if you could grow only cherry tomatoes...

[Worth1]

Can pear tomatoes and grape tomatoes fit in this list?

[heirloomtomaguy]

Any of the tigers or bumblebees
Brandywine cherry
Black cherry
Bosque Green cherry
Ambrosia Orange UBX
Big Sun Gold Select
Summer Sun F1
And way to many more i cant remember right now.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Lorri D

Can I ask why you are only wanting to do cherries?

Do you have a short days to maturity? They just grow better for you? You like the size and shape?

It's an interesting what-if, and a question that hasn't been asked before, as far as I can tell.

I was looking at my tableful of tomatoes the other day and noticing that most of the larger tomatoes have catfacing or BER this year, or else are much smaller than usual. But the cherry tomatoes are doing ok, though not as prolific as usual, so it hasn't been a chore to pick them.

I've always liked great-tasting cherry tomatoes in sandwiches, and i was also wondering what else i could use them for. This year i've discovered a few more garden shares, and cherries are a lot easier to share than larger varieties.

The squirrels have discovered the melons and sunflowers at my home garden, but not the tomatoes...yet. At least if they go after cherries, either i won't notice or the damage will be minimal.

Anyway, although i might actually grow only cherries at home next year, i can't imagine not having all the other varieties at my other gardens.

[Linda10]

I have 4 must-haves:

Black Cherry (Black Opal is close but too many for us and not as consistent in flavor)
Granada
Mexico Midget
Sweet Linda

Plan to try at least Carbon Copy, Oranje Van Goeijenbier, the "Bumbees" and Submarine Blush next spring.

[bower]

This has been a cherry year for me. So glad I planted a lot of them - I just wanted a cherry zoo for to have a nice platter of cherries for my friends' wedding. We had a terrible summer. Almost all the cherries and small fruit were very good to great tasting as well as early and on time for the wedding.... and the larger fruit were dissapointing in flavour and hard as rocks with greywall and uneven ripening across the board, with just a couple of exceptions.

In the OP's I have loved Black Cherry, Sungold, Isis Candy, Galinas Yellow, Blush, even Peacevine but all these plants have been less than perfect to grow in my greenhouse due to their gross amount of vine and foliage per yield of tomatoes. I had Medovaya Kaplya last year (from you I think, Habitat Gardener.. thanks! ) which I was more impressed with production than taste at the time.. however I crossed MK with one of my F1's (Kimberley X Zolotye Kupola) and got really lovely large cherries from these, one yellow which is long about the size of Blush or a little larger and just fantastic taste, and a respectable large red. I also had six F2 plants of a cross between Stupice and Black Cherry - only one of the six was below average taste, a little small and sour (and also died early of the endemic rots) the others were pretty excellent as well as early and productive.

I have a breeding project to develop semideterminate cherries and small fruit, to try and balance the ratio of lanky cherry vine vs fruit. Starting with a cross of Black Cherry and Napoli a Fiaschetto (determinate red small pointy fruit pretty excellent and all purpose). So I had three F3's of a semi-determinate black cherry this year, but also four plants of a cross between the black semi-determinate F2 last year, and a larger fruited F1. The two reds were average but the two blacks blew everything out of the water, so tasty and amazing sweet.

So the big winners for taste this year were crosses involving cherries and larger fruit, except for one straight F2 out of Stupice. I would like to see that amazing flavour in a slightly larger fruit, I guess time will tell.

Other than fresh, I really liked sauce made from random cherries that were tossed in olive oil, garlic, herbs then roasted. When I froze the sauce, the skins were afterwards super tough and annoying though. When I blended the sauce to get rid of skins, there's an undesirable flavour from the ground seeds. Best thought is to cut cherries in half before roasting, and after a half hour at 400 F take them out, cool and pull off the skins. Cherry sauce was awesome when the individual fruits stayed themselves ie yellow, red, black whatever because you get the morsel of diversity and this was also not enjoyed when the sauce was blended.

[habitat_gardener]

"cherry zoo": love that!

[Gardeneer]

Absolutely , positively I will refuse the proposition.

[FarmerShawn]

This year I've loved Sungold, Black Cherry, Mini Yellow, Matt's Wild Cherry, Ambrosia Gold, Esterina, Rancho Solito. Well, seven's not bad...

[Tropicalgrower]

Every year I grow:

Black Cherry (Surprise)! (this is the wifes fave).

Tommy Toe. (This is my fave)...so far.

I saw Durmitor on the Victory Seeds website,and thought I would chance it this year.I see that several members here like it,so I am looking forward to seeing how it works for us here in the tropics.

[carolyn137]

Late to list and kind of off the top of my head with no deep thought involved , here are six I would always enjoy eating.

Black Cherry
Verde Claro
Green Zebra Cherry
Galina's Yellow
Sungold F1
Casino Chips or Mt Magic F1

Carolyn

[saltmarsh]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Purple Haze. It's a great tasting red cherry, but it is also a long keeper.

Picked when ripe and stored on the kitchen counter, they taste as good after 6 weeks as the day they were picked.

Purple Haze and Ramapo Cherry (not released yet) have permanent spots in my garden. Claud

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by saltmarsh

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Purple Haze. It's a great tasting red cherry, but it is also a long keeper.

Picked when ripe and stored on the kitchen counter, they taste as good after 6 weeks as the day they were picked.

Purple Haze and Ramapo Cherry (not released yet) have permanent spots in my garden. Claud

Yeah that was one i forgot to mention. My Purple Haze F1 was tied for best cherry along with the Summer Sun F1 this year. It was an amazing larger black/purple cherry that everyone in the neighbor was knocking down my door to get.

[LindyAdele]

I grow a lot of cherries, because we like them. These are my favourites:

Sungold F1
Ildi (multiflora yellow, incredible flavour and yield, if kept on the dry side almost as sweet as sungold)
Snow White (pale yellow, very sweet with great flavour and yeild)
Pink Bumblebee (pretty striping, good flavour and size, great keeper)
Blush (an elongated cherry, wonderful delicious taste, gorgeous colour and good keeper)

[Patihum]

I grew lots of cherries this year but only two will be returning -

Iva's Red Berry - red, sweet and prolific
Sirja's Love - deep yellow, great flavor and does well in a basket.

[sundrop]

Black Cherry, Sweet Beverly, Blush, Nichols Family from Native Seed Search, Britain's Breakfast which is a largish cherry mostly hollow great for stuffing and yellow pear which my 6 yr old granddaughter loves.