One plant that had cherries of all those colors that were ripe and ready to eat at the same time?

Nope, never heard of that kind of variety.

There's Isis Candy bred by Joe Bratka but all those cherries are the same color at maturity.

And there's Lutescent, nee Honor Bright, that's NOT a cherry, that has yellowish green foliage and fruits ripen up and go through a color change from green to white to yellow to orange to red, and the plant can have all of those colored tomatoes on it at one time, but the final color is red for mature ones so all you have are the red ones finally. One to grow for novelty but not for taste.

Genetically I can't see how a single plant can have all the different colored cherries you mentioned ripe at the same time.

Maybe someone knows of such a variety, but I don't. ( smile)

Carolyn

I agree, but the yellow, orange just became a more brilliant same color tomato, they didn't ripen to red. Perhaps it was grafted with a couple kinds of cherry tomatoes? Foliage was all green, as far as I can remember.

When we bought it, the tag said it could be container grown, we planted it in the ground, it stayed a bush and grew to about 4 or 5 foot tall and was just covered in tomatoes.

I wish I had the tag still. I loved that all the kids, mine and neighbors kid liked them so much. You don't see kids too overly excited about tomatoes usually.

What oame to my mind was that possibly the "plant" that was purchased was actually THREE plants in the same pot. This idea is supported by the size of the plant being very large and production was supporting a large group of very hungry appetites.

I would ask if it is possible that the plant was multi-stemmed and could have been three different plants in one pot. This seems like a great idea for a farmer's market oddity that would have a wide appeal.

Ted

My best guess would be that it was actually 2 or 3 cherry plants planted together in one container. Many do that for sales at Farmer's Markets. For example, if it was a small plant, combine a red and yellow Tumbling Tom in the same container or hanging basket. If it was a full sized indeterminate some will combine Flamme or Golden Gem with a red cherry variety, Orange Pixie combined with Patio. And of course there is always Red and Yellow Pear combos.

As the plants grow they inter-mingle and take on the appearance of one single plant with multi-colored fruit.

Dave

Note we were posting at the same time with the same idea. :-)

Now, what lottery numbers am I thinking of?

Dave

Ted and Dave- that could be. When we bought the plant, it was already a couple feet tall, it was on clearance and full at that point so I probably would not have noticed 3 different stems coming from the base.

Do you have any recommendations of what cherry tomato varieties kids would like?

My 10 yr old is really interested in gardening this year so I am trying to make sure we plant things that he will enjoy eating and growing. He isn't normally big on tomatoes but remembers the cherry tomatoes we had 5 or 6 years ago.

Glad to hear there's a possible solution here but since I've never bought plants I had no idea that some pots were sold with more than one colored cherry in them.

I'll let the others make suggestions for your 10 yo, they probably won't agree, LOL, but if I don't see some of my fave cherries being mentioned I sure will speak up, or type up, as the case may be. LOL

Carolyn

Do you have any recommendations of what cherry tomato varieties kids would like?

If growing from seed then the choices are practically endless. But buying transplants really limits your choices. The big box stores usually only carry 2 or 3 cherry varieties since they aren't a big demand seller. You'll find one called Large Red Cherry and the Juliet (which I would pass on) and you might be able to find Sweet 100 or Sweet Million which are ok and if lucky, you just maybe you might find an Ildi or an Isis Candy which are much better.

But if you have a local farmer's market or nursery your choices will be better. Look for Sun Gold, Black Cherry, Jolly, Grape, or Riesentraube.

If growing from seed any of those or Flamme or Gardener's Delight.

JMO

Dave

We have a huge farmers market every Sunday so I will go and take your list with me and see what I can find. Thank you for your help!

I planted seeds similar to what you aere asking about. I got the seeds from Gurney's and if these are the same tomatoes they are called Rainbow Bells Blend and Gurney's catalog# is 80657. There are 25 seeds in the pack and take 75 days to mature.

check on craigslist.com for your area
many gardeners are offering their surpluss plants

Sunsugar is one that is commonly available as a plant, and kids usually love it. It's bright orange, on the smaller side, very sweet and very prolific. Another one is yellow pear, but that is more for the color and shape; IMO the flavor is nothing to write home about. I usually grow Isis Candy and Black Cherry, which are both about 1" fruits, and make a stunning salad when halved and mixed together. Both are very tasty.

I am growing Guernsey Island for the first time this year. It is a neat looking tomato and a lil bit larger than a cherry with great flavor.

It's pretty late for a response now, but Ildi is a good yellow oblong shaped cherry tomato that all my friends like and I think kids would too. So you could mix that one in with a red, etc. I also love black cherry, so that would make a good 3 way mix
Did you ever find any at the farmer's market? I like the idea of mixing 3 plants together, might do that and sell at the market next year.

Hello, I found the tomates I believe you are speaking of two years in a row at our local Whole Food store. They are delicious like candy. I saved the seeds and grew them. First time ever and it worked. I can not find the seeds anywhere online. I live in VA and the sign on the tomatoes said heirloom and locally grown. I have some seeds from the second year crop if you would like some. One plant produces tomatoes that are three different colors when ripe but mostly red and marigold orange when completely ripe.

Are they tasty?

Linda

Taste like Nature Sweet sunburst

sounds like at typical bicolor cherry to me. Right now I can't pull up Tania's database to show you what I mean.

here is tania's link...bicolor cherry

didn't work, oh well.