Cherry tomatoes should be the first type of tomato recommended to new gardeners, and one of the first plants in general for beginners. Because they offer a very good chance of success right away, even if the person just uses cheap store-bought bagged soil or even plain old dirt in their yard. An inexpensive small bag of tomato fertilizer from any big box store will almost always be all they really need to accomplish a good harvest. It's important to help new folks build confidence and help them see tangible rewards quickly, so they stay interested.
Not only are they far easier to grow than slicers and beefsteaks, and far more productive, but it's clear in climates like mine where summers are humid, miserable, wet and full of blight, they may be the only tomatoes that survive here. They're the missing piece of the puzzle in my garden, and they appear to be the thing that'll FINALLY allow me to have tomatoes all summer long in some form. Next year, I will be growing a lot more cherry tomatoes and cutting back on the beefsteaks, because the beefsteaks all die here in July.
@@TheMillennialGardener yes, sometimes rather than fighting nature it's much wiser to simply look for species/varieties that like or at least tolerate the conditions you have locally :)
So this season I decided "just for fun to grow peppers". I never liked peppers a day in my life. Till now! Not only do I like them I love them. And it's like you said... I'm used to store bought and the difference is amazing.
A big help for pollination in warm weather is to get a cheap electric toothbrush, go outside early, touch the flower with the bristles, with the brush turned on. You'll see a big difference in flower drop. It's hot here, and this works well.
Not liking the grocery store version of a vegetable/fruit but liking the version from your garden is SOOO true! I used to hate spinach and refused to eat it, but I decided to try growing it in my garden for my family that does eat it, and it’s so much better that I actually like to eat it now!
It's like the difference between ground beef and a prime steak. The only way to get the good stuff is to grow it yourself! That's what makes gardening so rewarding. Thanks for watching!
100% right about store bought tomatoes. I thought I didn’t like tomatoes my whole life until I started growing them and now they are one of my favorite crops!
I grew super sweet 100 tomatoes in containers last year. I didn't do my research so I was absolutely not prepared for how big those plants grew. I grew them in 17 gallon tubs from Walmart. They basically took over my patio. Between my two plants I was harvesting a gallon of tomatoes every 3 days. I'm in Raleigh, NC.
I love to share my fruits so I actually switched to cherry tomatoes almost exclusively this year. Growing so many!! Also, those sun golds are so incredible. Even when they are warm from the heat of the day, its crazy how good they are. I agree it tastes like citrus.
It's like a cross between a sweet grape, a lemon and a beefsteak tomato all at once. It's truly a flavor explosion. I wish I would have grown several plants, because honestly, I'd love to make a whole pot of tomato sauce out of just them!
@@TheMillennialGardener this is my first time growing anything. For some reason, I’ve been obsessing over cherry tomatoes, which I’ve never even liked before. I’ll eat bruschetta or pico de gallo or sauces, but never plain tomatoes. I’m looking for hoping the 3 sun golds I’ve got and the 1 super sweet is good for bruschetta all summer.
We have 20 cherry tomatoes growing this year. Sungold is the ONLY hybrid I’ll grow. I broke my no-hybrid rule with that one. Black cherry is our other favorite. Maybe give that one a try next year. It’s candy-sweet, smokey, complex and 100% delicious! Great video. I’ll check out Vincenzo’s Plate! 👍🏼
Sun Gold is incredible. I'm also looking for a black cherry tomato for next season. Can I ask why you have a "no-hybrid" rule? I'm working in the opposite direction, and I'm trying to find hybrids that approximate heirlooms, because heirlooms usually fail in my climate.
@@TheMillennialGardener We own a small, beyond organic, no-kill farm in the Missouri Ozarks. We sell here at the farm and will start a CSA and farmers’ market next year. I try to grow everything in a regenerative way that keeps producing. We have a market garden, a permaculture garden, a chicken garden packed with their favorite foods, an orchard and a vineyard. I have five hybrids on our land: boysenberries, a pluot tree, Milena orange sweet bell peppers, Calypso cucumbers that are gynoecious and Sungold tomatoes. To me, hybrids are just too restrictive and the seeds must be purchased year after year as they don’t propagate correctly. I don’t mind purchasing seeds. It’s a great hobby for me. But I like it to be my CHOICE. With hybrids, you are forced to purchase. That just doesn’t sit right with me. 😁 But Sungold cherry tomatoes are the best!!! You have impeccable taste! 😁
Wisdom! Cherries will raise themselves if you give the a patch of their own. We let them grow along the edge of the pasture and cows helped plant them :) A family nearby planted a tomato patch around 1865, and never planted again. Pigs were wintered in the garden and tomatoes came up year after year. Mine are giving me a few a day, despite the 110 F temps.
I'm having the same thing happen with ground cherries. I planted one plant in a pot, and I must have 40 of them coming up. They're growing through my weed barrier. I guess I'll never have to plant them again, too! 😂
Mine last until the frost takes them here in NY. The do slow down a bit when the night temps get colder but I am always out picking green tomatoes to ripen inside when a frost is predicted.
This has been my experience as well; cherry tomatoes in general are very disease resistant, and tolerate extreme heat/cold and wet/dry very well. I think they should be the *first* type of tomato recommended to new gardeners, and one of the first plants in general for beginners, so they get off to a good start with a very good chance of success right away. That builds confidence and helps keep them interested in learning to deal with more challenging plants.
A commercial grower for the New York City market was growing Sakura cherry tomatoes on a grand scale so this year I tried them and they are it! Delicious, larger size with a more durable skin that doesn't burst. I too make them a part of every non breakfast meal. I have Black Cherry, Burpee Sungold, Tonjonita and the Sakura. All a learning exercise but a delicious one!
non-breakfast?!? In season, cherry tomatoes are very often the first thing I eat in the morning. Nibbling on a handful or two as I'm out checking the garden and doing my chores is very satisfying.
I also add some cherry tomatoes to my homemade hot sauces, for a little touch of sweetness without adding plain white sugar. Using tomatoes keeps that sort of earthy, natural flavor intact. Carrots work well for that, too.
I have had the opposite problem, I have always grown only cherry tomatoes and never regular ones. I plan to change that next spring after watching your videos, especially some determinate types
Outstanding! Determinate tomatoes are super easy to grow by comparison. If you want to wade into determinates beefsteaks, I recommend Bella Rosa and Celebrity for ease. If you want a few high quality indeterminate beefsteaks, try Big Beef and Big Brandy.
I love my volunteer cherry tomatoe plants!! I have about 8 volunteers and maybe 6 I put in this year. Sungold and Super Sweet 100. The Sungold is volunteer so thankfully because I could find those plants anywhere.
"Watermelon rind" is exactly how I describe those nasty grocery store tomatoes. Good on ya for trying something new, and at some point you'll be chasing the cherry tomato bug for all the awesome colors and flavors! Highly recommend Black Cherry, a perennial fave, and Green Drs cherry. So many I still haven't tried! Thanks for sharing the great content. Happy growing!
Very informative video's, I finally put a garden in my backyard after 25 years of living here. I am Italian also and my buddie says I should be ashamed of myself because I don't have a garden lol 😂 he said to me all Italians have a garden but you, so I put one in and I wish I would have years ago
good vid! just fyi ive grown sungold and sun sugar several times and ive asked friends if they can tell the diff side-by-side tasting and they cant. i noticed a lot of the sun sugar cherries are slightly larger than sungolds and i think a bit more crack resistent in rain. Also when i bring both sungolds and sweet 100 or million to my friends they tell me i dont need to bring the red ones any more, just the orange ones :)
This has to be the 7 or 8th comment I've received this week stating that Sun Sugar may be superior to Sun Gold. If that's the case, I'll be looking to get seeds over the winter for next season, as well as a good purple cherry tomato. I will say Sun Gold is a little prone to cracking in heavy rain, which is a problem where I live, so crack resistance is very attractive. This is how I feel about Super Sweet 100. It is a very fine tomato, but it isn't fair to compare it to Sun Gold because it's just too good.
@@TheMillennialGardener a really amazing purple cherry (obviously they are more purple with more sun exposure) is midnight snack. Everyone absolutely adores them and they are gorgeous. They hold up very well to heat and stress as far as excessive rain/drought goes. I highly recommend them. I would also like to name a few that are must haves in my garden Chadwick Cherry (larger cherry type, heirloom.) Very resistant to disease. Chocolate Cherry Midnight snack
@@TheMillennialGardener you've shown yourself to be open to trying different things. We should all be open to new ideas... sometimes the rewards are phenomenal! I'm very pleased that you've embraced cherry tomatoes, because clearly it has reinforced and reinvigorated your passion for growing cooking and eating excellent food. I feel very strongly that gardening is one of the things that almost anyone can do, and really get a lot of joy from.
I enjoyed your frankness in this video. I'm glad you decided to join the cherry tomato fun! I am growing Sweetie and Sungold cherry tomatoes this year. I had decided in January to make this the "Year of the pepper," and that seems to be going well so far. Watermelon and okra are my secondary focuses. But I'm starting to feel that cherry tomatoes will be a main interest of mine next year.
