I tried them last year. I didn't like them all, but a couple of them are definitely worth growing. Some of the longer (tiger?) types are a bit pasty and the plants aren't that vigorous. But the long green one has amazing flavour. I'll probably grow that one again along with a few of the striped "bumble-bee" types. They all look really good in mixed cherry tomato baskets.

Chris

There was a discussion on GW last year about these and I was probably more critical of these than I should have been since I plan to grow many again in 2015. Ironically I was not as impressed as Chris with the Tiger series as with the Bumblebee series. The Green Tiger was especially prone to longitudinal splitting. I'll admit that since so many split I ate a high proportion while picking and they had a good flavor.

The Bumblebee series were as Chris described and I had people asking for them. I was more impressed with the Sunrise and Pink BB; the Purple BB were more variable in shape and had a tougher skin.

I plan to cut back on the overall number of the artisan series plants next year to fit into my plan of ~200 total cherry/grape plants. This past year I added the 40 additional small fruited plants to my plot and the picking time was too long. Since these plants don't reach the height of other cherry/gr varieties that I grow the planting layout has yet to be determined. Likely I'll only grow 4-5 overall Tiger plants since that fruit is too big to sell mixed with others.

this is the source of the seed i believe.

Here is a link that might be useful: artisan seed

I grew Blush and Purple Bumble Bee this past summer. It was a horrendous tomato season for me overall, but in the short time that I had tomatoes, the Purple BBs were very good. Blush tasted good but so many of them split open that I ended up leaving them on the plants to focus on more productive cherry tomatoes. I also didn't like the elongated shape, as it was hard to fit them in pint containers with other cherry tomatoes.

Next year I'm growing Purple BBs again, and the sunrise BB. I grow Gardener's Delight as a red cherry and I think the 3 varieties will be a nice mix.

I seem to have issues with whatever orange cherry I pick. I grew Gold Nugget in 2013 and had to tear out all the plants because they became diseased so quickly. 2013 was otherwise a good tomato year for me.

mdfarmer, have you tried yellow mini? One of my favorite cherries. More of a yellowish/orange in my opinion.

Hmm, definitely gave me a lot to think about. I was planning on just buying the Artisan collection and getting 10 of each. This will be my first time growing them and tbh I am mainly interested in them because they look so good mixed, but obv prod/taste weigh heavily on my mind as well.
Tomatoes prone to splitting I try to stay away from since my zone has had very wet summers the last 3 years. I really like pretty tomatoes though, they seem to sell themselves.

The elongated Artisans got both BER and cracks for me, but the round ones did not at all. I think elongated tomato varieties are just more susceptible to inconsistencies in moisture. I'm still going to grow all of them again next year, but I need to be more consistent about running the drip irrigation. Hopefully a timer will help.

It is interesting to hear experiences with the striped tomatoes splitting. I tried the old heirloom Tigerella for two seasons a number of years ago. The first season was a wet one and they split like crazy. Yet they were so beautiful that I decided to give them another try. The second season was no better. They seem to split after just a heavy dewfall. I gave up on them after that. The next year, a volunteer came up behind my garage of all places and I let it go completly wild, sprawling all over. Checked it later and sure enough, tigerella. All were splitting. Given the size and stripped nature of the Tigerella, I wonder if it is not a parent to some of the artisan varieties?

I may try a few of the Artisans this year, but my mix last year did so well, I might not mess with it too much: Green grape, Sun Gold, Chocolate Cherry, Riesentraube, Indigo Blueberries, White cherry. Absolutley beautiful all together. I had a bright yellow variety, blaukopfchen or some german sounding name, that yielded good, but were too small and pooped out early in the season. Need a new yellow.

grow_life -- do the Indigo Blueberries have much flavor? I've been wondering about adding them to my cherry mix: Sun Sugar, Green Grape, Black Cherry, Supersweet 100s and Ildi. What is Riesentraube like?

The Indigo Blueberries were not the most flavorful ones out there, but they aren't too bad. When I eat them first they are good, if I eat a green grape first then the blueberry seems bland. Their best attribute for me was steady heavy production in a season where I had many problems from irrigation malfunctions to heavy disesase pressure. They just kept on coming. Very beautiful in the mix.
Riesentraube have good flavor. Not quite as sweet as some others out there, but still a classic cherry flavor. They are round with a little point on the bottom end. I also had good production from them. I grow mostly heirloom and OP varieties and they seemed like a good fit for a red cherry

Blondkopfchen is the German yellow cherry. I grow Chang Li for my yellow cherry. It's a Chinese variety I like a lot.

I'm thinking next year I will have three cherry mix products. One will be just the Artisans, another will be a mix of heirlooms, and the third will be Sungold, Sun Peach, Sun Chocola, and Sun Lemon. I can call that one "The Sun Sisters."

Thanks for the correction on Blondkopfchen. Forgive me if that one didn't quite roll off the tongue.

Hey grow_life, just one more question: where did you purchase your indigo blueberries? So many choices! Ok--2 questions: did you try the Dancing with Smurfs blue cherry?

I grew Dancing with Smurfs last year. The underside is red, and the top side of the fruit that gets sunlight is almost black. Taste is not bad, tastes like a red cherry. Yield is ok. They seemed to be my most delicate cherry variety; they liked to get smashed in the boxes on the way to market.

I haven't tried Indigo Blue Berries yet, so I don't know how the two compare.

If I remember right it was territorial seed. Indigo rose came out a few years ago, and since then indigo varieties have started taking up entire pages in the catalogs. I saw they have one that was beefsteak size this year.

I'll grow the blueberries again this year for their production. I havent tried the Smurfs yet, but may get around to it.

I grew Indigo Blueberries. They get deep red on the underside, they grow in big trusses. Small size cherry and beautiful growing in rows of shiny black little tomatoes.

Mine never got deep red on the bottom. They stayed a baby pink. The color contrast between the light and the black made them the most beautiful little glowing orbs I've ever seen in a tomato. They went through some weird "blue" phase, then flushed pink, and when they softened they were ready. Weird. Beautiful. Ok taste. Wish they were a bit sweeter.