Plant Care Library

Group/Class:  Cherry/Grape-Indeterminate

Description:

An early maturing and highly productive variety; vigorous vines produce large clusters of small, bright red grape tomatoes; deliciously sweet and flavorful, a great snack for children or as an addition to salads; excellent crack and disease resistance

Edible Qualities

Jelly Bean Tomato is an annual vegetable plant that is typically grown for its edible qualities. It produces clusters of red round tomatoes (which are technically 'berries') with red flesh which are usually ready for picking from early summer to early fall. This is an indeterminate variety, which means it produces fruit throughout the growing season. The tomatoes have a sweet taste with a juicy texture and a distinctive fragrance.

The tomatoes are most often used in the following ways:

• Fresh Eating
• Eating When Cooked/Prepared
• Cooking
• Baking
• Canning

Planting & Growing

Jelly Bean Tomato will grow to be about 8 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 3 feet. When planted in rows, individual plants should be spaced approximately 24 inches apart. Because of its vigorous growth habit, it may require staking or supplemental support. This fast-growing vegetable plant is an annual, which means that it will grow for one season in your garden and then die after producing a crop.

This plant can be difficult to integrate into a landscape or flower garden, and is best grown in a designated vegetable garden. It should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Jelly Bean Tomato is a good choice for the vegetable garden, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.