They’re fun to grow. They’re certainly easier than most tomatoes. Tomatoes are one of the toughest annuals to grow in my climate, and these succeed where many others fail. Thanks for watching!
Yes, once you find a variety or two that you like - which isn't hard, there are lots of great choices - you'll probably always have at least a couple cherry tomato plants going as long as you keep gardening. Why not? :) And if you want to focus on them as a specialty, that can be fascinating.
They're one of the only reliable producers here on the coast. If you're further out west, you may have better luck with tomatoes. They're tough here around Wilmington!
I always had cherry tomatoes growing in pots outside my back door when my kids were growing up. They would pick some on the way out and in for snacking. I planted others in the garden for salads and cooking, and snacking, for us. We are an Italian family and I have many quick, easy and delicious using cherries. I also use them in my sauces, both canned and fresh. There is nothing like our summer sauce. Can't wait but here in NY it is still a month or so away.
That's great that your kids eat tomatoes at a young age. I loved watching tomatoes grow in the garden, but I refused to eat them when I was young in anything but sauces. Raw tomatoes freaked me out for some reason. Now, I think I eat 3 of them a day during the season 😂 There's truly nothing like a fresh tomato. I think tomatoes have the biggest difference between "grocery store quality" and "home grown quality" of any fruit.
I love growing them so much. When I lived in Chicago that is the only tomatoes I would grow. But when I moved to Alabama I start growing the big ones too. They taste much better when you grow them then when you get them in the store.
When I started growing my own tomatoes, I stopped buying tomatoes from the grocery store. The grocery store tomatoes are the worst. If I don’t have my own home grown tomatoes, I’d rather just do without!
I don’t have an Italian ancestry but tomatoes are the most important crop in my garden and Italian is the food we make most! My wife always wants me to grow some cherry tomatoes along with the main crop sauce varieties. This year I am trying a new to me cherry called Sakura.
Dale is such a good boy to wait for you to offer the tomato to him. I had a dog that would eat them off the vine. He’d always beat me to the first ripe one of the season. Sun gold is my favorite cherry variety so far.
We are very, very lucky to have Dale. He is definitely strong-willed, independent and does what he wants. If he doesn't want to listen, he won't. However, he never does anything bad. He's always respectful. He has the best personality of anyone I've ever met, humans included.
I love this!! I have never seen anyone praise cherry toms. I have been growing Tumbling Tom for years just for the rich taste and acid thhat pumps up my tuna tomato sauc e for pasta. They are the best....tubs, small space, prolific, long season, easy to grow, can be great eaten fresh.....whats not to lovve??
This is so good to know! I also planted cherry tomatoes for the first time this year. I don't know the variety but If they are as good as my Brandywine I'll be happy with that.
The Brandywine Pink is the ultimate sandwich or burger tomato. I'll tell you this, though. I'm VERY impressed with Chef's Choice Pink. The taste is virtually identical to Brandywine Pink, but it has triple the productivity and more uniform fruit. If you love Brandywine Pink, you must try Chef's Choice Pink next year. They're also 2-3 weeks earlier. I've already picked 2 ripen ones.
I moved from Ohio to South Carolina about 4 years ago. Boy....I have struggled with my garden to say the least. Tomatoes are the hardest thing to grow in my garden, so last year I tried sweet million with better luck but still got diseases in July and bad fruits. I think I have to find the right cherry variety. I will be trying Huskey Cherry Red this year hoping this hybrid will better ward off disease and slow summer production. I will also be planting second tomato plants later in the year hoping they will grow better after the diseases pass and harsh heat subsides. I didn't know how good I had it back In Ohio but I guess I have to try my best and adapt. Dale must be a healthy pup with him eating out of the garden like that.
Super Sweet 100 is a good choice for a red cherry tomato, but you'll need more than disease resistance where we live. To grow tomatoes here, you need a good, consistent spraying routine and decent equipment. I recommend you check this out: czcams.com/video/YVgCfWLR9aA/video.html
For some reason my local garden centers aren't stocking the romas I normally grow so I picked up indeterminant cherry tomatoes and a few bush determinants. I have record success with romas so I'll see how growing something different goes.
Great info, thank you! Glad to find your channel, also a Jersey transplant living in SE NC & love growing tomatoes. I suggest trying "blossom tickling" to help pollinate the flowers mid-summer. It really helps with production. If you're not familiar with the technique you can search the term on YT for easy simple instructions. Also, I usually grow prolific delicious Husky cherry tomatoes but this year trying Super Sweet 100. The seedlings are a half inch tall momentarily & I can't wait to set them mid April. Last year I purchased one Sun Gold cherry tomato plant after I sneakily picked it clean in the Lowes garden department, lol. You're're right, the flavor is excellent. I will grow more this year if I can find seeds or plants. (Also growing regular size Better Boy tomatoes. They do very well here too, with enough watering.)
They are quite tasty. I will tell you this, though. The Sun Gold's blow them away. The Sun Gold's are so unbelievably good that it's hard to describe. If you've never grown Sun Gold, I can't recommend them highly enough!
@@TheMillennialGardener yellow pears are basically bullet-proof. I too have purposely let them just vine out on the ground in a tangled mess, and they still resisted disease better than any other variety I've grown properly (large or small), and they still produced ridiculous amounts of fruit. I don't know why, but they also stay ripe on the vine seemingly forever without starting to rot or ferment.... almost zero loss from not picking them often enough. They have a rich tomato flavor, but they're not super sweet in my experience. I tend to stick mostly with heirloom/OP varieties, but I will try the SunGolds too!
Dave's "SWEET 100's" (indeterminate) are an incredible cherry tomato. They are heirloom, so you can save the seeds and grow the same crop next year. I put some Cherokee Purple (determinate) this year but they are prone to blossom end rot. You have to put a lot of calcium in their soil.
I generally prefer the hybrid’s due to the disease resistance, as most heirlooms fall apart here. If you like those, you may want to give the Super Sweet 100’s even more. They have excellent flavor, but the production and disease resistance will be better thanks to the genetic diversity.
Last year, I tried Black Cherry for the first time. Holy. Cow. They were amazing. The taste is so complex - starting with a tart bite, then evolving into a sweet smokiness that you might find in a Cherokee Purple. They quickly became my favorite cherry tomato. This year, I'm only growing them and Sunsugar (similar to Sungold, but even sweeter.) I don't know how they'd do for cooking, but for just eating off the vine, I think they can't be beat.
I need a purple cherry for next season, and you may be the 6th person so far to recommend Black Cherry. You guys are selling me hard on it for next year! I need to check the disease package given my climatic challenges, and if it has some resistance to it, I'm pretty much sold.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm not too far away from you (Chapel Hill, NC) and I had little to no issues with disease on my Black Cherry. It was still producing at Thanksgiving and the plant looked great. They're pretty sprawly though, so just plan to stake accordingly. But yeah, I cannot recommend this strain enough for sheer flavor. They don't produce as much as many cherry tomatoes do, but they're still plentiful enough and the vines are insane. At least mine were.
@@TheMillennialGardener I agree 100% with @Kimberly Guinn . I only grow one cherry plant, and that's a Black Cherry. It's the smaller sibling of Black Russian and Black Krim, so you'll love it given you like Cherokee Purple & Rosella Purple. It's hardy, usually the last plant to die, and has excellent production. It's the bird's favourite, so that tells you something. As Kimberly said, it does sprawl. My vines get 3-4m long so you need to make sure you're ready for it. Usually I allow about 12 leaders so the tomatoes don't get too small. The first ones will be like golf balls.
Cherry tomatoes are fantastic. I face essentially the opposite problems as you in my garden up in the Pacific Northwest outside of Seattle (zone 8b)-namely that we don't get sufficient heat to reliably ripen larger tomato varieties outside of a cold frame, but cherry tomatoes don't seem to mind the cooler temperatures here at all.
You may want to give the variety Siletz a try, too. It should do very well for you with your shorter season. It was developed by Oregon State University for precisely your location, and both the flavor and yields are outstanding. They're not quite beefsteaks, but they're nice slicer-sized tomatoes.
I like them because they are really hardy and produce a ton and last until early fall...and they taste good too, though not as good as regular tomatoes.
You are so right. When relatives from countryside come for a visit they always bring fruits and vegetables they've grown themselves and they are so good and never taste like those I bought.
It's not even fair to call those "things" in the grocery store "tomatoes." They should be given a completely different name. They basically taste like watermelon rind.
I didn’t grow any Sweet 100s this year, but they decided they wanted to be here this year. Some really strong volunteers this year. Also one Husky Cherry Dwarf volunteer and this is the first year I’m growing Sungolds.
I wonder how stable the seed is with these hybrids. The Sweet 100's are an F1, so it will be interesting to see how closely the seedlings approximate the Sweet 100's. One of the benefits of cherry types is the self-seeding nature since so many fruits fall. I grew a single ground cherry last year and I have about 40 of them coming up all over my property. It's crazy!
