More productive than Cherokee Purple

[OzoneNY]

I love the CP but I only get about a 10 to 12 fruit from each plant. Anyone have a recommendation for a Cherokee Purple alternative that is similar in characteristics but more productive?

[Clay Mountain]

Indian Stripe is virtually the same with generally higher yields. The fruit size may be a smidgen smaller.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Clay Mountain

Indian Stripe is virtually the same with generally higher yields. The fruit size may be a smidgen smaller.

I agree with you and here is
Tania's page for it.


http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Indian_Stripe

When I got the seeds from Donna Nelson I sent some to nctomatoman and he agreed that it was a version of CP with greater fruit yield as well.

If you do a search here at Tville you'll find many many threads about it, that is re Indian Stripe/Cherokee Purple comparisons.

Carolyn

[mikemansker]

I love Daniel Burson.

[sjamesNorway]

I agree that Indian Stripe is a great variety. I'll be growing the potato leaf version every year, partly because it was very early and productive in my greenhouse (55 days). You might also try Spudakee, which is a more productive potato leaf version of CP.

Steve

[Labradors2]

A couple of years ago, I grew both Indian Stripe and Margaret Curtain and MC was a lot more productive. I'm growing Margaret again this year. I hope she doesn't get a lot of radial cracking again though.

Linda

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

A couple of years ago, I grew both Indian Stripe and Margaret Curtain and MC was a lot more productive. I'm growing Margaret again this year. I hope she doesn't get a lot of radial cracking again though.

Linda

Just curious, Linda, was the Indian Stripe you grew regular or potato leaf?

Steve

[OzoneNY]

Excellent. Thank you all

[mobiledynamics]

I never really considered production of CP. I only pay attention when I get blight and such and it becomes a early season ender. Going to have to pay attention this year. We always plant 3-4 CP and as long as there is overflow and some extras around, it's never warranted me to see check how many I was getting per plant !

[MissS]

I think that Indian Stripe both the RL & PL taste the same with somewhat better production. I also think that Daniel Burson tastes great but not the same as CP and it has outstanding production for me.

[zipcode]

Cherokee Purple has a fairly high yield potential. It's probably not for your climate I guess. If there is disease pressure it doesn't do well due to weak vegetative growth compared to others.

[throwaway]

10-12 per plant seems pretty good. Out of curiosity, how many do you typically harvest from indian stripe?

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by throwaway

10-12 per plant seems pretty good. Out of curiosity, how many do you typically harvest from indian stripe?

My experience with ISPL is similar to Bill's (b54red). I don't have a count, but I'm sure it produced more than 30. It kept on producing when other varieties were dropping flowers because of the midsummer heat in my greenhouse. Another advantage is that it's fairly compact. I've also grown Spudakee, which is excellent, but I only have room for one, and it will be ISPL.

Steve

[Labradors2]

Steve,

I grew ISRL the same year that I grew Margaret Curtain.

Last year I grew ISRL and ISPL, but it was a bad year and neither plant did very well for various reasons, so I was unable to compare them.

I really LOVE the taste of ISRL and thought it tasted better than MC (and Rosella Purple too), but there was a big difference in production, with MC being exceptional.

Linda

[b54red]

I believe that Spudakee is far more productive than CP and virtually the same tomato. It is one of my favorites as it is productive in all kinds of weather and continues to produce for a long time where CP seemed to die more easily and earlier.

ISPL is usually far more productive than either IS or CP and produces better in the extreme heat of summer down here. I typically get between 30 and 50 tomatoes off a single ISPL plant each season though I did get around 100 off of one particularly productive plant one year.

I also grow Margaret Curtain and it is productive but it has some of the most blemished fruit due to the excessive cracking of the skin. It may sometimes produce as many fruits as ISPL in cooler weather but it doesn't produce as much once it gets into the blistering heat of late summer.

Another black tomato that can be very productive and that tastes really good is JD's Special C Tex. The biggest problem with JD's is that it seems to be more inconsistent in production and is one of the most susceptible tomatoes to gray mold which is a problem down here with all the black varieties.

If you want a black tomato that is both very productive and large then you can try Gary O' Sena. It is a great producer and the fruit is larger than most of the other black tomatoes but it is not quite as rich tasting to me.

I grow them all every year along with Berkely Tie Dye Pink and some years I will also grow Carbon which is a great fall tomato and Black Krim which is the king of splitting but it has great taste.

If you can only grow one variety of black I would suggest either ISPL or Spudakee; but if you have room for more then try them all or as many as you can and compare them yourself.

Even though I grow a lot of black tomatoes I would never depend on them solely because if you get a long wet spell they can all do very poorly and gray mold will be a major problem. One year I got almost no edible fruits from my black tomatoes due to excessive rain and the resulting diseased plants and split fruit. Even the ones that didn't split had almost no taste and were very mushy. The rain that year also affected my other tomatoes but the red and pink varieties did much better with far less splitting and much better flavor and without much gray mold. I recommend using a copper spray every 7 to 10 days on all the black varieties to help prevent gray mold and if it does show up use the diluted bleach spray as soon as possible.

Bill