Eat one! :)

LOL! Yeah, that would be the ultimate dilemma solver, and I did just that. I guess I'm looking for that sweetness that you get with the conventional grape tomatoes, but these don't have a lot of sweetness, or even flavor for that matter. I've picked the darkest ones, at the bottom, that have been on the plant the longest, figured those would be ripest. They also come off of the plant very easily, with just a touch, but seem to be a little green at the stem end. I'm guessing there are no visual clues?

What you have is most likely a hybrid throwback anyway so the taste may never be any good. You mention you have always grown "run-of-the-mill tomatoes all my life" so I presume hybrids. And most all the grape types are hybrids.

So since hybrids don't breed true but revert to something else and you can't have any idea what the parent stock was no telling how it will ever taste. Just leave it on the vine or let a few of them ripen inside on the counter until they turn soft and then you will have an idea of the proper picking color.

Dave

I'm in New Orleans and here we grow Creole tomatoes, some of the best in the world- huge, squat and lobed with a large crown and very juicy, very ugly. Gardens here use types like Celebrity, Better Boy, etc. when planting, or whatever seems to hold up to the intense heat. There is really no required pedigree or cultivar type. It's actually the climate and soil that make the tomatoes better here, believe it or not. Long story short, that's what I meant about run-of-the-mill. I have grown cherry tomatoes with great success, but grape tomatoes can't seem to stand up to our mid-90s Spring weather here. Like I said, this was just some random plant that showed up in my garden, I assume as a result of a bird hanging around, and I was curious. Thanks so much for all the information