Last year my cherry tomatoes, "Super Sweet 100" had been the best tasting and most productive tomatoes I grew the whole season. As Pa summers and even spring get hotter, I should plant more cherry tomatoes. Recently, I've found that certain grocery store cherry tomatoes actually taste good. They have names like "flavor bombs" or "sugar bites". Not as good as from the garden, BUT, flavorful enough to spend a few bucks a pound or container for them. I eat a bowlful every night or just about every night with some salt and shredded Parm cheese. I love your pooch, I'm a dog lover too. I doubt our dogs would eat any tomatoes, not even the cherry tomatoes.
LOl...this was a fun video. Growing up, we had cherry tomatoes and it was hard to find any left on the vine as they were way too accessible to three hungry boys. I am trying Sugar Sun this year. Having moved to Kentucky and finding land an hour and a half away, we just moved across the road from the property until we build and we are behind.. It's been a real push to get anything in the ground. But at least I have tomatoes and Figs. YES, I am so excited just to grown anything. Thank you for sharing. Your channel is a "Destination" video for me. Love it!
That's how I felt 3 years ago when I finally got myself a little piece of land. After renting for 14 years of my life, it felt so good to be able to plant some things for real. It doesn't get any easier, I'll tell you. I'm still planting nonstop with so much work to do, but it's all worth it. Just keep pushing forward and make your backyard paradise!
Hi! I have a question for you. I’m in coastal NJ. After watching one of your videos my husband helped me construct string trellises for my tomatoes. It’s a little later than I’d liked but so far I’m loving this method. I have a few Better Boy tomatoes that I planted from large starts from Hallocks that are about 4 feet now. They were not pruned ( except for at the bottom) and have filled out and are unruly. Is it too late to try to remove the cages and prune to 3 stems and use the string trellis? I will need to cut away beautiful blossoms and growth to do this. The plants are healthy and wonderful. They have unripened fruit in them. Live and learn, next year I’ll start with string trellises from the start! Thank you for your advice! Im impressed with your garden and value your opinions!
Thanks so much for all the information you have shared here on YT. I grow red & yellow varieties of both regular size & cherry tomatoes in the Piedmont. But I've never pruned my tomato plants. So now I'm learning from you that I've done it wrong all this time! LOL! Until last year, I had never heard of indeterminate plants. I guess I got lucky & always bought ones that would be bushy. I do have a question. Do you prune cherry tomatoes the same as regular size tomatoes?
Fellow American of Italian ancestry here on the north coast of Ohio (west of Cleveland 5 miles south of Erie) I absolutely love sweet 100's, the skins are thin so they crack easily but the flavor is superb. This year I'm growing San Marzano to make sauce but next year I"ll go back to sweet 100's which I've typically gotten yields of 1,000 fruits off of a plant.
I grew San Marzano here in NC, and they struggled a bit due to my climate. I think they'll do better for you. Next year, I think I'm going to look into a hybridized version of San Marzano. I really need to find the time to start canning tomatoes. When making sauce in the winter out of canned puree from the grocery store, simply dumping in a single 32 ounce mason jar of fresh puree makes a huge difference. You can use 4-5 28oz cans from the store and a 32oz mason jar of puree, and it's dramatically better!
I'm growing sunsugar tomatoes for the first time this year. They have taken forever to fruit, but I can't wait to try them. Mine are about 10 feet tall.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm in Texas and our weather has been crazy... Too much rain, then too cool, then too hot. I'm new at this so it's all an experiment still. I try to do what other gardeners are doing, but everything I have is in containers. Not able physically to do much else.
Hi! Would like to recommend another kind of cherry tomatoes that I m in love at first bite. To me, they r not less impressive n if I have to choose one, I would do this alternate w Sungold. It’s Tomatoberry. Heart shape (so lovely), highly crack resistant; abundant crops; less seed n awesome snack if u dry them. They dry well too cos there is enough flesh but not too thick. This yr I added Paruche that many said more preferred to Sungold. Will keep u posted w result.
Ooo, these sound good. According to Totally Tomato, they're a hybrid, crack-resistant, 1+ inch in diameter and holds well on the vine. That's everything I'm looking for, and I'm definitely going to make a mental note. Thank you! I'll tell you what, they're expensive, though. $5.65 for 10 seeds 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener Very expensive indeed! I watched it from the first seller that sells 25 seeds for $40 (5yrs ago) n now it comes down to 10 seeds per order. Yes, bite the bullet n no regret. I can grow 2-3 seasons w one ok. Keep in fridge n every seeds germinate. Everyone who has tried it was in love. Hope u do too. 👌😂
There is another one that caught my eyes; Sakura. Plan to buy 10 seeds n grow them next yr w yr other recommended determinate type. I tried Japanese Triefel last yr n fall in love w the flavor. Grow many of them this yr, heirloom so saving seeds. If u r interested, I can sent some to u as well as a way of thank you for yr education.
I've basically been growing to try and grow beefsteak in crazy quantity but do far, haven't been able to do so. I've been able to get good success with from a midsized tomato, 4-8oz called bonnie best, but that's the most success from the larger or midsized ones. The other has been this year bog zac where I've gotten a decent yield so far, I'll know by the end of the season pound wise. But cherries are so easy. I don't grow much cause I know I'll be able to grow em well. My super sweet 100 did nothing cause of transplant shock and the way I did it. After 1.5 months of the delay and just sitting there, it basically exploded and now has a lot of tomatoes. It will rival the larger tomatoes I think in terms of yield, but not the big zac lol
Hey @themillenialGardener I look forward to your video on Rosella Crimson! This year is my first time growing tomatoes and I went with Dwarf Tomatoes in growbags (Tasmanian Chocolate, Rosella Purple, Fred's Tie dye, Purple Heart, Sarandipity and Audrey's love). Also, have you tried any of the potato leaf releases from the DT project? I'm interested in growing some of those next year. Sweet Scarlet Dwarf and BrandyFred look particularly appealing to me.
Try the Sun Sugar cherry tomato. Very similar to the Sungold without the thick skin and no splitting. I personally like the Sun Sugar better, I can send you some Sun Sugar tomato seeds if you want some.
I've had probably close to 2 dozen recommendations of Sun Sugar in the past week, so I'll likely add that to the list for next season. The other one I keep getting is Black Cherry. Next year, I'll be growing more cherry tomatoes because all the beefsteaks die in my climate come July. This is likely how I can get tomatoes all summer.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm growing black cherry tomato for the 1st time this year after getting some seeds from a friend. I can do a swap with you where I give you Sun Sugar and Black Cherry tomato seeds for some Siletz. The Siletz I found online doesn't look like the ones you have and shipping costs $8-13.85 is ridiculous. I can letter mail it to you and it will cost a buck and change for stamps. Let me know your thoughts. All the best. and happy growing.
The Super Sweet 100’s have ruined all other cherry tomatoes for me. I just bought some Sun Gold seeds because I keep hearing about them though! I definitely toss my extra cherry tomatoes into my sauces at the end of the season. Even the yellow pears! Vincenzo is 100% right about the sweetness adding more flavor. You can’t buy sauce like that at the store!
If you like tomatoes with some acid bite to them, you’ll like Sun Gold even more. To me, the Sun Gold’s blow the Super Sweet 100’s away, and don’t get me wrong, the 100’s are really good. Sun Gold is just THAT good.
Dale's favorite tomatoes are all of them! I'm lucky that he is such a good eater, but he also doesn't self-harvest! I've never done cherry tomato salsa, but I can tell you fresh tomato sauce made from cherry tomatoes is wonderful.
We tried Sun Gold for the first time last year and we agree, we loved them. This year, our favorite cherry has been Pink Princess. It's a fantastic new variety for us!
Sun Gold is truly awesome. I'm only just getting into cherry tomatoes, so I have a lot of research ahead of me this fall. I'm very interested in an F1 variety called Sunchocola.
@@TheMillennialGardener I look forward to you sharing your research and results with us, as always. We are a small family of 3, one of which who doesn't care for tomatoes (gasp! and I married him anyway!) and I have 40 tomato plants in my smallish garden because I want to try ALL the varieties :) Thanks for great content as always!
I think you're the 10th person to recommend Black Cherry so far. I am looking for a purple cherry tomato next year, and you guys are selling me REALLY hard on the Black Cherry. I haven't had a single other purple cherry recommendation, so it sounds like the one to get!
@@TheMillennialGardener Rosella is a dark cherry which gets very good reviews from tomatoheads. It's better than Black Cherry for me. Black Opal and Garnet are two more from the same breeder (Gourmet Genetics).
@@TheMillennialGardener I tried them a couple of years ago more as a mistake than anything. Ever since then there are always at least 2 or 3 plants of them in my garden. The newest one for me this year is one called Dancing with Smurfs. They are a more oval shaped cherry and turn a deep dark purple as the sun hits them. I have not had the opportunity to try one yet but and really looking forward to it!
