Super Sweet 100 flop!

I'm always searching for cherry tomatoes which will produce well, grow in high summer heat, resist disease, and taste good.

I grew Super Sweet 100 this year in large containers with Husky Red Cherry and Cherry Falls in the same containers. My thought was to grow Cherry Falls cascading over the sides of the containers, Husky Red growing and producing at mid level in the containers; and Super Sweet 100 growing over the tops of the cages. It was working well with the containers displaying ripe cheery tomatoes from ground level to the top of the cages.

About two weeks ago, The Super Sweet plants started displaying yellowing leaves near the bottom of the plants. The plants slowly yellowed, withered, and died in ten days. They were still loaded with fruit in various stages of ripeness. The other cultivars which share the containers are still in great shape and show no sign of disease. They are producing great cherry tomatoes abundantly.

I removed the residue of the dead plants, but left some fresh, green growth which the plants had produced near the base of the primary stem. It shows no sign of disease and may grow and produce again.

I won't be growing Super Sweet 100 again.

Ted

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by tedln

. . . I won't be growing Super Sweet 100 again.

Ted

That's certainly atypical for Super Sweet 100. It's one of my "always" tomatoes and even in our less that ideal tomato conditions, normally grows and produces vigorously, with minimal care, until serious cold kills it.

I don't grow it in containers, though -- and it's usually a fairly large plant. Large for our area, not for long-season areas -- four feet high or a little more -- growing on a four foot fence and two to two and a half feet wide. Probably would be bigger in good years if I didn't keep tucking it back into its own territory. Perhaps growing with two other plants was just too much for it to survive, and it was too polite to suffocate/starve its "roommates".

Have you grown it before and seen any behavior like this?

[AlittleSalt]

Ted, Matt's Wild Cherry is way better - without all the splitting. Ambrosia Red produces later, but it's really good. But both need garden space of their own - not a container. Both in Texas, I would plant 4' apart.

JLJ we posted at the same time

SS100 is a large plant.

[Gardeneer]

I think some of those cherries (s100, ss100, ...) have got name recognition and promoted too much.
Teds experiment just proves that point and I think Salt is also right.
There are many less know varieties that might be even much better. That is where this forum become so valuable to find out.
Gardeneer

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Ted, Matt's Wild Cherry is way better - without all the splitting. Ambrosia Red produces later, but it's really good. But both need garden space of their own - not a container. Both in Texas, I would plant 4' apart.

JLJ we posted at the same time

SS100 is a large plant.

Glad you said what you did about Ambrosia Red, I was about to containerize it. [g]

How does its normal maturity time compare to that of Super Sweet 100?

I've tried for several years with Matt's Wild Cherry, and it grows happily and healthily, but, for me, it hasn't yet produced nearly as well as Super Sweet 100.

In most cases, I'd agree with Gardeneer about highly publicized hybrid cherries vs great OP/heirloom varieties, but Super Sweet 100 (not Sweet 100 or any of the similar sounding others) has consistently done well for us, if the year was such that tomatoes did well at all -- but I never put it into a container with two other plants.

[Sun City Linda]

I'm always looking for good cherry toms also. I like Koralik pretty well. It grows short but like a shrub good sharp/sweet taste to me anyway. This year I have Large Red Cherry and Sunrise Bumblebee ready for plant out. I'm going to retry Pearly Pink Orange which I had planted early but it didn't make it. Love Sun Sugar.

[AlittleSalt]

JLJ, Ambrosia Red grew really big plants for us last year. For us, they started producing ripe tomatoes around 20 days later than Sungold. I'd say around 75 DTM. However it was extremely wet here last year.

We didn't plant any this year because there are so many others we haven't tried yet.

Of course, there's also a lot of difference between Wyoming and Texas.

Matt's wild cherry produced so many tomatoes that we got tired of picking them.

[Tracydr]

Try dehydrating MWC. They make a wonderful little,sweet snack.

Growing at different elevations in twenty eight gallon containers isn't really like growing in smaller containers which can only support one plant. In the larger containers, I grow yellow squash, onions, cucumbers; and various tomato cultivars in the same container. For me, the surprise was the fact that the SS100 plants died while the other cultivars thrived in the same containers. We did have a two week period of cool, moist weather which usually promotes fungal diseases. I believe the SS100 plants succumbed to a fungal disease, but I am surprised the other cultivars didn't seem to notice the identical climate conditions.

Cherry Falls has been a pleasant surprise while growing in the same containers as the SS100 plants. I germinated and planted them to cascade over the container sides. At first they seemed to grow straight up like the other cultivars, but when they became loaded with ping pong ball sized tomatoes, they bent over and grew towards the ground. They have been a great tasting, sweet cherry. I believe they are an open pollinated cultivar though I have read some reports saying they are hybrid. I will save seed and see what happens next year.

This is one of the containers in a photo taken about one month ago. The cage is about six feet tall. The Cherry Falls tomatoes are now ripe and abundant.



Ted

This is a photo I took today of a different Cherry Falls plant growing with a Jalapeno plant. I isolated it from other tomato plants in order to save seed. The air was so humid this morning, I could only take one photo before the camera leans fogged over preventing other shots.

Notice none of the ripe tomatoes have split though we have received about eight inches of rain in the last week. I tied this plant up about thirty six inches above ground level so it wouldn't be sprawled on the ground allowing me to mow the grass when needed.



Ted

[Captain Neon]

I've always had good luck with SS100. I grew it in the ground once, and never again. It took over! I grow it in a pot on my patio now. Two seasons ago, there would have been no tomatoes at all were it not for SS100 on the patio. Last year, I grew it in just a 5 gallon pail, and still had loads of cherry tomatoes for my 2 y/o and my wife. I went to a bigger container this year.