If life were just a bowl of cherries...

[RebelRidin]

If life were just a bowl of cherries/plum/grape tomatoes and you could only choose two plants to grow - one of the white/lemon/yellow/orange persuasion, and one of the pink/red/purple/brick/black persuasion....

What would you choose and why?

[kath]

Sungold F1 and Matt's Wild Cherry because they're the only 2 I can't stop eating and because the plants produce well and early for me.

[RebelRidin]

I'm just a tad south of you in 7a so those sound promising... Thanks Kath.

More please ...

[Worth1]

Sun Gold Black cherry.
Easy.

Worth

[laspasturas]

Coyote and Black Cherry

They are family favorites and both so dependable and productive in our heat. I don't think I will ever not grow them.

[puttgirl]

How about a red/yellow? I like Isis Candy

[Delynnr]

Matt's Wild Cherry is a fave, but my dog adores them as well so we don't plant them any more..... we never got to eat many of them

Black Cherry is my favorite cherry, the only one going in the garden this year.

[tgplp]

My two favs (and I haven't grown many) are Sungold (obviously!) and Supersweet 100. I also liked Chocolate Cherry, but I like Supersweet 100 better.

I like these two cherries because A, they seem to grow really well where I live! (Rainy Western Washington) and B, because they are delicious and they barely ever make it into the kitchen! My little sister is always stealing them out of my garden, and the neighbor boys who are three and six years old come into our yard to eat them!

Sungold is hands down my favorite cherry tomato. It was the earliest in my garden, it has delicious tropical fruity nuances but still tastes like a tomato, and it has more flavor than just "sweet".

Supersweet 100 is a great standard red cherry to have around. It is the perfect balance of sweet and acidic. I just wish it was a better producer. I got way less tomatoes on it than on Sungold. This year I am trying Gardener's Delight and Supersweet 100 to see which I like better.



Taryn

[bughunter99]

Galina and Dr. Carolyn for me.

While I like the taste of sungold and it is really productive it cracks like crazy and drives me nuts. This will be my last year attempting Black Cherry. First year got the wrong seeds from Bakers. Last year new seed and it still tasted not so hot. If its not great this year, its going off the list.

[RebelRidin]

OK I am getting some good feedback that is getting me thinking. While that could be dangerous I want to say Thank You to all who have taken time to respond thus far. Below are some of my thoughts to this point. If anyone wants to help me straighten them out PLEASE do. I need to decide this within the next couple of days so I can source some seed and get them started.

"Sungold seems to have most of the world persuaded. I've seen gushing comments about it in other threads too. The idea of it being early AND tasty is very attractive. My only real concern is how well it can hold on the vine. It drives bughunter buggy with its cracking. Coyote seems to boast the same traits as Sungold and it has a really great name. Maybe it won't crack as much as Sungold? I see laspasturas is from Oklahoma so I know he sees the kind of heat I have but what about the humidity? I probably should try the Sungold just to see what everyone else is raving about. I wonder if I could sneak in another plant and try them both?

Black Cherry seems awful popular and would sure be pretty with some yellow ( or orange. I better check out Isis Candy too ). Black Cherry originated in Florida and folks from the PNW to Texas to New York and points in between (thank you laspasturas) seem to recommend it highly. It must be very adapatable even if the first year isn't a bumper crop. I wonder how it tastes compared to Matt's though? Is it getting an extra boost from the black craze?

There is something appealing about the idea of a "Wild" strain and everyone says Matt's is delicious! I have had Sweet 100 before. As I remember it produced oodles of fruit and was really juicy but it wasn't memorable enough in taste to come to mind until Taryn mentioned it.

Whoa, I don't like that. Johnny's has a caution for Matt's Wild Cherry... "Though the taste is superior, it doesn't yield well and the fruits are soft, so grow on a trial scale at first." Matt's may not be a smart bet if growing just one red. This seems strange. Kath indicates good production for Matt's. Tatania's tomato base says so too. In fact Johnny's is the only negative comment I have seen about Matt's. Kath is in PA, is fairly near me while Johnny's is in Maine. Maybe Maine is the reason for Johnny's comment? I would expect that being a "wild strain from eastern Mexico" high heat shouldn't be an issue and may even be a prerequisite for Matt's. I wonder about the humidity though? I wonder if it is listed in Carolyn's book. That thing should be here by now! I wonder if anyone along the coast in North Carolina has thoughts on Matt's? Except for slightly milder winters NC coastal is virtually identical to Delmarva..."

So on it goes...

[kath]

I tried Coyote and hated it along with many others who do not like its taste, but others love it. It was also quite late, imo. Yes, Sungold cracks when it rains but it's worth picking some fruits a bit early to avoid splitting.

I tried Black Cherry 3 years and liked the taste the first year, hated the lateness and the splitting but grew it again because it's taste was good and I liked the color. The next two years it was still late, split as much, production was less than Sungold and the flavor wasn't as good as I remembered. I also prefer smaller cherries and I realized it wasn't worth the space for me because I'd rather have two Sungolds and have no color variety.

I didn't find Sweet 100 or Isis Candy nearly as tasty as either Sungold or BC...but that's one year and my taste buds.

Matt's produces HUGE sprawling vines and I always got LOTS of fruits. It was always the toughest plant in my garden in terms of continuing until a real frost while others succumbed to bugs, disease, cold temps, etc. I find it as addictive as Sungold eating and that's saying a lot. Others I shared with said they never liked cherry tomatoes until they tried it and were amazed at how much it tasted like a tomato even though it's sweet. The fruits are soft but when picking if you bend the fruit "against the first joint" (lacking the tomato vocab) it prevents the skin from tearing or the fruit from splitting. I don't think it takes longer to pick but I think it's easier to put up with a varieties shortcomings when you love it for what it offers.

It's humid here, too, but not as much as where you are and it's not as hot; our soils are different and so are our taste buds, but I hope you get more feedback from those closer to where you live to help you decide.

Oh, and there are other threads about favorite cherry tomatoes that you can search, but you'll find that Sungold and Black Cherry are always real winners in those discussions.

kath

[stormymater]

Super Snow White knocks it out the park for flavor, productivity & producing right through the ugliest of our summer heat, humidity &, oddly, drought. Sweet but balanced, stunning when mixed with other cherries - we grow it every year.

FTR - DH dislikes SunGold. He detests the thick skin & shrugs over the flavor - so I guess tastes & environment make a difference.

Black Cherry is a must grow here.

We have some red must grows but I'll not bother you with those.

[tam91]

Black Cherry for me. I like Sungold, but there is another related variety called SunSugar that is supposed to crack less. A friend of mine grew both and said she couldn't tell a difference in taste between the two.

[Tracydr]

I haven't been happy with the cherries ive tried so far so this year I'm growing Sungold, Matt's ( people in AZ claim its the only tomato to fruit through our summers and sometimes goes right through the winter), green dr., and Mexican cocktail.
I figure I'll find at least on or two I love. The rest can be dehydrated, mixed into sauces or fed to chickens and dogs.
Nobody like the Reisentraubes last year and I had a bunch of them. Tasted like grocery store cherries.

[Douglas14]

I grew Sunsugar last year. It had great taste and I don't recall much, if any cracking of the fruit.