Pick once they blush and let them ripen inside. I grew super sweet 100s, and they were also very split prone.

They are known for being split prone. I find that Sweet Million is (bigger and) better.

Linda

Tricks to prevent it - if it is due to rain not much you can do about it but picking at color break as mentioned above reduces it substantially. Nothing is gained by leaving them on the vine once they reach color break and the potential for damage/loss is great.

Dave

Sweet Millions do split less, but IMO do not taste as good.
Just pick the Sweet 100s as often as you can. If half of them split, then next year plant two of them.
I do not like to ripen from color break in the home. One of the main advantages of growing your own tomatoes is to get away from that commercially grown, store bought practice.

You can do a taste test of your own to find out if there is a real difference betwwen "On-The-Vine" and " On-The-Counter" ripening.Here is how:

Take two almost identical fruits both at color break stage.
Pick one and let it ripen on the counter .
Leave the other one on the vine.
Taste test them, when both seem to ripe.

I am not saying that there won't be a difference, because I do not have the evidence and have not investigated it myself. But I think that ripening certain fruits after a certain stage is an internal-to-the-fruit matter. During that time the fruit does not get any help from the plant.

I've grown sweet 100s and had split problems as well. Between splitting, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, etc, if it has the slightest blush i tend to pick it and let it ripen inside. I've ripened my fair share of tomatoes inside and on the vine, and I can't tell a difference, with one exception. (For whatever reason, vine ripened sungolds are just soooo much better IMO). Every other variety ripens great inside....so plus one for that idea.

Brett,

Interesting comment about counter-ripened Sungolds!

Last year I bought a Sungold that turned out to be an imposter, so a friend gave me a container of them to try. I let them ripen for several days and was disappointed in the taste.

This year I have my own Sungold plant and the tomatoes taste pretty good!

Linda

I had the same experience that Brett had with sungolds. Since reading on this site about picking at color break vs ripening on the vine, I've started picking large beefsteak varieties when they're 1/3 to 1/2 ripe, and I would agree that I can't see much difference in flavor between ripening on the counter vs ripening on the vine. But I tried doing the same with sungolds to avoid having them split, and there was a big difference in taste. Even sungolds that were close to fully ripe never achieved the same sweetness as fully vine-ripened sungolds. I haven't experimented with other cherry varieties, so I don't know if this behavior is unique to sungolds.

Unless you're growing them to sell a couple of cherry plants will probably produce more than you can possibly eat so splitting isn't an issue. Sweet 100 (not Supersweet) while very sweet is a bit less sweet than the rest of the other similar varieties and is the best red cherry I have tasted or grown so far. The splits aren't a deal breaker IME.

The whole conversation about "vine ripened" fruit vs "counter ripened" can be an emotional one with some folks...especially those that "must" pick early because of weather or critter issues. Luckily, my weather and critters are not a major issue. Some folks say "the minute you pick a fruit...the decomposing process has started". I am not sure (if that is true) that the fruit quality/taste would improve after picking. I know fried green tomatoes are pretty tasty...deep fried. haha