Currant Questions

11 years ago

Do currant tomatoes have a different flavor than other "wild" tomatoes like Matt's Wild Cherry? (I have tried Matt's, and I don't care for the flavor).

Do currant tomatoes set fruit even in heat and humidity and basically grow like weeds (like Matt's wild cherry)?

Are currant tomatoes very productive?

Can you harvest currant tomatoes without the tiny fruits splitting (the I way have found they do on Matt's)?

If I try currants, is it best to go with the regular "red currant" or "yellow currant" types, or one of the selected ones like Tess' Land Race?

Basically I'm looking for a wildish, heat-tolerant, and easy tomato like Matt's but with different flavor and less problems with split fruit.

Thank you.

Bill

Comments (6)

garf_gw
11 years ago
I grow Everglades which is everything you want EXCEPT for splitting. If it rains hard when they are ready to pick............forget it.
castorp
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for the information, Garf. I'll put Everglades on my list to try. I've been doing some research and it seems there are several varieties of Florida currant tomatoes.

Bill
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garf_gw
11 years ago
I have personally found 2. Red and orange. Taste seems close.
carolyn137
11 years ago
Matt's Wild Cherry is not a currant. It's S. lycopersicon var cerisforme and I don't like the taste either. Currants are S. pimpinellifolium and are closest to what was growing wild in South America where tomato originated from and there are now about 15 different species of true tomatoes,

I've grown quite a few currants and my favorite is Sara's Galapagos , fruits were bought back to me from the Galapagos and checking with the Rick center at UC Davis in CA it's probably a stable interspecies cross but has the best taste of any currant I've grown.

This past summer I was able to score a pink fruited mutation of Everglades ( from the red, yellow epidermis, to a pink,clear epidermis), and it's called Ted's Pink Currant and I think you'll see it around in the future since I've SSE listed it for 2013 and will be sending it for trial to those seed companies for trial where I know the owners well and trust them.

I've never had any problems with splitting of any currant I've grown where Ilive and garden. And I wanted to add that there's nothing special about Wild Everglades. No doubt spread along the Gulf oast into FL by the Spanish missionaries who brought it from Mexico.

In any one SSE Yearbook there are many currantgs listd, some named, some not.

Lastly, at many places you'll read about growing currant varieties way far away form non-currant since currants have a stigma that sticks way up but it's been found that only about half of the currants that have been looked at are like that. Just to be safe, any time I grow a currant I do grow it in an area as far away as I can from regular garden tomatoes.But if you aren't a seed saver you can ignore what I just said,

Hope that helps,

Carolyn
garf_gw
11 years ago
Carolyn, I am taking your advice and I ordered some Sara's Galapagos to try. I will report on them later.
castorp
Original Author
11 years ago
Carolyn, thanks so much for the information (and sorry for the delayed reply). I'm going to try Sara's Galapagos, and I'll make a note of Ted's Pink for the future.

I love your book, by the way. After reading it I grew Druzba and Eva Purple Ball this fall and they have both done very well for me.

Bill