Thursday 20 March 2014

Choosing My Cherry Tomato Favourites

This year I'm planning on growing out a varied array of cherry tomato varieties, to compare them in the same growing season with a view to picking my ultimate top 10 - 20. I have an idea this will help me reduce the overall amount of varieties I seem to have gathered! I've included my favourites that I've grown before, but maybe not grown them along some of the others on the list to be able to make a final call. Also quite a few new to me varieties in the mix which is fun and I hope there will be some new stars.

I've included Sweet Aperitif and Rosella as they are from the same breeders as Black Opal, which I found so good last year. Similarly I have a number of cherry tomatoes bred by J&L Select seeds as one of their varieties Ambrosia Gold, was outstanding last year. 

Seeds sown;
Ambrosia Bronze
Ambrosia Giant
Ambrosia Gold
Ambrosia Red
Black Opal
Blush
Bosque Green Cherry
Cafe Bule
Chocolate Pear
Cinnamon Pear
Copper Currant
Dancing with Smurfs
Esmeralda Golosina
Floridity F1
Green Bumble Bee
Green Doctors Frosted
Green Envy F1 (?)
Green Grape Beyond
Green Pear
Green Tiger (British)
Green Tiger
Green Zebra Cherry
Ivory Pear
Josefina
Medovya Kaplya
Napia Rose
Orange Muscat
Pink Bumble Bee
Pink Tiger
Purple Bumble Bee
Rancho Solito
Rosada F1
Rosella
Shokoladka F1
St Nicks F1
Submarine Blush
Sugar Drop
Suncherry Extra Sweet F1
Suncherry Premium F1
Sun Sugar F1
Sungold F1
Sweet Aperitif
55 Flower Goddess


Blush, very pretty and crops well, nice tomato, maybe not enough flavour?
A Fred Hempel variety.

Dancing with Smurfs, a recent introduction by Tom Wagner,
I like these a lot, not sweet but good tomato taste and they
 look stunning


Purple Bumble Bee, bred by Fred Hempel. Pretty but flavour a little
disappointing, growing again before making up my mind.


Pink Bumble Bee (Fred Hempel), pretty variety but not sure the
taste is there for me?


Green Zebra Cherry, good rich tomato flavour not very sweet.
Vines are quite short growing but productive,
lots of lovely green striped large cherries.




As I started to say above last season I was lucky enough to find two new favourites to add to my cherry affair! Black Opal and Ambrosia Gold, both utterly delish! Ambrosia Gold no picture yet, had that lovely leaf scent the same as Sungold.

Black Opal, my favourite black cherry! Gorgeous sweet
flavour, I couldn't get enough of these beauties last year.


Which leads me on to what are my current Tastiest Top 8 cherry tomatoes?

Ambrosia Gold
Black Opal
Coyote
Floridity F1
Suncherry Premium F1
Sungold F1
Sunsugar F1
Rosada F1
They are mostly F1 varieties.

Trio of Coyote

Sungold



Great tasting cherry tomatoes already bubbling near the top spots are
Medovya Kaplya
Cafe Bule
Green Doctor and Green Doctors Frosted
Green Pear
Piccolo
Verde Claro

Verde Claro, bred and developed by Tom Wagner, seeds are from Tom


Medovya Kaplya, such a pretty fruit and the best tasting
yellow pear I've tasted, Particularly good later in the
season and they carry on until cut down by frost.

Green Doctor's Frosted on the left Green Doctors on the right. Subtly skin
colour separates the two, taste is very close, but if I had to call it
Green Doctors Frosted would just edge to the front.


Cherries under development 
Varieties I like very much and are likely to be hustling for the top spots in the near future, but are still being grown out for a few more generations until stable. All varieties bred by Tom Wagner, except Purple Haze OP which is from Keith Mueller's F1 variety.

Black Casady
Golden Crabapple
Grappler's Quest
Matt's Casady
Matt's Folly
Momognahela Epidote
Purple Haze OP
Sweet Casady

These are one of the selections I've made from Golden Crabapple

Grappler's Quest

Matts Casady

My selections of Sweet Casady and Black Casady





1 comment:

  1. So how did it go, picking your ultimate top 10 - 20?

    ReplyDelete