I just got my sun gold seeds in and it’s killing me that I didn’t just bite the bullet and order them sooner bc now it’s pretty much too late for me to plant them for the fall. I live in the Deep South where we barely get frosts if at all, but I might as well just wait a few months to be safe. I’ll have plenty of SS100s real soon so that’ll have to hold me over lol
I have raised cherry tomatoes in the past. I eat a lot of salads and use them principally in that. One drawback (for me) to raising them is their stupendous production: I can't eat them all fast enough and many spoil. Near the end of the season, I get so frustrated that I pull the plants up. It never occurred to me to make sauce with them. I would like to know how you prepare a sauce using them. Is the freezing process for them exactly like that for standard-sized tomatoes? (Your use of the fig to give Dale his meds is clever; I've always used peanut butter for that purpose.)
I urge you to check out Vincenzo's video here on how he uses cherry tomatoes in his sauces: czcams.com/video/hnoxLn2ea0A/video.html You'll have dinner made in 15-20 mins from scratch, and it'll shock you how good it is. Cherry tomatoes, when you saute them and press on them with a spatula or wooden spoon, liquefy very quickly into a very rich sauce. I've never frozen tomatoes, so I'm not a good person to ask about that.
Cherry tomatoes are my favorite to grow, followed closely by determinate tomatoes. I am in hot, humid Georgia and my plants rarely make it through July so I try to have back ups. But my back ups that I put in in July rarely make it until September because of the disease pressure. Growing tomatoes is HARD work. I spray every other day but most of the time it rains within a few hours and washes the spray off. Ugh 😩
@@TheMillennialGardener Grow Sun Sugar. It is the child of sun gold and doesn't split nearly as easily. I LOVE sun golds, but they split so quickly. Sun sugars are just as tasty and much more resilient.
I don't know what kind of groceries store you all have, that sound disastrous. All cherry tomatoes from groceries stores in my life have been absolutely delicious, even the non organic. Cherry tomatoes always have been extremely sweet and tasty and delicious. I feel sad that many people apparently don't have this kind of taste from groceries store. I live in France I don't know if that counts. But this year I planted the seeds of organic tomatoes that were delicious and they are growing well, this is the first time I'm planting vegetables/fruits. This is very exciting.
Sadly living 50 years in Jersey we saw the decline in great tomatoes once Campbells stopped using NJs wonderfull tomatoes! We call Ugly lumpy topped beefsteaks Jersey maters! I disliked cherrys as a kid but began liking grape tomatoes so now we grow both. Last year we couldn't put in our plants until Memorial Day! We love a simple sauce with olive oil garlic and cherry and grapes!...
Buon giorno paisano; great and spot on video. After buying your tomato set up last month, I will begin to install it in a new area today. While I have grown the yellow pair tomato, I am far behind you in production. I also have the super sweet 100 tomato’s.
Are you going to string trellis? I think you'll have a lot of success with it. I will tell you you'll need probably 4-5 tomato hooks for each cherry tomato plant, because they vine so aggressively. However, it's working flawlessly. It is going to change the way you grow tomatoes, and you'll never go back to any other way!
Hello sir. Thank you very much for everything you do videoclip.showing the gardens tomatoes sweet.you are have a very nice dog look very nice dog pretty nice. Thank you again sir.
Welcome to the cherry tomato fanclub! Ignore those rubbery nasty things at the grocery store. There are lots of great varieties to grow, both hybrids and heirlooms. Most are very hardy, disease-resistant, and easy to care for. Some of them seem to be almost invincible, producing all summer long until a hard frost finally takes them out. I love 'em partly because every morning when I go out to do my chores I eat a handful right off the vines as I'm checking plants. I call it taking my vitamins. :)
I'm noticing that both my cherry tomato plants are far more disease resistant than the slicers and beefsteaks. It isn't even a contest. I love beefsteak tomatoes, but the plants are almost universally pathetic in my climate, aside from a couple standouts (like Big Beef - that plant is a tank). I think these cherries are finally the solution to my tomato problem, and a way to have tomatoes all summer in my miserable summer climate. I'm glad to finally be part of the Cherry Club.
@@Fattiapples I like old-fashioned heirloom red cherries and yellow pears. But we're trying several different ones this year, both heirlooms and hybrids.
Hardiness zones aren't really relevant to vegetable gardening. I'm the same zone as Seattle, but our climates are absolutely nothing alike. Hardiness zones only matter for perennials.
Nothing can make Sun Gold taste like cardboard, but you're probably the 8th or 9th person this week to tell me Sun Sugar is an improved version of Sun Gold. I am now looking into that and Black Cherry for next year.
If Juliet tomatoes are available in your area they are GREAT MINI ROMA’S. VERY PROLIFIC, and Sun Sugar is a newer variety, and mine rarely make it into the house in the beginning of the season.
OMFG this is shocking. like lol. Sun Golds and Super Sweet 100s are the absolutely best toms in my garden. SS100s are so freaking resiliant. Them and the sungolds get the primo, 100 percent, most tended ideal locations in my garden. They are the best. The most disease resistant, the most productive, the best tasting. We just eat 1000s of them right off the vine every summer. I'm shocked you have not grown them my guy. Welcome to the club.
Sweet 100 and yellow pear always make an appearance in my garden. If none of the other tomatoes grow I at least get some really good snacks! They don't make it into the kitchen 'cause I can't resist eating them as I pick them!
Here in Denver CO. Trying a new variety of cherry tomato. Flaming burst. Have been growing the yellow pear, sun gold, sun sugar, super sweet 100. They are all good. Peace.
@@TheMillennialGardener small fruit do very well here. Japanese eggplants, small figs, and cherry tomatoes. I prune a lot. One stem per plant. Being attentive to them pays dividend.
I would recommend you to try Black Cherry tomato. I've grown Sun gold and prefer black cherry because the skin is thinner and the fruit is so good. I just eat it off the vine like a fruit.
Lots of folks have been saying Black Cherry. I do want a purple tomato for next year. However, I do prefer acidic tomatoes, and in my experience, purple tomatoes tend to be sweet and low acid.
I think the Sun Gold's will actually fruit for you in the hot season. I know tomatoes are a huge challenge where you live and you probably have to grow them during the winter, but these will actually work for you in the summer if you can keep the disease off. These are about as disease-resistant as a tomato can get.
Have been growing them for 40 years. The family call them bombers because the flavor just explodes in your mouth. And the Sun Golds are an extra treat.
Cherry tomatoes should be the first type of tomato recommended to new gardeners, and one of the first plants in general for beginners. Because they offer a very good chance of success right away, even if the person just uses cheap store-bought bagged soil or even plain old dirt in their yard. An inexpensive small bag of tomato fertilizer from any big box store will almost always be all they really need to accomplish a good harvest. It's important to help new folks build confidence and help them see tangible rewards quickly, so they stay interested.
Not only are they far easier to grow than slicers and beefsteaks, and far more productive, but it's clear in climates like mine where summers are humid, miserable, wet and full of blight, they may be the only tomatoes that survive here. They're the missing piece of the puzzle in my garden, and they appear to be the thing that'll FINALLY allow me to have tomatoes all summer long in some form. Next year, I will be growing a lot more cherry tomatoes and cutting back on the beefsteaks, because the beefsteaks all die here in July.
@@TheMillennialGardener yes, sometimes rather than fighting nature it's much wiser to simply look for species/varieties that like or at least tolerate the conditions you have locally :)
@@dogslobbergardens6606 I’m actually finding cherry types are better in salads, too. Shocker!
What a thoughtful, on-point comment. 👍
i’m a beginner and planting these❤😊
So this season I decided "just for fun to grow peppers". I never liked peppers a day in my life. Till now! Not only do I like them I love them. And it's like you said... I'm used to store bought and the difference is amazing.
A big help for pollination in warm weather is to get a cheap electric toothbrush, go outside early, touch the flower with the bristles, with the brush turned on. You'll see a big difference in flower drop. It's hot here, and this works well.
Not liking the grocery store version of a vegetable/fruit but liking the version from your garden is SOOO true! I used to hate spinach and refused to eat it, but I decided to try growing it in my garden for my family that does eat it, and it’s so much better that I actually like to eat it now!
It's like the difference between ground beef and a prime steak. The only way to get the good stuff is to grow it yourself! That's what makes gardening so rewarding. Thanks for watching!
100% right about store bought tomatoes. I thought I didn’t like tomatoes my whole life until I started growing them and now they are one of my favorite crops!
I grew super sweet 100 tomatoes in containers last year. I didn't do my research so I was absolutely not prepared for how big those plants grew. I grew them in 17 gallon tubs from Walmart. They basically took over my patio. Between my two plants I was harvesting a gallon of tomatoes every 3 days. I'm in Raleigh, NC.
Oh boy. I have like 12 of these plants in the ground along with dozens of other varieties ❤😂
Born up north? You're a Southerner now. Welcome, friend.
Cherry tomatoes are awesome. Glad you’ve joined the club.
I'm a late entry, but I'm very happy to be part of the organization!
@@TheMillennialGardener Why u hack Dale?
I love to share my fruits so I actually switched to cherry tomatoes almost exclusively this year. Growing so many!!
Also, those sun golds are so incredible. Even when they are warm from the heat of the day, its crazy how good they are. I agree it tastes like citrus.
It's like a cross between a sweet grape, a lemon and a beefsteak tomato all at once. It's truly a flavor explosion. I wish I would have grown several plants, because honestly, I'd love to make a whole pot of tomato sauce out of just them!
