to a point that they cannot support themselves.
8. At around three to four weeks they will eventually start flowering. Once flowers bloom, gently tap each to pollinate them, to ensure fruit set (where the flower turns into a fruit).
9. At this stage, the setup may have to be refilled. In doing so, use a half-strength solution (12.5mL A&B per 10L water). Make sure, however, that you leave at least an inch of gap between the cup's base and the water level. Refill as necessary.
10. Tomatoes are ready to harvest when its skin starts to redden. You may leave it to ripen to full red before harvest - it is said to have fuller taste.
11. Continue maintaining your cherry tomato plants as they grow. Note that at one point, its leaves will start to dry up, then eventually the plants die entirely, regardless of gardening practices. For continuous supply, plant new seeds at the onset of flowering.

EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
1. These set of instructions can also apply to other varieties of tomatoes (be it the ordinary or plum type).
2. Suckers (side stems) will grow in the process. Various gardening sites recommend that suckers be removed for better growth but based on experience, suckers yield fruit as well, hence, I don't cut them out. The main stem grows with or without suckers anyway.
3. Expect leaf miners. You can't do anything about it. Just leave them alone, but be sure to do a little control by removing infected leaves when you see that much of the leaves are affected.
4. Remove dried leaves so the nutrients are directed to the growing ones.
5. Many factors are in play when the flower fails to set, such as high temperatures, poor environment, poor nutrition, etc. You can try to increase the concentration of SNAP solution to remedy this. Nonetheless, failure to set happens sometimes, and is a normal occurrence.
6. Blossom end rot happens when the lower tip of the fruit starts to brown and shrivel. This is due to a lack of calcium (Ca), which may be because it is deficient or that the pH does not favor calcium absorption. Recommended pH for tomato is around 6.0 to 6.5.

That's it for now! I hope this helps. If you still have questions, though, feel free to message me so I can entertain you and so that I can better improve this.