Green Grape and Sun Gold, sweet and tasty!

Galina - yellow, sweet, very tasty.
Black Cherry - smoky, delicious, must grow here

I recommend Dr.Carolyn/Galina and Green Grape. I'm trying Isis Candy, Black Cherry and Sun Gold this year for the first time... If you can handle a lot of seeds Riesentraube is a red cherry that tastes very good. And is very prolific in my experience.

If I had to chose one it would be Dr.Carolyn/Galina.

For the red cherries that your wife prefers I'd suggest:

Camp Joy, aka Chadwick's Cherry
Gardeners Delight, aka Sugar Lump
Riesentraube, already suggested

And for your Grape tomato,go to the store and buy a pint of Santa Sweets and just save the seeds. It's a hybrid but 99/100 seeds planted are the same as the original, the offtype having round fruits and lower sugar concentration.

For others I'd suggest:

Sungold F1, as already suggested
Black Cherry, ditto
Galina's, a deep gold cherry with PL foliage, ditto
Dr. Carolyn, derived from Galina's, also mentioned above
Green Doctors, a mutant of Dr. Carolyn and just superb, better than Green Grape I think, available to SSE listed members but not yet available commercially as far as I know although I've sent seeds to a couple of places and hope it's available soon. Appeared in the tomato patch of someone in southern NYS. The name Green Doctors is a trout fly but also recognizes the person who found it, who has a Ph.D as well as me, with same, who found the original Dr. Carolyn variety, which, BTW someone else named, not me. LOL

Carolyn

Hal

I would recommend the following:

Sweet Quartz F1 - only available from Tomato Growers Supply. The fruits are pink, sometimes oblong, cherries with outstanding flavor. An excellent example of what hybrid heterosis can do for flavor, you will not find this kind of effect in OP/heirloom lines. Bred by the Japanese who emphasize flavor in their breeding programs. It is sweet but also has a character that I have never tasted any other tomato. It has some disease resistance too. {{gwi:2103532}}

Smarty F1 - this is a slightly larger red fruit grape type with high brix values and some disease resistance (VF). Most of all it has a short compact indeterminate habit. So it has the great flavor and foliage resistance associated with indeterminates but isn't a large plant that takes over it's place in the garden. It is available through Johnny's Seed. {{gwi:2103533}}

For different colors I recommend these:

• Black Cherry

• Green Grape - the only decent green around. so far nothing else compares

• SunSugar - very much like SunGold but crack resistance

• Yellow Submarine a potato-leafed yellow pear that is not as bland and mealy like regular yellow pears

{{gwi:2103534}}

Im not just picking on Carolyn here but I want to warn you about Green Doctors, it is a waste of space. I grew it last year and it ranks in one of the worst ones I have ever tried. To me, the fruit had an awful astringent like quality to them (like putting alum in your mouth) and was a true spitter. I tried it time and again hoping it might change with the season or vary between plants. It never did. No one else I had try them liked them either (and I didnt say anything to them before trying). My son will sometimes eat green unripe tomatoes and not spit them out. These he spit out. I got seed from the same source as Carolyn.

If you want something different write me and I can send you something you wont find anywhere else. I could also send seed of "Yellow Submarine".

"Yellow Submarine a potato-leafed yellow pear that is not as bland and mealy like regular yellow pears "

I am almost afraid of the Yellow Pears now after growing 'Beam's Yellow Pear' last season...they were tasteless and mealy and, luckily for me, not very prolific LOL
I thought they were nasty because I had done something wrong to them ....glad to know that it wasnt just me!!

Im not just picking on Carolyn here but I want to warn you about Green Doctors

****

K, I don't see it as picking on me at all.

Freda grew it for me last year here at the house but as with so many others, it didn't perform, so I didn't see that as being definitive.

I never tasted it until last Friday when I received a box of tomatoes from a friend in FL, and I just loved the Green Doctors that were included along with Sungold F1 and several other larger pinks and reds. I can ask him how the plant did itself.

Also, Neil Lockhart raves about it as well as those who attended Tomatopalooza near Raleigh last year where it was included in the tastings.

So I guess one could say the jury is out until more folks try it. When the new 2008 SSE Yearbook arrives I'll be interested to see if there are additional listings and what they thought of it.

Maybe it was an off year for it in your garden, I just don't know. But with my recent tasting of it I see it as being even better than Green Grape, the only other green when ripe cherry that I know of. Well, that's not exactly true b'c there is another one that originated in Australia but that one was bad bad when I and a few others grew it out.

Just b'c it's a derivative of the variety Dr. Carolyn doesn't mean I'm enthusiastic about it and if you remember, you're the one I asked about the genetics that would allow for an ivory cherry to become a green when ripe cherry, and you said it was possible from your search re possible genes.

Carolyn

The best thing I can say for yellow pear tomatoes is that they make great treats for our chickens LOL. I bet for every one we got that didn't crack, we got 2 dozen that did. Never again!
We like the Santa Sweets, they do very well for us. I'm trying Black Cherry for the first time this year.

I had a positive experience with 'yellow pear' last year. Someone gave it to me claiming it to be Dr. Carolyn... Mix up at the seed table there... anyway, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had previously experienced! Although, I would not put it in the same 'class' with any of the others I previously recommended, it was okay last year.

"I had a positive experience with 'yellow pear' last year. Someone gave it to me claiming it to be Dr. Carolyn... Mix up at the seed table there... anyway, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had previously experienced! Although, I would not put it in the same 'class' with any of the others I previously recommended, it was okay last year."

Well, I dont like condemning a tomato based on only one season ,so I will give it another try or two before I definitely say I will never grow it again.