@@TheMillennialGardener this is my first time growing anything. For some reason, I’ve been obsessing over cherry tomatoes, which I’ve never even liked before. I’ll eat bruschetta or pico de gallo or sauces, but never plain tomatoes. I’m looking for hoping the 3 sun golds I’ve got and the 1 super sweet is good for bruschetta all summer.
We have 20 cherry tomatoes growing this year. Sungold is the ONLY hybrid I’ll grow. I broke my no-hybrid rule with that one.
Black cherry is our other favorite. Maybe give that one a try next year. It’s candy-sweet, smokey, complex and 100% delicious!
Great video. I’ll check out Vincenzo’s Plate! 👍🏼
Sun Gold is incredible. I'm also looking for a black cherry tomato for next season. Can I ask why you have a "no-hybrid" rule? I'm working in the opposite direction, and I'm trying to find hybrids that approximate heirlooms, because heirlooms usually fail in my climate.
@@TheMillennialGardener We own a small, beyond organic, no-kill farm in the Missouri Ozarks. We sell here at the farm and will start a CSA and farmers’ market next year. I try to grow everything in a regenerative way that keeps producing.
We have a market garden, a permaculture garden, a chicken garden packed with their favorite foods, an orchard and a vineyard.
I have five hybrids on our land: boysenberries, a pluot tree, Milena orange sweet bell peppers, Calypso cucumbers that are gynoecious and Sungold tomatoes. To me, hybrids are just too restrictive and the seeds must be purchased year after year as they don’t propagate correctly.
I don’t mind purchasing seeds. It’s a great hobby for me. But I like it to be my CHOICE. With hybrids, you are forced to purchase. That just doesn’t sit right with me. 😁
But Sungold cherry tomatoes are the best!!! You have impeccable taste! 😁
Black Cherry is my favorite Cherry also. I’d rank the other 2 as my 2nd and 3rd for Cherry.
My black cherries are finally starting to fruit
@@nopejoeandangie I pray you have an incredibly fruitful harvest and long season! 🙏🏼
Wisdom! Cherries will raise themselves if you give the a patch of their own. We let them grow along the edge of the pasture and cows helped plant them :) A family nearby planted a tomato patch around 1865, and never planted again. Pigs were wintered in the garden and tomatoes came up year after year. Mine are giving me a few a day, despite the 110 F temps.
I'm having the same thing happen with ground cherries. I planted one plant in a pot, and I must have 40 of them coming up. They're growing through my weed barrier. I guess I'll never have to plant them again, too! 😂
My cherry, pear and grape tomatoes usually last until my first snow fall in southern California at 4200 ft.
Wonderful! The plants seem to be a lot more productive and disease resistant than the larger beefsteak and slicing tomatoes.
Mine last until the frost takes them here in NY. The do slow down a bit when the night temps get colder but I am always out picking green tomatoes to ripen inside when a frost is predicted.
This has been my experience as well; cherry tomatoes in general are very disease resistant, and tolerate extreme heat/cold and wet/dry very well.
I think they should be the *first* type of tomato recommended to new gardeners, and one of the first plants in general for beginners, so they get off to a good start with a very good chance of success right away. That builds confidence and helps keep them interested in learning to deal with more challenging plants.
A commercial grower for the New York City market was growing Sakura cherry tomatoes on a grand scale so this year I tried them and they are it! Delicious, larger size with a more durable skin that doesn't burst. I too make them a part of every non breakfast meal. I have Black Cherry, Burpee Sungold, Tonjonita and the Sakura. All a learning exercise but a delicious one!
You're the second person to recommend Sakura. What color tomato is that?
non-breakfast?!? In season, cherry tomatoes are very often the first thing I eat in the morning. Nibbling on a handful or two as I'm out checking the garden and doing my chores is very satisfying.
Cherry tomatos make great salsa. Our Sungold Cherry grew 16 ft last year and produced tons.
I've yet to try cherry tomato salsa, but cherry tomato sauce is outstanding. I hope my Sun Gold survives long enough to get that large in my climate!
I also add some cherry tomatoes to my homemade hot sauces, for a little touch of sweetness without adding plain white sugar. Using tomatoes keeps that sort of earthy, natural flavor intact. Carrots work well for that, too.
I grew Sungold for the 1st time last year and they are delicious. The only down side is a few can to crack after they are picked off the vine.
I have had the opposite problem, I have always grown only cherry tomatoes and never regular ones. I plan to change that next spring after watching your videos, especially some determinate types
Outstanding! Determinate tomatoes are super easy to grow by comparison. If you want to wade into determinates beefsteaks, I recommend Bella Rosa and Celebrity for ease. If you want a few high quality indeterminate beefsteaks, try Big Beef and Big Brandy.
I love my volunteer cherry tomatoe plants!!
I have about 8 volunteers and maybe 6 I put in this year.
Sungold and Super Sweet 100.
The Sungold is volunteer so thankfully because I could find those plants anywhere.
"Watermelon rind" is exactly how I describe those nasty grocery store tomatoes. Good on ya for trying something new, and at some point you'll be chasing the cherry tomato bug for all the awesome colors and flavors! Highly recommend Black Cherry, a perennial fave, and Green Drs cherry. So many I still haven't tried! Thanks for sharing the great content. Happy growing!
Very informative video's, I finally put a garden in my backyard after 25 years of living here. I am Italian also and my buddie says I should be ashamed of myself because I don't have a garden lol 😂 he said to me all Italians have a garden but you, so I put one in and I wish I would have years ago
I think I like your friend! Glad to hear you've joined the garden club! Thanks for watching!
good vid! just fyi ive grown sungold and sun sugar several times and ive asked friends if they can tell the diff side-by-side tasting and they cant. i noticed a lot of the sun sugar cherries are slightly larger than sungolds and i think a bit more crack resistent in rain.
Also when i bring both sungolds and sweet 100 or million to my friends they tell me i dont need to bring the red ones any more, just the orange ones :)
This has to be the 7 or 8th comment I've received this week stating that Sun Sugar may be superior to Sun Gold. If that's the case, I'll be looking to get seeds over the winter for next season, as well as a good purple cherry tomato. I will say Sun Gold is a little prone to cracking in heavy rain, which is a problem where I live, so crack resistance is very attractive. This is how I feel about Super Sweet 100. It is a very fine tomato, but it isn't fair to compare it to Sun Gold because it's just too good.
@@TheMillennialGardener a really amazing purple cherry (obviously they are more purple with more sun exposure) is midnight snack. Everyone absolutely adores them and they are gorgeous. They hold up very well to heat and stress as far as excessive rain/drought goes. I highly recommend them. I would also like to name a few that are must haves in my garden
Chadwick Cherry (larger cherry type, heirloom.) Very resistant to disease.
Chocolate Cherry
Midnight snack
@@TheMillennialGardener I can't wait for your next seasons's Sungold vs Sun Sugar Shootout video! Have a good one!
You sound pretty humble, lots of useful information. Thank for sharing 👍
I like learning new things and finding new loves. It’s what makes gardening fun! Thanks for watching!
@@TheMillennialGardener you've shown yourself to be open to trying different things. We should all be open to new ideas... sometimes the rewards are phenomenal! I'm very pleased that you've embraced cherry tomatoes, because clearly it has reinforced and reinvigorated your passion for growing cooking and eating excellent food.
I feel very strongly that gardening is one of the things that almost anyone can do, and really get a lot of joy from.
It's nice to see you enjoying a tasty tomato season.🙂 Great tip on using figs when giving our pup his tablets.🐕
So far, so good. I just wish the rain would stop! Thanks for watching!
I enjoyed your frankness in this video. I'm glad you decided to join the cherry tomato fun! I am growing Sweetie and Sungold cherry tomatoes this year. I had decided in January to make this the "Year of the pepper," and that seems to be going well so far. Watermelon and okra are my secondary focuses. But I'm starting to feel that cherry tomatoes will be a main interest of mine next year.
They’re fun to grow. They’re certainly easier than most tomatoes. Tomatoes are one of the toughest annuals to grow in my climate, and these succeed where many others fail. Thanks for watching!
Yes, once you find a variety or two that you like - which isn't hard, there are lots of great choices - you'll probably always have at least a couple cherry tomato plants going as long as you keep gardening. Why not? :)
And if you want to focus on them as a specialty, that can be fascinating.
Im also in NC just planted cherry tomatoes today. Excited!
They're one of the only reliable producers here on the coast. If you're further out west, you may have better luck with tomatoes. They're tough here around Wilmington!
I always had cherry tomatoes growing in pots outside my back door when my kids were growing up. They would pick some on the way out and in for snacking. I planted others in the garden for salads and cooking, and snacking, for us. We are an Italian family and I have many quick, easy and delicious using cherries. I also use them in my sauces, both canned and fresh. There is nothing like our summer sauce. Can't wait but here in NY it is still a month or so away.
Exactly, cherry tomatoes are sort of a cut-and-come-again plant. Once they get going you always have some more getting ripe as the season goes along.
