2013 Cherry Tomato Selections

[newtraditionsfarm]

Here's my selection so far for 2013 cherry varieties!

These will be grown for my 50 person CSA and market farm. I am planning on planting about 450 of them in the open field using woven landscaping fabric, drip irrigation and a modified Florida weave system using t-posts.

The traits I am mainly looking for are: Crack Resistance, Ease of Picking & Tolerance to Open Field Conditions.

If you have any suggestions, replacements, substitutions, etc. I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

Sun Sugar F1
Juliet F1
Jolly Cherry F1
Sweet Million FNT F1
Sweet Treats F1
Sakrua F1
Five Star Grape F1
Yellow Mini F1
Black Cherry
Green Zebra Cherry
Golden Rave F1
Michael Pollen
Golden Gem F1
Sunset Falls F1

[Heritage]

I would add a few plants of Sungold F1, Lollipop, and Sungella.

I'm not familiar with the tomato diseases of Illinois but I imagine you've selected your F1 varieties in part based on their resistance/tolerance to local disease pressure?

Good luck with your project!
Steve

[newtraditionsfarm]

Yes, I am actually open to some more OP varieties!

I've grown Sun Gold for the past three years but can't stand how often they crack. We are a bit short on labor (me vs 5 acres), so anything that holds well on the vine and doesn't crack, spit or split is what I am looking for.

Early Blight, Bacterial Spot & Speck and Verticillium Wilt seem to be our biggest disease pressures!

This year will be an interesting transition for me. I'll be moving from a VERY SANDY black loam soil type to a MUCH richer silty-clay loam. I'm sure the varieties I have success with will change accordingly!

[PNW_D]

I really liked Medovaya Kaplya - one of Carolyn's offerings this year - a prolific, healthy and tasty yellow ... these are from one plant - the pear shaped ones - third picking

[Heritage]

Picking 450 cherry tomato plants is ambitious - maybe cheat a little and throw in some of the salad-size tomatoes.

Anyway, a few more cherry size that might fit your criteria are "Blush" and "Galinas Yellow". "Galinas Yellow" will hold on/off the plant forever. However, GY isn't very productive or flavorful.

A mild flavored red that keeps, handles, and produces well is "Fiaschetto".

My sister's favorite cherry was "Sweet as Linda". I haven't grown it so not sure how it handles or produces.

And then there's....

[dokutaaguriin]

An excellent alternative to SUngold is SWEET ORANGE II- sweet fruity taste.
Jeff

[newtraditionsfarm]

Galina's looks great, will def. add to the list!

[newtraditionsfarm]

How does Sungella compare to Flamme?

Every single year Flamme astounds me with it's productivity and ease of picking. I love small fruited / saladette tomatoes and would welcome any recs regarding them.

[Fusion_power]

Black Krim Cherry
Sweet Quartz
Dr. Carolyn Pink
Galinas
Green Doctors Frosted
Goose Creek - a golf ball or slightly larger pink tomato with a tangy flavor.
Jaune Flamme is not a cherry, but it is a very early and reliable producer of tart zingy tomatoes that I love to eat.

You won't find Black Krim Cherry anywhere except on my website. It is arguably the best flavored cherry tomato I grow but I am not sure it is stable yet. I'm only up to F4 with it.

DarJones

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by newtraditionsfarm

How does Sungella compare to Flamme?

Every single year Flamme astounds me with it's productivity and ease of picking. I love small fruited / saladette tomatoes and would welcome any recs regarding them.

That should be Jaune Flammee as Darrel noted in his post below yours. I'm the guilty party, kind of, for having it listed at TGS as Flammee. And it should have two "e's" for Flammee, I can't do the French accent mark on the penultimate "e".

And I'm guilty b'c when I sent this variety to Linda at TGS many years ago for trial I was in a hurry and forgot to write the Jaune part. I told her about it, she corrected it at her website, but then stopped doing that for some reason.

it's one of many outstanding varieties that several of us got from Norbert in France in 1992 and I love it as well.

Another smallish one, some say a large cherry, but with original seeds I got fruits a bit larger than that is Earl of Edgecombe which is a deep orange globe, indet but compact and I think it has outstanding taste and seldom have I seen any splitting.

Someone already aasked why all the F1's and you replied that the diseases you have are primarily foliage diseases and Verticillium was the only soilborne systemic disease you mentioned.