I still have hope, as they are the prettiest things in a salad!!

Well, I dont like condemning a tomato based on only one season ,so I will give it another try or two before I definitely say I will never grow it again...I have grown yellow pear (at least some version of it) for 3 years now. First year for myself (and a cohort) and next two years for the cohort (he insists upon it for reasons of nostalgia). All 3 seasons, the result has been the same for me: bland and mealy and very prone to cracking when ripe. All 3 season's grow-outs of YP were the same "strain" of YP.

However, I have grown a few YP plants for another person who raves about YP... and wants 2-3 plants of it to be represented in his 15 plant tomato patch. Most folks eat tomatoes in conjunction with something else (like in a salad or as a constituent of a sammich, etc.). And that is good. However, for me, the thing has to stand up on its own in taste and texture or I will not grow it.

Reg

Thanks to all!

Holy cow! I've got my work cut out for me. Gotta do a whole bunch of reading now.

Interestingly, none of you mentioned "Sweet Million"....unless I missed it. I guess that one gets scratched off my list of possibles! ~grin~

Thanks again for all your input. I DO appreciate it.

Hal

I grew sweet million hybrid my first year at my first house. I did not grow it again... I didn't have a good year and didn't repeat anything the following year. If I recall it was a big(ger) red cherry... although, I just looked it up and it doesn't appear bigger. I'm sorry I don't recall too much about it - I moved away from the hybrids (as I prefer a softer more perishable tomato - MY GENERALIZATION) and never really looked back.

Sweet Million or Sweet 100 are pretty good cherry tomatoes. I think they get knocked around a lot here because they are not "heirloom". They also tend to crack.

I like them and so do kids.

They are sweet but still have a strong tomatoey flavor. They have always been extremely productive for me. I still favor Sweet 100.

I had a stellar growing year last season. Probably the best I have had since moving here. It was dry and not overly hot (like it usually is) during ripening which enhanced flavors of everything else even more.

Let me second the recdommendation for Black Cherry. Delicious, productive, with a deep winey flavor.

Only 1 type? Then hands down you have to try Green Grape. Very distictive - eye opening - my favorite cherry. Smokey, spicy, exotic, sweet, with an excellent grape texture.

I grew 'Red Grape' grape tomato last year. My first time ever growing a grape tomato. I was very pleased with it. Strong, healthy, very productive plant. Tomatoes tasted better than candy. Fruits were small like they were supposed to be and had little to no cracking despite our being in a drought.

The seeds are a little hard to find and a bit pricey but I think Park's has them for $3.50. I'm going to check back with the nursery I purchased the plant from instead of buying the seeds. I look forward to growing it again.

How is Green Grape on not cracking and actually staying a nice, small fruit size?

I haven't had any cracking with Green Grapes. I believe "grape" refers to size. They are a bit smaller than a standard cherry, but much bigger than a Sun Gold. (I'd guess 2.5 times the volume.)

If you're interested in a beautiful and delicious bright yellow cherry, I'd recommend Hopkins. Productive and reasonably crack-resistant. You can't beat the flavor of black cherry, but I always have a problem with lots of cracked fruit. A tomato that I always grow is Grappoli Corbarino. Enormous plants and always the most productive. They look like mini roma tomatoes and even work as sauce tomatoes.
Lou

I have grown both sweet 100 and sweet million and while they are generally good varieties, they are nothing to write home to mom about.

The most amazing flavor I've ever tasted in a cherry size tomato is Purple Haze which Keith (who posted all the varieties and pics above) developed. This is the only tomato I've ever tasted that I ranked as a 10 on a 0 to 10 scale. Very close runners up are a select strain of Dr. Carolyn Pink and close behind that is Galina. I have several new varieties to grow this year among which at least one should be a new favorite. I am hoping to find a really good red variety.

We all have flavor preferences. Some want a strong tomato flavor, others want a very sweet fruit, and others want balanced flavor and sweetness. I am in the last group wanting a tomato that combines a huge flavor profile with a decent amount of sweetness. Some tomatoes are too sweet for me. Sungold is one that can get too sweet.

DarJones

I agree that sungold is too sweet. I'm a fan of the sweet 100, but I would describe my preferences very much as you describe yours, Dar, so I'm intrigued by your list. I usually get my seedlings from Steve Goto (originally on Carolyn's recommendation), but I'll be looking for those wherever I can find them.

One I have noticed that didn't get any mention here was Snow White. True, it's not a red or green cherry, my experience is that it is certainly a sweet one. You can get it from TGS...

--->Rob

I'm growing Snow White right now. IT is sweet. Recommended. Maybe it's because I had low expectations of a white tomato, but I am quite satisfied with it. It's a very pale yellow, almost creepy looking, but looks good mixed in with other red and orange cherry tomatoes.

Hi,

I also vote for Sweet Quartz - it's the only red cherry I'm growing this year. Grew it a few years ago and I liked it much better than others I've tried. For a grape, I'm trying Sprite, a freebee from Tomato Growers Suppy. Also trying Black Cherry for the first time. I've read so many positive things about it - can't wait to actually taste one!

Anne

dug this up in a search to see what anyone thought of snow white cherry...I'm going to try that and black cherry for this size this year...

Sweet 100, or Sweet Million, always has a home in our garden. We get a few cracked ones but the tomatoes are so productive that we don't care. Jim in Corona, Calif.

Sweet 100's for red cherry.
Dr. Carolyn for yellow.

My absolute favorite grape tomato is Juliet. I love the flavor and it grows great here.
Joann

My favorite is the Sweet Million. It doesn't crack like the Sweet 100. Juliet is nice but not as sweet at the Million.