That's great that your kids eat tomatoes at a young age. I loved watching tomatoes grow in the garden, but I refused to eat them when I was young in anything but sauces. Raw tomatoes freaked me out for some reason. Now, I think I eat 3 of them a day during the season 😂 There's truly nothing like a fresh tomato. I think tomatoes have the biggest difference between "grocery store quality" and "home grown quality" of any fruit.
The more you pick them, the more they produce!
5:07 dog is like... "Who are you talking to?"
He's an attention hog. How dare I focus my attention anywhere else? 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener He looks like a good boy!
Dales ear inside out on his walk by at the end 😉
Those floppy things are always flipping. It drives me nuts. I'm always fixing them for him 😂
I love growing them so much. When I lived in Chicago that is the only tomatoes I would grow. But when I moved to Alabama I start growing the big ones too. They taste much better when you grow them then when you get them in the store.
When I started growing my own tomatoes, I stopped buying tomatoes from the grocery store. The grocery store tomatoes are the worst. If I don’t have my own home grown tomatoes, I’d rather just do without!
I don’t have an Italian ancestry but tomatoes are the most important crop in my garden and Italian is the food we make most! My wife always wants me to grow some cherry tomatoes along with the main crop sauce varieties. This year I am trying a new to me cherry called Sakura.
Dale is such a good boy to wait for you to offer the tomato to him. I had a dog that would eat them off the vine. He’d always beat me to the first ripe one of the season. Sun gold is my favorite cherry variety so far.
We are very, very lucky to have Dale. He is definitely strong-willed, independent and does what he wants. If he doesn't want to listen, he won't. However, he never does anything bad. He's always respectful. He has the best personality of anyone I've ever met, humans included.
The yields on the super sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are superb. You get so much tomatoes and they taste great. Great pick on cherry tomatoes.
I love this!! I have never seen anyone praise cherry toms. I have been growing Tumbling Tom for years just for the rich taste and acid thhat pumps up my tuna tomato sauc e for pasta. They are the best....tubs, small space, prolific, long season, easy to grow, can be great eaten fresh.....whats not to lovve??
This is so good to know! I also planted cherry tomatoes for the first time this year. I don't know the variety but If they are as good as my Brandywine I'll be happy with that.
The Brandywine Pink is the ultimate sandwich or burger tomato. I'll tell you this, though. I'm VERY impressed with Chef's Choice Pink. The taste is virtually identical to Brandywine Pink, but it has triple the productivity and more uniform fruit. If you love Brandywine Pink, you must try Chef's Choice Pink next year. They're also 2-3 weeks earlier. I've already picked 2 ripen ones.
@@TheMillennialGardener I just ordered some Burpees Chef's Choice Pink. Thank you!
I just bought 12 of them. They under grow light night. Never had luck growing beef stakes. The supersweet already having 3 tomatoes on one
I moved from Ohio to South Carolina about 4 years ago. Boy....I have struggled with my garden to say the least. Tomatoes are the hardest thing to grow in my garden, so last year I tried sweet million with better luck but still got diseases in July and bad fruits. I think I have to find the right cherry variety. I will be trying Huskey Cherry Red this year hoping this hybrid will better ward off disease and slow summer production. I will also be planting second tomato plants later in the year hoping they will grow better after the diseases pass and harsh heat subsides. I didn't know how good I had it back In Ohio but I guess I have to try my best and adapt. Dale must be a healthy pup with him eating out of the garden like that.
Super Sweet 100 is a good choice for a red cherry tomato, but you'll need more than disease resistance where we live. To grow tomatoes here, you need a good, consistent spraying routine and decent equipment. I recommend you check this out: czcams.com/video/YVgCfWLR9aA/video.html
@@TheMillennialGardener I tried the super sweet 100, they did better but not by much. I will check your link out for the equipment, thanks.
Try Everglades Tomato . Great for heat and humidity.
I am growing Juliet this year and it’s very productive and good tasting....it’s a grate size so perfect for salads and fresh eating
I need to better educate myself on these cherry varieties. They are so good, I can't believe I've gone this long without growing them!
@@TheMillennialGardener live and learn......only one that I have been disappointed with is yellow and red pear....very productive but tasteless
@@saminairfan45 Same here. Yellow Pear grew well for me but lacked flavor. I didn’t care for the tough skin texture either.
For some reason my local garden centers aren't stocking the romas I normally grow so I picked up indeterminant cherry tomatoes and a few bush determinants. I have record success with romas so I'll see how growing something different goes.
I learn a bunch from you. Thanks
You're welcome!
Great info, thank you! Glad to find your channel, also a Jersey transplant living in SE NC & love growing tomatoes. I suggest trying "blossom tickling" to help pollinate the flowers mid-summer. It really helps with production. If you're not familiar with the technique you can search the term on YT for easy simple instructions. Also, I usually grow prolific delicious Husky cherry tomatoes but this year trying Super Sweet 100. The seedlings are a half inch tall momentarily & I can't wait to set them mid April. Last year I purchased one Sun Gold cherry tomato plant after I sneakily picked it clean in the Lowes garden department, lol. You're're right, the flavor is excellent. I will grow more this year if I can find seeds or plants. (Also growing regular size Better Boy tomatoes. They do very well here too, with enough watering.)
I love the yellow pear tomatoes! And yes, they grow like crazy!
They are quite tasty. I will tell you this, though. The Sun Gold's blow them away. The Sun Gold's are so unbelievably good that it's hard to describe. If you've never grown Sun Gold, I can't recommend them highly enough!
@@TheMillennialGardener yellow pears are basically bullet-proof. I too have purposely let them just vine out on the ground in a tangled mess, and they still resisted disease better than any other variety I've grown properly (large or small), and they still produced ridiculous amounts of fruit. I don't know why, but they also stay ripe on the vine seemingly forever without starting to rot or ferment.... almost zero loss from not picking them often enough. They have a rich tomato flavor, but they're not super sweet in my experience.
I tend to stick mostly with heirloom/OP varieties, but I will try the SunGolds too!
I think cherry bomb from Jonny's is better than sun gold. Nice video!
What color is that? Also yellow?
It's a red one. I believe disease resistant. I am growing in my 2024 garden.
Love that Dale forms part of your videos, and thanks for the handy tip at the end❤️
He's as much a part of the garden as I am. I think he likes the harvests even more than I do! Thanks for watching!
My favorite is cherry tomatoes from the garden to make puttanesca sauce. 😋
Dave's "SWEET 100's" (indeterminate) are an incredible cherry tomato. They are heirloom, so you can save the seeds and grow the same crop next year. I put some Cherokee Purple (determinate) this year but they are prone to blossom end rot. You have to put a lot of calcium in their soil.
I generally prefer the hybrid’s due to the disease resistance, as most heirlooms fall apart here. If you like those, you may want to give the Super Sweet 100’s even more. They have excellent flavor, but the production and disease resistance will be better thanks to the genetic diversity.
Cherokee purple are indeterminate
Last year, I tried Black Cherry for the first time. Holy. Cow. They were amazing. The taste is so complex - starting with a tart bite, then evolving into a sweet smokiness that you might find in a Cherokee Purple. They quickly became my favorite cherry tomato. This year, I'm only growing them and Sunsugar (similar to Sungold, but even sweeter.) I don't know how they'd do for cooking, but for just eating off the vine, I think they can't be beat.
I need a purple cherry for next season, and you may be the 6th person so far to recommend Black Cherry. You guys are selling me hard on it for next year! I need to check the disease package given my climatic challenges, and if it has some resistance to it, I'm pretty much sold.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm not too far away from you (Chapel Hill, NC) and I had little to no issues with disease on my Black Cherry. It was still producing at Thanksgiving and the plant looked great. They're pretty sprawly though, so just plan to stake accordingly. But yeah, I cannot recommend this strain enough for sheer flavor. They don't produce as much as many cherry tomatoes do, but they're still plentiful enough and the vines are insane. At least mine were.
@@TheMillennialGardener I agree 100% with @Kimberly Guinn . I only grow one cherry plant, and that's a Black Cherry.
It's the smaller sibling of Black Russian and Black Krim, so you'll love it given you like Cherokee Purple & Rosella Purple.
It's hardy, usually the last plant to die, and has excellent production. It's the bird's favourite, so that tells you something.
As Kimberly said, it does sprawl. My vines get 3-4m long so you need to make sure you're ready for it.
Usually I allow about 12 leaders so the tomatoes don't get too small. The first ones will be like golf balls.
😍 can't wait to try home grown tomatoes myself! Love your pup❤
Thank you! Dale is the best 🐕
Cherry tomatoes are fantastic. I face essentially the opposite problems as you in my garden up in the Pacific Northwest outside of Seattle (zone 8b)-namely that we don't get sufficient heat to reliably ripen larger tomato varieties outside of a cold frame, but cherry tomatoes don't seem to mind the cooler temperatures here at all.
You may want to give the variety Siletz a try, too. It should do very well for you with your shorter season. It was developed by Oregon State University for precisely your location, and both the flavor and yields are outstanding. They're not quite beefsteaks, but they're nice slicer-sized tomatoes.