Since there are no varieties, OP or F1, with few exceptions, that have any good tolerance to Early Blight or Septoria or Bacterial Speck or bacterial Spot, why not concentrate on the many excellent OP cherry varieties whose seeds are much cheaper. In my zone 5 I occasionally had Verticillium but it was random in appearance and usually the plants outgrew the infection.

I second many of the varieties that have already been mentioned,and some others as well, but some are so new that I don't think they're commercially available yet, such as Fiaschetto, which I like, a red, and also Durmitor, which is a red heirloom cherry from Serbia, and also Ciliega and one that several folks here seem to like a lot which is Casino Chips.

You can always check the commercial availability of any variety that anyone mentions by going to Tania's wonderful Tomato-Base website although most of the over 3,000 varieties she has pages for are OP's, not hybrids.

Other red fruited cherries that I like a lot are Chadwick's Cherry, aka Camp Joy,and the old favorite of many Gardener's Delight, just to name some OP alternatives. Another red larger cherry that has performed well for me, very well, actually, is Mountain Magic F1 and another grape tomato that I like very much is Smarty F1, and those two last ones are both available commercially and were bred by Dr. Randy Gardner who also bred all the Mountain series that so many know.

And I do like Galina's Yellow, a deep gold cherry on PL foliage and for me it's been prolific and tastes great, meaning for me not sicky sweet, but I see that Steve ( Heritage) didn't have that great an experience with it where he lives and grows his tomatoes.

For a green when ripe cherry I prefer Green Doctors or Green Doctors Frosted or Verde Claro, which has a clear epidermis so never develops the amber blush as do most of the GWRIpes.

There weren't too many pink cherries mentioned, I know Darrel mentioned Dr. Carolyn Pink, which is a good one, and I'll mention Amish Salad, which is a pink oval cherry which is darn near bullet proof and has long keeping qualities both on and off the plant. Taste of it varies as is true of any variety b'c taste is personal and perceptual and there are many variables that ply into taste.

That's enough for now methinks.

[Heritage]

Originally Posted by newtraditionsfarm

How does Sungella compare to Flamme?

Jaune Flamme is tangy and Sungella is sweet. Jaune Flamme is slightly larger and has more eye appeal - it would be the best of the two for CSA if you could only choose one. I can't remember if Sungella splits.

Eva Purple Ball and Evan's Purple pear are two salad size that you should check into.

I almost forgot "Elfin" - one of the best red cherries for hang time and handling. Also, excellent sweet flavor.

Steve

[Tania]

The best green cherry I tried is 'Emerald'. It beats Green Doctors by far!

Among yellows I'd vote for Galina's Yellow, Lollipop, Solguld, and Aunt Ruby's Yellow Cherry.

Reds: Fruity Cherry, Tommy Toe, Tomadose Des Comores, Auntie Marge (looks very cute), Sweetie, Brin de Muguet (tear-drop shape, good kepper)

black: Black Cherry

bi-colors: Isis Candy, Marizol Magic

pink: Brandywine Cherry

white: Snow White, Coyote, Dr. Carolyn

orange: SunSugar F1

[roper2008]

Originally Posted by Heritage

Picking 450 cherry tomato plants is ambitious - maybe cheat a little and throw in some of the salad-size tomatoes.

Anyway, a few more cherry size that might fit your criteria are "Blush" and "Galinas Yellow". "Galinas Yellow" will hold on/off the plant forever. However, GY isn't very productive or flavorful.

A mild flavored red that keeps, handles, and produces well is "Fiaschetto".

My sister's favorite cherry was "Sweet as Linda". I haven't grown it so not sure how it handles or produces.

And then there's....

"Sweet as Linda", I have to add this one to my list. Is Heritage Tomato Seeds
yours?

[ContainerTed]

After all the hype about new varieties, it's still individual taste in the end. I get suspicious of any list of cherry tomatoes that doesn't include Tommy Toe Red and Tommy Toe Yellow. They have good disease resistance and extremely high production. The tastes of both are "old fashioned" and they produce all the way to frost.

Yes, there are a lot of "candy-sweet" varieties out there, but how many of them would taste good on a BLT????

[Farmette]

Wow, that's alot of cherries. This yr, our garden group planted 5 cherry tomato plants and 45 regular sized tomato plants for our garden group that donates to the food pantry. We have 25+ clients every week. I think we could have used 5 more cherries, but too many more than that and we would have had an overabundance for the number of clients. As it was, we had trouble keeping up with the picking. I can't imagine how many cherries you'll have with 450 plants.