I think that is the same as Matt's Wild Cherry. If so, good luck with it. I have four bushes of it right now and they are perfectly awful. They are what Carolyn would call "assertive," rather than sweet. I thought maybe it was the winter weather making them that way, but having given it much opportunity, and southern California now being in the mid-70's recenty, I think it's just a lousy cherry tomato.

You might like Black Cherry. It's sweeter than Matt's Wild Cherry, but it's not "very" sweet like Sungold and some others. It has a lot of flavor, my favorite cherry.

I'm pretty sure it is the same as Matt's Wild Cherry as Doof said, and you can go to Johnny's Selected seeds to read the description since they're the ones who first introducwed it.

I grew it once and that was enough for me. I didn't like the taste at all, maybe assertive, LOL, but nothing that I liked.

Troy, if you'd like to indicate what you're after in a cherry tomato, hybrid or OP or either, and some other traits as well, perhaps some here cam make further recomendations.

I will say that there are quite a few threads about cherries already here at GW, and if you go to the search feature at the bottom of this first page and enter cherry tomatoes, I'm pretty sure you'll find many of those previous threads.

Carolyn

I grew it once and that was enough for me. I didn't like the taste at all, maybe assertive, LOL, but nothing that I liked...You may wanna reconsider your consideration on the acidity aspect of tomato fruits viz-a-viz brix. I do suspect that there is a palpable relationship here. That is, tomatoes do have a rather wide range of concentration of the hydronium ion. And this does affect perceived sweetness or relative lack thereof.

Reg

You may wanna reconsider your consideration on the acidity aspect of tomato fruits viz-a-viz brix. I do suspect that there is a palpable relationship here. That is, tomatoes do have a rather wide range of concentration of the hydronium ion. And this does affect perceived sweetness or relative lack thereof.

reg, I didn't say it was acidy b/c of all the tomatoes tested so far that I'm aware of, there's a very narrow range of acidity which is why I'm not comfortable with the word acid tasting.

And yes, I know about Brix measurenments which test for soluble sugars..What I think may be more important, and I've mentioned this before, is that about 400 organic compounds have been found with mass spectroscopy which are believed to be involved in tomato taste. So it's the particular combination of them that imparts flavor to any given variety, as in the DNA, but I think we all would say that that growing methods and environmental issues can alter the taste of varieties in any given season.

Carolyn

What I think may be more important, and I've mentioned this before, is that about 400 organic compounds have been found with mass spectroscopy which are believed to be involved in tomato taste. So it's the particular combination of them that imparts flavor to any given variety...Rite mate, but what I was addressing here was perceived relative sweetness of a tom fruit and the reasons therefore. Most palates can distiguish twixt sweet-sour-bitter-salty in various degrees of relative concentrations. And have certain preferences in that mix. But if you can identify Brix and pH and then get some subjective measure of relative sweetness, then ya got a possible objective measure of relative sweetness of a tomato. For example I think that most grapes are rather acidic... but they taste sweet because they have a high sugar content (I know that Concord Grapes are acidic, but nevertheless taste sweet). And maybe some melons are not possessed of much sugar, but taste sweet because their fruits do not contain much acidic character.

Reg

I like the flavor even though I usually prefer sweeter tomatoes.

It is tomatoey to my tastebuds.

I took this picture a few days ago. It is huge --a part of it escaped from its cage and is now sprawling on the ground. I have another one in another bed and they are both LOADED.

However it is a PAIN to harvest. Very tiny fruit. You pick and pick and pick and you still are not done.

I am not sure I would bother growing it again.

What's to say Reg?

I can have a Brix measurement for variety X as well as a pH value but what's sweet to me and what's sweet to someone else for that same variety has a high probability of being different.

And that's b'c taste is personal and has a genetic association for each individual which is why folks can easily differ over the taste of the same variety, which we've all seen here time and again.

And it's one of the reasons that I listed in the SSE Yearbook almost all the many varieties that I grew, knowing that while I didn't like the taste of something that surely there would be others who might love it.

Carolyn

I, for one, like the Matt's Wild Cherry. I agree, that it isn't a sweet tomato, but it is "tomatoey. It grows well in hot, humid conditions and sets fruit when temperatures are high. Tomatoes that drop into the soil produce "volunteers" readily. I agree that it is a pain to harvest and fruit are very tiny, but I still enjoy growing the variety.

I grew what Native Seeds Search called "wild cherry" or something to that effect last year. I thought the first set of fruit, early in the summer, was awful. Yuck, very disappointed! The plants didn't produce much once the true summer heat set in. As the temps cooled in the fall, the plants went crazy! The October/November fruit set was very prolific, and to my surprise, much, much tastier. Every evening my dogs and I would wander out to the garden and happily munch away on our tiny "wild" toms!

Maybe that's the problem with the winter fruit, then. I grew it before and don't remember it being this bitter and nasty, although I didn't think I would grow it again.

I only grew it again because last year a lot of my plants were killed by blight and/or something unidentified, so I started new backup plants from what seeds I had on hand around August 1. Those are the ones that I have growing right now, so they're not young'uns by any means. The Sungold and Snow White cherries, on the other hand, that I started about the same time, are producing some very tasty tomatoes.

Matt's Wild is reputed to be a native Mexican wild cherry tomato. Maybe it needs some real summer heat to perform best.

Lesson here: don't grow it late in the season, if you grow it at all.

Troy, I will have a good selection of Cherry type tomatoes this spring; these will be in my personal collection to share; many of these are not available commercially
We of course always have a good number of cherry varieties at Thieneman's Nursery in the spring. I have been working on that list but it is not finalized as of yet. I will send you the list when it is firmed up.
So good to see your posting and planning for the new season!
Gary

"Maybe it needs some real summer heat to perform best."

I don't really think so. I am growing it down here in the winter which has mild and some cool temps. Again for me, nice flavor but too time consuming to pick.

I got the seeds from a tasting table at a tomato event in Calif.

Just saw this question. I have grown the wild Mexican tomato for more than 15 years. Sold by Park Seed under the name of "Spoon". Never failed in NJ or PA. July seeding in 07 yielded heavy crop before frost. Always sweet and approximately the size of peas. Closeout this year's catalog at .75

I grew Wild Cherry from TGS last year. It had a very tomato flavor which I loved. They were awesome for snacking and salads and a big hit for my family who love cherry tomatoes. I only had 2 plants. They were huge! Picking is a challenge since the tomatoes tend to tear as you pick them. I found that to pick them you need to carefully separate the tomato from the stem. They certainly are prolific. I had one in the garden and one in a large homemade earthbox with 3 other cherry tomato plants. Both produced an abundance of tomatoes. I think they are worth the effort but I'm only planting one this year.

Just saw this question. I have grown the wild Mexican tomato for more than 15 years. Sold by Park Seed under the name of "Spoon". Never failed in NJ or PA. July seeding in 07 yielded heavy crop before frost. Always sweet and approximately the size of peas. Closeout this year's catalog at .75

****

if one were to look in the other species section of the SSE Yearbook you'd see that there isn't just one listing for a "wild cherry", there are many and they aren't all the same.

Matt's Wild Cherry is what's called a cerasiforme, as noted at Johnny's, b'c that tells us it's a half domesticated cherry, still in the genus Solanum, aka Lycipersicon, but not a different species, as it Spoon.

Spoon is a typical tiny red currant type in the genus and species Solanum, aka Lycopersicon, pimpinellifolium.

And there are many red currants, Spoon being just one of them.

My favorite red currant is Sara's Galapagos.

Carolyn