I think variety plays a part. I had a similar experience with a bought plant (Large Red Cherry). Grew nicely, very prolific, but the skin was super tough and made for a rather unpleasant texture.

Agree. It is natural to some varieties as they were developed to hold up to shipping. Always pays to know something about the variety before you buy it. Most I have seen at HD are Large Red Cherry which isn't great under any conditions.

But in addition watering can play a role. If it is still in that same junk container they sell them in - the one with the built in cage thingy - then it may well be rootbound in there in which case you can water all you want and it won't make any difference since there is nothing to retain moisture in the pot.

Dave

It's planted in ground and has been for a couple months. We will NOT buy that variety again. I'm lurking here trying to figure out which seeds to buy for a September crop. I have some beefsteak so I can get those started inside in August. I'd peel these tomatoes, but they are so small, it wouldn't be worth it! Melon ball scoop might work for salads. :-( Lesson learned.

I've been growing selections from this seed packet for the last few years. It's pretty easily available in my local garden centers. My favorites are the Brown Cherry, the Green Grape, and the Super Snow White. I've gotten good germination rates, the plants grow well and produce a lot, and the fruit is very tasty as well as pretty (the SSW in particular is a monster of a plant). I also like to use Principe Borghese for my cherry tomato variety. It's a nice plant both in ground or container (stays a bit more compact than a regular cherry tomato plant). It's supposed to be good for drying, but mine have always been plenty juicy and work well in salads.

Probably 90 - 100 days. Sometimes the roses don't go dormant till January. Depends on the weather that nobody knows this far ahead. I guess I should think about short and long season varieties. I really love the beefsteaks and the plums. The plums make such great Italian sauces, and are so good in salsas. We BBQ year round here, so burgers and beefsteaks pair great!

Plenty of great responses but I had to chime in just to say that I'm jealous - you get to barbecue year round.. I'm rolling my eyes right now.. haha =)

If want a cure for the tough skins scald them with pouring boiling water over them in a strainer for bit. The skins will peel back. Then shock them cold with cold water. Tough skins gone. It will also bring out more of the flavor of them aw well.

For large tomatoes with tough thick skins I put on the grill right over the coals until the top skin splits, then use tong to turn it over. It intensifies the flavors greatly when doing it as well.

I tried pouring boiling water over them today. Got the skins to peel. Kinda a pain cuz they are so small, but it was much more pleasant eating them WITHOUT that horrible skin! Guess I'll have to do that with the rest of them. Heat wave coming. Gonna be HOT, so they might stop producing.

Suzi, Sungold and Black Cherry are both very good cherry tomatoes that do well for me into the fall and over winter. They can have the opposite problem where the skins are so thin that they crack open if you don't pick them often, but keeping them picked when ripe will help. Sungold should be easy to find in one of the big box stores and I know a lot of the mom and pops around here carry them as well, Black Cherry I've seen less often but it does show up once in awhile. I don't normally do red cherry tomatoes so I have no advice on that one for taste, but I'd assume they'd do just as well as the others over fall/winter.

Anyway, you should do fine with most tomatoes for a fall planting here. Just get them in while you have a month or two of warm weather to put on growth and start blossoming before it cools off for the duration.

I'm not looking forward to the incoming heat, either. I am already starting to feel like somehow I'm in Florida...ugh.