I’m new to gardening in your zoneish, what are your fav bigger tomatoes to grow? Thanks!
I like them because they are really hardy and produce a ton and last until early fall...and they taste good too, though not as good as regular tomatoes.
You are so right. When relatives from countryside come for a visit they always bring fruits and vegetables they've grown themselves and they are so good and never taste like those I bought.
It's not even fair to call those "things" in the grocery store "tomatoes." They should be given a completely different name. They basically taste like watermelon rind.
Hello my Jersey Italian friend, glad to see your're getting into these tomatoes and cooking Italian :)
I didn’t grow any Sweet 100s this year, but they decided they wanted to be here this year. Some really strong volunteers this year. Also one Husky Cherry Dwarf volunteer and this is the first year I’m growing Sungolds.
I wonder how stable the seed is with these hybrids. The Sweet 100's are an F1, so it will be interesting to see how closely the seedlings approximate the Sweet 100's. One of the benefits of cherry types is the self-seeding nature since so many fruits fall. I grew a single ground cherry last year and I have about 40 of them coming up all over my property. It's crazy!
Last year my cherry tomatoes, "Super Sweet 100" had been the best tasting and most productive tomatoes I grew the whole season. As Pa summers and even spring get hotter, I should plant more cherry tomatoes.
Recently, I've found that certain grocery store cherry tomatoes actually taste good. They have names like "flavor bombs" or "sugar bites". Not as good as from the garden, BUT, flavorful enough to spend a few bucks a pound or container for them. I eat a bowlful every night or just about every night with some salt and shredded Parm cheese.
I love your pooch, I'm a dog lover too. I doubt our dogs would eat any tomatoes, not even the cherry tomatoes.
LOl...this was a fun video. Growing up, we had cherry tomatoes and it was hard to find any left on the vine as they were way too accessible to three hungry boys. I am trying Sugar Sun this year. Having moved to Kentucky and finding land an hour and a half away, we just moved across the road from the property until we build and we are behind.. It's been a real push to get anything in the ground. But at least I have tomatoes and Figs. YES, I am so excited just to grown anything. Thank you for sharing. Your channel is a "Destination" video for me. Love it!
That's how I felt 3 years ago when I finally got myself a little piece of land. After renting for 14 years of my life, it felt so good to be able to plant some things for real. It doesn't get any easier, I'll tell you. I'm still planting nonstop with so much work to do, but it's all worth it. Just keep pushing forward and make your backyard paradise!
Hi! I have a question for you. I’m in coastal NJ. After watching one of your videos my husband helped me construct string trellises for my tomatoes. It’s a little later than I’d liked but so far I’m loving this method. I have a few Better Boy tomatoes that I planted from large starts from Hallocks that are about 4 feet now. They were not pruned ( except for at the bottom) and have filled out and are unruly. Is it too late to try to remove the cages and prune to 3 stems and use the string trellis? I will need to cut away beautiful blossoms and growth to do this. The plants are healthy and wonderful. They have unripened fruit in them. Live and learn, next year I’ll start with string trellises from the start! Thank you for your advice! Im impressed with your garden and value your opinions!
Thanks so much for all the information you have shared here on YT. I grow red & yellow varieties of both regular size & cherry tomatoes in the Piedmont. But I've never pruned my tomato plants. So now I'm learning from you that I've done it wrong all this time! LOL! Until last year, I had never heard of indeterminate plants. I guess I got lucky & always bought ones that would be bushy. I do have a question. Do you prune cherry tomatoes the same as regular size tomatoes?
Fellow American of Italian ancestry here on the north coast of Ohio (west of Cleveland 5 miles south of Erie) I absolutely love sweet 100's, the skins are thin so they crack easily but the flavor is superb. This year I'm growing San Marzano to make sauce but next year I"ll go back to sweet 100's which I've typically gotten yields of 1,000 fruits off of a plant.
I grew San Marzano here in NC, and they struggled a bit due to my climate. I think they'll do better for you. Next year, I think I'm going to look into a hybridized version of San Marzano. I really need to find the time to start canning tomatoes. When making sauce in the winter out of canned puree from the grocery store, simply dumping in a single 32 ounce mason jar of fresh puree makes a huge difference. You can use 4-5 28oz cans from the store and a 32oz mason jar of puree, and it's dramatically better!
I'm growing sunsugar tomatoes for the first time this year. They have taken forever to fruit, but I can't wait to try them. Mine are about 10 feet tall.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm in Texas and our weather has been crazy... Too much rain, then too cool, then too hot. I'm new at this so it's all an experiment still. I try to do what other gardeners are doing, but everything I have is in containers. Not able physically to do much else.
Hi! Would like to recommend another kind of cherry tomatoes that I m in love at first bite. To me, they r not less impressive n if I have to choose one, I would do this alternate w Sungold. It’s Tomatoberry. Heart shape (so lovely), highly crack resistant; abundant crops; less seed n awesome snack if u dry them. They dry well too cos there is enough flesh but not too thick. This yr I added Paruche that many said more preferred to Sungold. Will keep u posted w result.
Ooo, these sound good. According to Totally Tomato, they're a hybrid, crack-resistant, 1+ inch in diameter and holds well on the vine. That's everything I'm looking for, and I'm definitely going to make a mental note. Thank you! I'll tell you what, they're expensive, though. $5.65 for 10 seeds 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener Very expensive indeed! I watched it from the first seller that sells 25 seeds for $40 (5yrs ago) n now it comes down to 10 seeds per order. Yes, bite the bullet n no regret. I can grow 2-3 seasons w one ok. Keep in fridge n every seeds germinate. Everyone who has tried it was in love. Hope u do too. 👌😂
I mean I split one pk of seed to grow 2-3 seasons
There is another one that caught my eyes; Sakura. Plan to buy 10 seeds n grow them next yr w yr other recommended determinate type. I tried Japanese Triefel last yr n fall in love w the flavor. Grow many of them this yr, heirloom so saving seeds. If u r interested, I can sent some to u as well as a way of thank you for yr education.
My friend, you got me starting to grow today! Thanks buddy!
That is awesome! Glad to help spread the addiction! Thank you for watching!
I've basically been growing to try and grow beefsteak in crazy quantity but do far, haven't been able to do so. I've been able to get good success with from a midsized tomato, 4-8oz called bonnie best, but that's the most success from the larger or midsized ones. The other has been this year bog zac where I've gotten a decent yield so far, I'll know by the end of the season pound wise.
But cherries are so easy. I don't grow much cause I know I'll be able to grow em well. My super sweet 100 did nothing cause of transplant shock and the way I did it. After 1.5 months of the delay and just sitting there, it basically exploded and now has a lot of tomatoes. It will rival the larger tomatoes I think in terms of yield, but not the big zac lol
Welcome to the cherry tomato club!
Glad to be a member (finally)!
That’s how I felt about Asian pears until I got some fresh ones from a local orchard. Now I’ve planted three trees
Hey @themillenialGardener I look forward to your video on Rosella Crimson! This year is my first time growing tomatoes and I went with Dwarf Tomatoes in growbags (Tasmanian Chocolate, Rosella Purple, Fred's Tie dye, Purple Heart, Sarandipity and Audrey's love). Also, have you tried any of the potato leaf releases from the DT project? I'm interested in growing some of those next year. Sweet Scarlet Dwarf and BrandyFred look particularly appealing to me.
Try the Sun Sugar cherry tomato. Very similar to the Sungold without the thick skin and no splitting. I personally like the Sun Sugar better, I can send you some Sun Sugar tomato seeds if you want some.
I've had probably close to 2 dozen recommendations of Sun Sugar in the past week, so I'll likely add that to the list for next season. The other one I keep getting is Black Cherry. Next year, I'll be growing more cherry tomatoes because all the beefsteaks die in my climate come July. This is likely how I can get tomatoes all summer.
@@TheMillennialGardener I'm growing black cherry tomato for the 1st time this year after getting some seeds from a friend. I can do a swap with you where I give you Sun Sugar and Black Cherry tomato seeds for some Siletz. The Siletz I found online doesn't look like the ones you have and shipping costs $8-13.85 is ridiculous. I can letter mail it to you and it will cost a buck and change for stamps. Let me know your thoughts. All the best. and happy growing.
The Super Sweet 100’s have ruined all other cherry tomatoes for me. I just bought some Sun Gold seeds because I keep hearing about them though!
I definitely toss my extra cherry tomatoes into my sauces at the end of the season. Even the yellow pears! Vincenzo is 100% right about the sweetness adding more flavor. You can’t buy sauce like that at the store!
If you like tomatoes with some acid bite to them, you’ll like Sun Gold even more. To me, the Sun Gold’s blow the Super Sweet 100’s away, and don’t get me wrong, the 100’s are really good. Sun Gold is just THAT good.
Cherry tomatoes are the gardeners breakfast and they also make fantastic salsa. Dale has good taste in tomatoes!
Dale's favorite tomatoes are all of them! I'm lucky that he is such a good eater, but he also doesn't self-harvest! I've never done cherry tomato salsa, but I can tell you fresh tomato sauce made from cherry tomatoes is wonderful.
