Will you be buying transplants or growing your own from seed? Transplants will give you limited choices. If you grow your own from seed then there are hundreds of cherry varieties to choose from.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Favorite cherry tomatoes discussion

Both Sungold and Black Cherry seem to be very popular among the crowd here in the Growing Tomatoes forum. Both seemingly do well in most planting zones.

Only downside is (especially w/ Sungold) they're just like the Energizer Bunny of cherries - they just keep going and going and going ...

Cheers -

Will and the Furry Ones in the OC

If you can still buy seedlings anywhere near, transport them right away and see what happens. You should get a month or two of tomatoes. I'll guess that any cherry tomato would be fine.

Thanks all.

I would be doing transplants. I think seedlings, for me, would be too time consuming, as I work full time and paying that much attention to them would be difficult. Aside from that, my garage is detached (i.e.; cold and I'd forget lol), and b) my basement, unfinished, rather damp. Not ideal conditions I think - although with lights and all, perhaps?

I've been lucky that my local nurseries seem to stock some nice varieties of regular tomatoes for transplanting so I'd think they would for cherries as well.

Perhaps by next year I'll feel differently and more confident about growing from seed. I do intend to start doing some research, and this forum certainly is helpful for that.

Seedlings are the little plants you buy for transplanting. If they still have them they're probably not so little and might even be flowering already (so, not really seedlings by the dictionary).

It's definitely too late for seeds, but not for transplanting.

One of my favorites is Husky Cherry Red - it's tangy and flavorful. Another is Black Cherry - a little sweeter, fruity, less intense flavor.

I was at Lowe's yesterday and WM today and they both had some of their Bonnie tomato plants for sale, so you might still find some in your area as we're in the same zone. [I always look look in the garden departments even if there's nothing on my list -- you know how that goes.... Found some ground-cover succulents at Lowe's to throw in the front lawn's flower bed.]

In my area, the cherries and small-fruited types which Bonnie stocks at the big-box stores include Black Cherry (a small dark cherry which is many people's favorite); Tami G (a grape; I've never tried it); Husky Cherry Red (a dwarf plant with standard cherry fruit; I haven't had enough of them to judge the taste); Yellow Pear (killer cuteness; wide disagreement on its taste); and Juliet (Bonnie also calls it "Roma Grape;" beautiful huge grapes but not much taste; they dehydrate well). I'm not sure which others they had, but I believe I saw Chocolate Cherry at some point (a brown cherry I haven't tried yet), at least one other small red, and an orange.

I myself am new to growing cherries, I haven't had the pleasure of tasting them yet, but I settled on Sungold and Super Sweet 100 as my varieties after reading about 200 reviews. I'll let you know in a couple weeks.

CH

Again, fantastic information everyone!

I'm sure Lowe's and Home Depot still have tomato plants. Last time I was there, a couple of weeks ago they did. I may pick up a couple of cherries if they do and see how they do since I know they take off fast here. I won't bother putting them in the ground at this point - but I have quite a few large pots laying around so I may as well put them to good use.

It's funny; I don't typically buy cherry tomatoes at the market but was reminded the other day how much I do enjoy them when I was at a small green market in NYC and picked some up to make a bread salad for dinner. It was a mixture of different colors, and all were so incredibly sweet that you barely even needed to dress the salad with much more than some olive oil. My BF and I sat there in silence eating, and when done, both agreed that we really needed to add these little gems to the garden!

I planted Sungold, Black Cherry, and Sweet Million this year. Sungold plants are enormous! I've gotten several ripe from those already, and they are an amazing sweet flavor as well. I'll let you know about the others in a few weeks. Last year I planted Yellow Pear, because they are super cute and remind me of my grandfather, but they are rather bland. My boys liked that the neck of the "pear" didn't have seeds, though. Good luck!

Sungold imho is the alfa and omega of all cherries - lovely taste in 2 versions (very sweet when completely ripe, or juicy and refreshing when picked before that full orange color), vigorous growth, high and early yields and good disease resistance.

I have high expectations of my Gardenberry F1, haven't tried it yet, will be ready for tasting in 2-3 days so i can let you know how it stands.

You could also consider Suncherry premium, similar but yet slightly different from Sungold. They make a nice pair with red and orange mixed up.

Cheers,
Djole

I would take Sunsugar over Sungold any day. And Black Cherry is another "must grow" in my garden.

I would take Sunsugar over Sungold any day. And Black Cherry is another "must grow" in my garden.

I have cherry's and they are takimg over I give tons of them to friends and neighbors. What else can I do with them? Make juice,dry or just keep eating?

Phyllis, how many plants do you have? I don't won't to wind up in that situation. I don't have anyone to really give them away to lol. As it is, my next-door-neighbor comes to MY house to bestow me with her overage of veggies all summer long. I just need enough plants to cover our needs. Maybe 1 or 2 might be enough? Although I guess I could always bring some to work. I bet my staff would love me for it!

phyllisb2008, you can cook with them (last year I remember using them in pasta dishes and casseroles, also adding them to pizza toppings; you can make salsa or bruschetta, or freeze them for winter cooking. You may prefer to remove the seeds first.

I haven't made tomato juice yet, so I won't try to advise about that. But you could certainly add them to any canning or tomato-sauce-making you're doing, as many people prefer using multiple varieties of tomatoes.

I've grown Sun Gold for more than 10 years. Last year I added Black Cherry to the trial list, but wasn't impressed. Back to all Sun Gold cherries this year. My tomato harvest is almost finished and I'll start pulling plants next week. Plan to keep 4 Sun Golds in the garden. They'll continue to produce off and on through the summer and into the fall barring insect or storm damage.

These are two of our favorite summer dishes using Sun Golds.

Fresh (uncooked) Tomato "Sauce"

Cherry tomatoes cut in half or beefsteaks cut into bite-size pieces or combo of the two
Minced garlic
a little extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil chiffonade
lemon zest
S&P

Combine, cover, and let sit at room temp for a couple hours. Toss with hot pasta. Serve with grated Parmesan.

{{gwi:109119}}

and...

Pasta with Sun Gold Tomatoes

Oh, yes. Bliss in a bowl. I'm amazed how useful cherry tomatoes can be.

Ooh, Natal, so nice to see your photos and add your recipe and Mario's recipe to my collection. Looking forward to trying these out.

Hi, one of my three "must haves" is Matt's Wild Cherry. Absolutely delicious. Small and skin cracks but no matter. I couldn't stop eating them and everyone I gave them out to liked them too. Increase my plants by 300% to get more going. Heavy producer, big plant, and long growing season. Try one next time! Peace

Sweet 100 is a favorite cherry of mine (zone 6). The first year or two with tomatoes I grew a red cherry about the size of a golf ball. It was not quite as sweet as Sweet 100, but it had more taste. Can't recall the name, I grew it from mail-order seed.

Dr. C has a very nice yellow cherry. A number of people I've given it to say it is a low acid fruit.