Cherokee Purple vs Indian Stripe

[Banadoura]

For those of you who tried both, is there a noticeable difference when it comes to taste?

Also is there one that comes back to your garden every year but not the other? Why?

Thanks,

[b54red]

I found CP to be inconsistent in production and started using Spudakee the potato leaf version which was a far more consistent producer and the taste was identical as were the fruits. Indian Stripe and Indian Stripe PL are two of my favorites because of their high production in the heat. IS and CP both taste so similar I don't know if many could tell them apart and you should just go with which ever one does best for you.

Bill

[Banadoura]

Thanks for sharing your experience B54, I plan on growing both in the upcoming season but with more space assigned to ISPL based on your input.

Cheers,

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by b54red

I found CP to be inconsistent in production and started using Spudakee the potato leaf version which was a far more consistent producer and the taste was identical as were the fruits.
Bill

I have found CP to be inconstant as well. Thanks for the info about Spudakee. I have read that it does well here in Texas.

[Gardeneer]

The two ( IS and CP ) have no big resemblance. They are just related by " Cherokee " and "Indian " in their names. I grew them last year in the same bed.
IS had more tomatoes in numbers but much smaller in size and It had more pronounced purple color.
CP, on the other hand had fewer tomatoes but big ones, some over one pound.

Aug 4- Is or CP.jpg
This (above ) was IS plant

Aug 26- CP 3.jpg

This was CP plant

And the following CP fruits

Sep 6- CP.jpgsep 9 -cp.jpg

I don't think they are related. at all.

[Hoosier]

I have grown CP for the last three years and have been very happy with it other than it usually goes downhill fairly quickly mid season. Planning on growing IS this season and was hoping the fruit would be very similar but just with a little longer season and maybe some more tomatoes. I might just go ahead and grow them side by side.

[Gerardo]

ISPL wins, more productive on those initial trusses. As others stated, CP provides larger fruit.

[SharonRossy]

Love IS. Tried ISPL last year and mixed results and will back to ISRL. CP was okay for me, but IS will always have a place in my garden. I find it does well in our short summer season.

[b54red]

If you want larger fruits with IS or ISPL then you need to cull the clusters very early. I have had plenty of IS fruits in the one pound range but I like the size of them without culling unless I get too heavy a fruit set which happens more with ISPL than with IS.

If you want a tomato that looks more like CP in size then try JD's Special C Tex. I think it is the best tasting of the so called black tomatoes and it is one of the largest. If you want a huge black tomato then grow Gary O' Sena. I found CP to be very inconsistent in size from year to year also as are most varieties but it seemed more sensitive to our terrible heat and humidity than Spudakee.

I love the taste of most of the black tomatoes I have tried and some are better than others but they have one common problem that plagues them in my garden and that is the tendency to get gray mold. The ones I found most susceptible to gray mold were Black from Tula, JD's Special C Tex, Black Krim and Carbon. This is purely anecdotal but for years these are usually the varieties that get gray mold first and worst for me; but I still grow them all most years cause I love em.

Despite loving them some years they will do poorly mainly from too much rainfall causing splitting and near tasteless mushy fruit on most of the black tomatoes. The worst to split for me were Black Krim and Margaret Curtain. MC was also the worst to get radial splitting with just a little rain during the summer heat. This made them look uglier than most but they still tasted great.

Bill

[Gardeneer]

I have grown Black Krim , Cherokee Purple, Indian Strip RL and Black from Tula.
Overall, BFT has performed the best, in production and earliness. BK was prone to cracking.
NEW FOUND:
in winter of 2015 I bought a so-called heirloom tomato from grocery store. (NO NAME). I posted a picture of it at the other site to id it ( just for entertainment). Some suggested that it is Black Sea Man.... I saved seeds and grew it in 2016.
It was NOT BSM for sure. This one had RL top not PL.
Here are few pictures.
Aug 23 - mystery 1.jpg
You can see the taste with that juicy gel

Aug 23 - mystery 2.jpg
This one is the same one before slicing. Nice color and shape. That was in AUgust.


sep 3- mystry.jpg
Here are a bunch of them, in September. They all have fairly uniform shape and size.
Also, it was the first tomato to flower in my garden. It was fairly a small and compact indet plant. Aug 4- -BSM -2.jpg
Aug 4- Bsm- 1.jpg
Now some suggested it is maybe Sarah Black. But I have not given it a name. I am going to grow it it along with Indian Stripe PL and compare.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by SharonRossy

Love IS. Tried ISPL last year and mixed results and will back to ISRL. CP was okay for me, but IS will always have a place in my garden. I find it does well in our short summer season.

I don't at all want to discourage you from growing a fine tomato like Indian Stripe -- you may be happiest with that.

However, FWIW, I grow ISPL in a very short season location and it does great -- often a little earlier than regular IS -- though all my IS have similar timing -- with very similar proper Indian Stripe fruit -- and all do better here than Cherokee Purple.

I mention it because in the course of my watching anything remotely resembling a heart shaped IS, I noted that you said that most of your IS resembled a point-bottomed pic you posted.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....1&postcount=27

As b54red (ISPL's "human parent") said about another tomato in that thread, your pic doesn't really look like ISPL. Other posts in that thread indicated that there seem to be some atypical tomatoes circulating as ISPL.

Doesn't say anything about the quality of those tomatoes one way or the other, but does suggest that if you want to try ISPL, you might try some from a different source.

Just an FYI , in case you are interested -- again, not trying to discourage you from growing regular Indian Stripe, if that's what works best for you.

Aged brain has trouble keeping all the names straight -- had that problem even before it aged -- checked again and it was a different pic of the fruit of your 'ISPL' plants that b54red said wasn't ISPL -- all the more reason to try real ISPL sometime, maybe, to see how it compares to regular IS there.

[Banadoura]

A quick thank you to all who shared their input, this has been a very helpful thread

Cheers,

[carolyn137]

I thought I posted here since I was one of the first to grow both Cherokee Purple as well as Indian Stripe.

Perhaps I posted it elsewhere,I'll check,since I was also telling JLJ that I got lots of seeds of Indian Stripe Heart from Marina in Russia that she initially got from me in a seed offer here..

Carolyn

[gssgarden]

I agree with above. CP has flavor that is the best I have ever tasted but depending on weather, heat, ect, it can produce minimally. Last year I grew IS and was extremely impressed. VERY productive and healthy.

If I were to put CP on a taste scale, it would be a 10 for me, IS would be very close. I'd say a 9!

You really can't go wrong with either.

Greg

[b54red]

Originally Posted by gssgarden

I agree with above. CP has flavor that is the best I have ever tasted but depending on weather, heat, ect, it can produce minimally. Last year I grew IS and was extremely impressed. VERY productive and healthy.

If I were to put CP on a taste scale, it would be a 10 for me, IS would be very close. I'd say a 9!

You really can't go wrong with either.

Greg

Greg you really should try Spudakee. The flavor is fantastic and from everything I have heard it is just the potato leaf version of CP. Spudakee has been a far more consistent producer than CP in my garden. As for the taste of these various black or pink/black tomatoes the taste varies from year to year and in any one year one will usually be better than the others but trying to guess which one that will be is a real mystery. Since I like almost all the black varieties I have tried I always plant a mix of at least 6 or 7 different ones each year.

Bill