Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Discuss your tips, tricks and experiences growing and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants and herbs.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old July 19, 2014   #16
joseph
Tomatovillian™
 
joseph's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake
Posts: 1,244
Default

Around here it's hard to sell any slicing tomato that isn't round and primary red.

Cherry tomatoes of various colors look great on a table at market, but the labor to pick them makes them uneconomical for anything other than a splash of color.
joseph is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #17
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Just give a sample. They taste great. People have no choice but to love them.

I'm a very small-time market grower, so my time isn't worth much. I spent about six hours picking and washing, and I made roughly $200 from the cherries. Obviously there are expenses to grow them, too, but I've already paid them, so I'm happy to get that money back at least.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #18
clkeiper
Tomatovillian™
 
clkeiper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: ohio
Posts: 4,350
Default

Cole robbi! That was fabulous selection of cherry toms. How many do you plant to have that many at a time? what/how many varieties do you have? Thanks for the info. It is so hard to guess at how many of what to plant and plan on for the market.
__________________
carolyn k
clkeiper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #19
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks. Most of my plants are in one 50-ft row, about 18 or so. I don't have more than 2-3 plants of any one variety.

They are the Artisan mix from Johnny's, plus white cherry, sungold, Chang li (Chinese yellow pear), Dancing with Smurfs, and Joe Laurer's Pink German Egg. I would have black cherry, too, but those plants got set out too late and didn't produce well.

I think I'm finally confident in my variety selections. Now I need to get better at providing more consistent irrigation to combat blossom end rot. I lost a lot of the oblong-shaped fruit to BER.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #20
clkeiper
Tomatovillian™
 
clkeiper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: ohio
Posts: 4,350
Default

I am envious! They are beautiful. well done. I did sun sugar, sun gold, lemon drop, orange sunshine, sweet olive, a green cherry ( I hope) and some 4th of July.... I hope mine look as nice as yours when they start producing.
__________________
carolyn k

Last edited by clkeiper; July 20, 2014 at 09:49 PM.
clkeiper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #21
joseph
Tomatovillian™
 
joseph's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Cache Valley, N/E of The Great Salt Lake
Posts: 1,244
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie View Post
I think I'm finally confident in my variety selections. Now I need to get better at providing more consistent irrigation to combat blossom end rot. I lost a lot of the oblong-shaped fruit to BER.
If you made different variety selections you wouldn't have to get better at providing more consistent irrigation... There are tomato varieties that rarely if ever get BER in spite of inconsistent irrigation.
joseph is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #22
Salsacharley
Tomatovillian™
 
Salsacharley's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New Mexico
Posts: 2,051
Default

I'm going to market this coming Thursday with Knopka, Ambrosia Red, Sungold, Gold Nugget, Sugar Drop, Submarine Blush, Jan's, Bosque Green Cherry, Elfin (if enough are ready), Yellow Pair, Black Pear, Chocolate Pear, Green Pear, Ivory Pear, Purple Pear, Black Cherry, Starfire Isis, Maglia Rosa, Blush, and a bunch of different Tigers, Blues and Bumblebees. I will probably only have a pint or so of each, but they should look spectacular. I only have a few ripe big varieties but I need to get my space at the market established. I'm also going to charge more for a full pint of cherries than their equivalent weight in big varieties.
Salsacharley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #23
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks again, Carolyn.

Neat varieties, Charley, I will have to look into those. If you could take pics, I would love to see them.

And Joseph, I don't disagree at all. I'm just very partial to the varieties that got BER. I love eating them, because of how good they taste, and that's what makes them so much fun to sell.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 20, 2014   #24
clkeiper
Tomatovillian™
 
clkeiper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: ohio
Posts: 4,350
Default

Cole Robbie, how does that dancing with smurfs taste?
__________________
carolyn k
clkeiper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 21, 2014   #25
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

It's ok. I wouldn't call it amazing, but it's not bad.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 21, 2014   #26
bower
Tomatovillian™
 
bower's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,793
Default

Cole Robbie, your tomatoes look fantastic!
The market here is somewhere in the middle - most people still want a round red tomato, but there's enough interest to sell other coloured heirlooms and mixed cherries, no worries about coming home with unsold produce... especially anything as good looking as yours.
bower is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 21, 2014   #27
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks Bower
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 21, 2014   #28
AKmark
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Wasilla Alaska
Posts: 2,010
Default

I bet you cant grow enough of those cherries to satisfy the people, your color mix looked really awesome. People just love the colors and the different types, the cherries usually hook them, and then they try other stuff too. Nice!
AKmark is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 21, 2014   #29
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

Thanks, Mark. I started selling a color mix of cherries last year, and this year there are two other vendors with similar products. The Artisan mix really puts me over the top competition-wise.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old July 30, 2014   #30
Cole_Robbie
Tomatovillian™
 
Cole_Robbie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
Default

My table this afternoon:
http://i.imgur.com/2kdcjT8.jpg

I think I'm going to drop the Sungold for next year so I can call it an heirloom/OP mix. Another tough call is Black Cherry, which I like, but I like Purple Bumble Bee better. Maybe I will try Chocolate Cherry in place of Black Cherry next year.
Cole_Robbie is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:12 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★