****

Matt's doesn't grow in the wild although its ancestors did.

It's called Solanum lycopersicon var. cerasiforme, which means that the stigma is retracted like most other domesticated varieties and thus it's not a currant tomato, S. pimpinellifolium.

Domestication of the tomato took place over time and in Mexico there were and are both domesticated varieties as well as some non-domesticated species.

Any tomato will keep growing if frost doesn't kill it, but after a while will peter out in terms of fruit production, depending on whether it's left outside or taken inside.

One way to perpetuate any variety is to take cuttings and keep propagating a variety, which is vegetative propagation.

Carolyn, who isn't as enthusiastic as you are about the taste of Matt's, compared to other wee fruited varieties, but thanks heavens we aren't all the same and do have individual preferences. ( smile)

I have a Matt's, a Sara's and a Mexico Midget growing. My Matt's and Sara's are large cherry-sized (larger than a sun gold - almost the size of Green Grape). My Mexico Midget is pea-sized.

Which is correct? I think I may have mixed up my seeds/labels.

Thanks!

Amy Goldman also says they grow wild in Mexico. So re. Carolyn's info, presumably Matt's ancestors escaped from cultivation at some point?

I think Carolyn needs to try it again...

My description from a few years ago:

"INDETERMINATE. WILD cherry tomato from Eastern Mexico, and results will vary for different growers. It averages 5/8" to 3/4" and soft-bodied, but is loaded with flavor. It has a Brix sugar content of 11° Brix, which is very high, (some cantelopes & melons are 11° to 13° Brix!) The taste, to me, is extremely difficult to describe, almost like a delayed burst of flavor spreading through your mouth when eaten fully ripe! Seeds originated in Hidalgo in Eastern Mexico; it's a region of domestication of tomatoes, and where these grow wild. NOTE: GREW THIS YEAR AND WAS EXTREMELY PROLIFIC AND PERHAPS THE MOST COMPLEX CHERRY I EVER TASTED! DRAWBACK: RIPE FRUITS TEAR WHEN REMOVED FROM VINE."

Hawaiian Cherry
Texas Wild
Wild Florida Everglade(s)

Hawaiian Cherry--60-70 days--Really a small cherry tomato & not a currant species; great tasting fruits less than a half inch diameter, blueberry sized, in large clusters. Very sweet lingering taste.

It looks almost the same as Texas Wild:

And might as well post the others while I'm here:

Sara's Galapagos, note the leaf difference:

Wild Florida Everglade(Everglades?):

Ironically, WFE was listed as a red, but mine definitely was pink!

One more thing...

I originally bought my Matt's from Jim(?) Reimer, long before he opened up his seed website--I bought a lot of different varieties at that time, it was his initial purchase from big vendors to get his inventory built up. It was shortly after Johnny's introduced it. MANY have said there have been both similarities and differences from what Matt's Wild Cherry is today.

One note that I have made and others haven't commented on is the surface of the skin--it almost appears pubescent, that is... hairy. Not like hairy varieties, but more like "dust covered." If you hold it up closely & inspect it, you can see what I mean. If you CAN'T, then I'd suspect seeds change between now & way back then. Sometimes when I describe the taste as almost tongue-tingling, others don't see that with theirs.

oh well... there's always next year!

When they're listed in the SSE Yearbook it's a toss up as whether they have been correctly IDed as a currant variety, S. pimpinellifolium, or something else.

Sara's Galapagos, for instance, could be a true currant or could be a stable interspecies cross between a currant and a cerasiforme. When I first got the seeds, as illegal whole fruits from Amy Goldman year ago, LOL, I contacted Dr. Roger Chatelet at the Rick Center ( UCDavis) and knowing the island it came from he could tell me the possibilities.

So what's a cerasiforme?

If you lok at the description for Matt's at Johnny's they say it's a cerasiforme, and that means that the stigma is NOT exherted as is true for maybe half of the true currants, the other half having exherted stigmas.

Domestication of the tomato resulted in the stigma going from being exherted, meaning it stuck up above the pollen bearing anthers so insect pollination was necessary, to being retracted such that self pollenization was the norm.

The concern of many when it comes to currant varieties is that they can be a source of X pollination according to many websites, but I know one person who knows them well who says he's more worried about his regular tomato varieties xing the currants.

There's page after page of so called "wild" ones listed in the SSE Yearbook, some have names, most don't.

Mark, when you said above you think I should try it again, can I assumne you want me to try Matt's again?

I don't think so, for several reasons. ( smile)

Carolyn

Tomatoes in frost-free areas are more short-lived perennials than annuals, but I don't know how many years they might live.

It's not that I think it won't grow. With water and nutes almost anything ccan be grown in small containers and even grown productively. What I am afraid of with Matt's is that it will grow all too well. I keep hearing about how big and sprawly they get.

But I am sooooo on the verge of adding one to the indoor winter grow. I have a very strong hook embedded ten feet off the floor, in a very solid ceiling beam....

Should I? Should I not? I guess i could always prune.

WWYD?

Jan

Damon

Wonder if the supercropping technique that was discussed here last winter would slow it down some?

jan

The first year I grew Mexico Midget, I thought I had the wrong seed, mine were over a half inch diameter...

I reordered the seed a couple years later from a commercial company and got about the same results.

Turns out that with regular watering, (daily, or multiple times daily if grown in containers), you can change the sizes by watering or fertilizing and think you have the wrong variety.

Likewise for growing large tomatoes--generally, they grow smaller in containers, but you can compensate with water & fert to get to where they should be, sizewise.

So, I don't have Matt's, I don't have Sara's.... and who knows if I have Mexico Midget.

Geez.... what AM I growning?????

At this point in the game, my stupice, matts and saras fruit are almost identical. Maybe it has to do with the tremendous amounts of rain we have had in June and July.

I'm just disappointed that I don't have what I planned.

I have an NAR with the wrong kind of leaves. I guess there's always something.

There are also three which lost their names (the allegedly permanent marker lasted about two weeks; I'm not sure if the sun got it or the rain). Luckily one is a cherry (I think I know which it is), one is red, and the other is CP. So eventually all should be clear (boy, did I luck out). Unless they turn out to be gold or pink....

Damon

But the real question is: did you get seeds?

The Sara's came from Sand Hill.

From my description, do I have any true tomato of the three? It doesn't matter. There's always next year!

So far I really don't like the Sara's and the Matt's. Very mealy. But we have gotten so, so much rain, that I'm not sure if I'm getting a true taste of the fruit. The rain could be why I am getting so many small, deformed fruit (cracking, catfacing, splitting, etc.) as well.

Also, according to some late blight tests, Matt's is one of the most LB resistant varieties tested. In two different years tested, it had 0% LB disease. Big Beef, for example, had 63% LB infection.

Lots of rain usually increases a fruit's size, all other things being equal (fert, light, etc.) But with so many cloudy days that may not hold true this season.

Here in Buffalo, July went down as one of the coldest July's in years--up to the last week of the month, we only had 8 days of 80+ degree days ALL YEAR. Normal at that time should have been 31 days over 80 degrees. I believe the avg temp for July at that point was 61.5 or so...