favorite cherokee?

[heirloomdaddy]

I'm a big cherokee purple fan. What are your thoughts on the green and chocolate? If you could only grow one? I'm cutting down the number of varieties I grow and am trying to focus on the real winners.

Hopefully Craig can weigh-in on this one. Thanks!

[amideutch]

Spudakee Purple (Cherokee Purple PL). Ami

[desertlzbn]

I grew out Cherokee Chocolate over this past fall/winter, and it was WONDERFUL, I really liked it. My Mom who says she does not like "black" tomatoes really thought it was good too. I don't think it is a black tomato per se, but it is pretty dark, more dark mahogany I guess. I have not grown out Cherokee Purple yet, I still have to get seeds.

[Vince]

Considering I have only grown Cherokee purple and Spudakee I cannot decide. Both of these are excellent and seem like distinct tomatoes. Spudakee is a MONSTER sized plant, while cherokee purple stays more bushy for me(Not over 6 feet). As I have read on other posts, cherokee green and choclate are supposed to have the same taste as purple since they are the result of a mutation. I am not sure I buy this. Those color pigments or lack of in the skin (chocolate) and in the flesh(green), respectively, must have some weight in flavor?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by heirloomdaddy

I'm a big cherokee purple fan. What are your thoughts on the green and chocolate? If you could only grow one? I'm cutting down the number of varieties I grow and am trying to focus on the real winners.

Hopefully Craig can weigh-in on this one. Thanks!

OK, so you've already grown the standard Cherokee Purple and like that one so you aren't asking about CP itself.

Cherokee Chocolate is the same as CP except its had an epidermis mutation which makes it a mahagony color. CP has a clear epidermis which allows for CP to be a dusky kind of pinkish color and CC has a yellow epidermis which alters the outside color.

All else is the same.

No one really understands, from a genetic point of view, how Cherokee Green came about. Craig had sent seeds of CC to Darrell Merrell in OK and Darrell had sent back saved seeds and when Craig grew out some of those plants Cherokee Green appeared.

So no contest for me. You ask which one to grow between Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Green and for me it MUST be CG. I'm a green when ripe fan and have grown many gwripes and CG is still my favorite in a large fruited green when ripe.

My fave gwhenripe in a cherry would be either Green Doctors or its clear epidermis mutant Green Doctors Frosted.

[nctomatoman]

I love them all! As Carolyn indicates, the family resemblance means that they share some desirable traits - intense flavor, good consistent size, high consistent yield and good disease tolerance. But as Vince indicates, there could be some subtle flavor differences related to pigmentation. Since Cherokee Green has green flesh, it would be expected to have the more subtle differences, since Ch Choc and Ch Pur have the same flesh color. If it is a "placebo" sort of effect (the impact of taste through visual impressions) so be it...a blind tasting of the three would be quite interesting!

I don't consider Spudakee a Cherokee - it is Potato Leaf (Cherokee Purple is regular leaf), so Spudakee is either a seed mix up, mislabel of cross, in my opinion. I've grown it - it is a good tomato, but it is less stocky, less high yielding, less consistent and less disease tolerant in my garden. (also have to say that I dislike the name "spudakee"...but that's just my opinion!)

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Vince

Considering I have only grown Cherokee purple and Spudakee I cannot decide. Both of these are excellent and seem like distinct tomatoes. Spudakee is a MONSTER sized plant, while cherokee purple stays more bushy for me(Not over 6 feet). As I have read on other posts, cherokee green and choclate are supposed to have the same taste as purple since they are the result of a mutation. I am not sure I buy this. Those color pigments or lack of in the skin (chocolate) and in the flesh(green), respectively, must have some weight in flavor?

Vince, the thin epidermis of the tomato is not the same as the cell wall of the tomato.

You say above that you've read elsewhere that CG and CC are supposed to have the same taste. But I can't understand how anyone would say that b/c they are two very distinct varieties.

if you wanted to make a comparison it would be between CP and CC b'c the only difference there is the thin epidermis. Epidermis mutations are single spontaneous mutations that are permanent and heritable.

In the case of CP and CC, that single mutation changed only the exterior color of the fruit. The same happens with a pink to red fruit color change meaning reds have a yellow epidermis and pinks a clear epidermis and the reverse color change also can happen.

I used to maintain several varieties in both the pink and red forms b'c epidermis mutations are not all that rare, but I try to never distribute seeds for a variety that doesn't conform to what the original variety was.

yes, I know others feel differently. In my book I said that I had both red and pink forms of the variety Coustralee. I sent seeds of the original red to Glenn at Sandhill many years ago and recently he too found the pink form and he listed it in the pink section of his catalog for 2010 as well as listing the original in the red section.

I hope the above helps.