We tried Sun Gold for the first time last year and we agree, we loved them. This year, our favorite cherry has been Pink Princess. It's a fantastic new variety for us!
Sun Gold is truly awesome. I'm only just getting into cherry tomatoes, so I have a lot of research ahead of me this fall. I'm very interested in an F1 variety called Sunchocola.
@@TheMillennialGardener I look forward to you sharing your research and results with us, as always. We are a small family of 3, one of which who doesn't care for tomatoes (gasp! and I married him anyway!) and I have 40 tomato plants in my smallish garden because I want to try ALL the varieties :) Thanks for great content as always!
Very informative sharing sir, great to watch your video and I like your garden and all the vegetables there.
Thank you for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.
Youve got to try the black cherry tomato! perfect balance of sweet and acid. They have become my wife's favorite tomato.
I think you're the 10th person to recommend Black Cherry so far. I am looking for a purple cherry tomato next year, and you guys are selling me REALLY hard on the Black Cherry. I haven't had a single other purple cherry recommendation, so it sounds like the one to get!
@@TheMillennialGardener Rosella is a dark cherry which gets very good reviews from tomatoheads. It's better than Black Cherry for me. Black Opal and Garnet are two more from the same breeder (Gourmet Genetics).
@@TheMillennialGardener I tried them a couple of years ago more as a mistake than anything. Ever since then there are always at least 2 or 3 plants of them in my garden. The newest one for me this year is one called Dancing with Smurfs. They are a more oval shaped cherry and turn a deep dark purple as the sun hits them. I have not had the opportunity to try one yet but and really looking forward to it!
I also like the black cherry variety
Next year, I want to add a purple cherry tomato. I want a yellow, red and purple cherry. I may even look for a green cherry, because why not?!
You try the Baxter's early bush cherry tomato variety. It's really good if you want cherry tomatoes quickly.
Nice dog and Nice tomatos you have give him a big hug from me (the dog lol)
Dale sends his warmest regards to his fans! He's such a good boy.
I just got my sun gold seeds in and it’s killing me that I didn’t just bite the bullet and order them sooner bc now it’s pretty much too late for me to plant them for the fall. I live in the Deep South where we barely get frosts if at all, but I might as well just wait a few months to be safe. I’ll have plenty of SS100s real soon so that’ll have to hold me over lol
I have raised cherry tomatoes in the past. I eat a lot of salads and use them principally in that. One drawback (for me) to raising them is their stupendous production: I can't eat them all fast enough and many spoil. Near the end of the season, I get so frustrated that I pull the plants up. It never occurred to me to make sauce with them. I would like to know how you prepare a sauce using them. Is the freezing process for them exactly like that for standard-sized tomatoes? (Your use of the fig to give Dale his meds is clever; I've always used peanut butter for that purpose.)
I urge you to check out Vincenzo's video here on how he uses cherry tomatoes in his sauces: czcams.com/video/hnoxLn2ea0A/video.html
You'll have dinner made in 15-20 mins from scratch, and it'll shock you how good it is. Cherry tomatoes, when you saute them and press on them with a spatula or wooden spoon, liquefy very quickly into a very rich sauce. I've never frozen tomatoes, so I'm not a good person to ask about that.
Cherry tomatoes are my favorite to grow, followed closely by determinate tomatoes. I am in hot, humid Georgia and my plants rarely make it through July so I try to have back ups. But my back ups that I put in in July rarely make it until September because of the disease pressure. Growing tomatoes is HARD work. I spray every other day but most of the time it rains within a few hours and washes the spray off. Ugh 😩
Yeah, if sungold doesn't woo you, nothing will
Sun Gold is the Chris Hemsworth of tomatoes, I think 😂
@@TheMillennialGardener Grow Sun Sugar. It is the child of sun gold and doesn't split nearly as easily. I LOVE sun golds, but they split so quickly. Sun sugars are just as tasty and much more resilient.
@@TheMillennialGardener lol my sungold is so nice and ripens so much fruit
I don't know what kind of groceries store you all have, that sound disastrous. All cherry tomatoes from groceries stores in my life have been absolutely delicious, even the non organic. Cherry tomatoes always have been extremely sweet and tasty and delicious. I feel sad that many people apparently don't have this kind of taste from groceries store. I live in France I don't know if that counts.
But this year I planted the seeds of organic tomatoes that were delicious and they are growing well, this is the first time I'm planting vegetables/fruits. This is very exciting.
I love your work Bello
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Thank you for your videos you are very helpful and you explain growing vegies very well keep up the great job
Thank you! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying them. I appreciate you watching.
Sadly living 50 years in Jersey we saw the decline in great tomatoes once Campbells stopped using NJs wonderfull tomatoes! We call Ugly lumpy topped beefsteaks Jersey maters!
I disliked cherrys as a kid but began liking grape tomatoes so now we grow both.
Last year we couldn't put in our plants until Memorial Day!
We love a simple sauce with olive oil garlic and cherry and grapes!...
Buon giorno paisano; great and spot on video. After buying your tomato set up last month, I will begin to install it in a new area today. While I have grown the yellow pair tomato, I am far behind you in production. I also have the super sweet 100 tomato’s.
Are you going to string trellis? I think you'll have a lot of success with it. I will tell you you'll need probably 4-5 tomato hooks for each cherry tomato plant, because they vine so aggressively. However, it's working flawlessly. It is going to change the way you grow tomatoes, and you'll never go back to any other way!
purple cherrys are great also
I will be adding one next season. Everyone keeps telling me Black Cherry.
Sun Golds are fierce producers. Shout out from Bryn Mawr, Philly suburb. Grandfather, Father and now me to keep the tomatoes happy. ciao, gino
I lived in Ardmore and Narberth for 4 years! Right off Montgomery Ave.
Omg. Dale is adorable! 🥰
And he knows it, and he exploits his cuteness all the time!
Hello sir. Thank you very much for everything you do videoclip.showing the gardens tomatoes sweet.you are have a very nice dog look very nice dog pretty nice. Thank you again sir.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thank you for watching!
Welcome to the cherry tomato fanclub! Ignore those rubbery nasty things at the grocery store. There are lots of great varieties to grow, both hybrids and heirlooms. Most are very hardy, disease-resistant, and easy to care for. Some of them seem to be almost invincible, producing all summer long until a hard frost finally takes them out. I love 'em partly because every morning when I go out to do my chores I eat a handful right off the vines as I'm checking plants. I call it taking my vitamins. :)
What are your favorites? Tia!
I'm noticing that both my cherry tomato plants are far more disease resistant than the slicers and beefsteaks. It isn't even a contest. I love beefsteak tomatoes, but the plants are almost universally pathetic in my climate, aside from a couple standouts (like Big Beef - that plant is a tank). I think these cherries are finally the solution to my tomato problem, and a way to have tomatoes all summer in my miserable summer climate. I'm glad to finally be part of the Cherry Club.
@@Fattiapples I like old-fashioned heirloom red cherries and yellow pears. But we're trying several different ones this year, both heirlooms and hybrids.
Omg that makes so much sense haha I love watching you but you are out of my zone Philly New Jersey hahaha 😂
Hardiness zones aren't really relevant to vegetable gardening. I'm the same zone as Seattle, but our climates are absolutely nothing alike. Hardiness zones only matter for perennials.
Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes makes Sun Gold taste like cardboard. Totally worth seeking out. I also like Isis Candy cherry tomatoes a lot.
Nothing can make Sun Gold taste like cardboard, but you're probably the 8th or 9th person this week to tell me Sun Sugar is an improved version of Sun Gold. I am now looking into that and Black Cherry for next year.
If Juliet tomatoes are available in your area they are GREAT MINI ROMA’S. VERY PROLIFIC, and Sun Sugar is a newer variety, and mine rarely make it into the house in the beginning of the season.
Oh, P.S. Our dogs love tomatoes and will pick them if I don’t watch them. NO GARDEN visits for them, they even pick the green ones. YIKES!!!
I'm definitely being sold on the Sun Sugars. So many recommendations.
It sounds like you have a good eater, too. I'm very thankful Dale isn't a self-harvester 😂
OMFG this is shocking. like lol. Sun Golds and Super Sweet 100s are the absolutely best toms in my garden. SS100s are so freaking resiliant. Them and the sungolds get the primo, 100 percent, most tended ideal locations in my garden. They are the best. The most disease resistant, the most productive, the best tasting. We just eat 1000s of them right off the vine every summer. I'm shocked you have not grown them my guy. Welcome to the club.
in MA i have cherokee purple going, big beef, some new hybrid medium sized orange tomato, honeycomb hybrid
Nice. When do you usually get to harvest?
@@TheMillennialGardener another month or so. night temps are just about to leave the 50s, to mid 60s+ to get everything really moving
I will try next year for sun gold
Welcome to the club!
I'm a happy new member! I'll be expanding big time next season!
Sweet 100 and yellow pear always make an appearance in my garden. If none of the other tomatoes grow I at least get some really good snacks! They don't make it into the kitchen 'cause I can't resist eating them as I pick them!
If you like Yellow Pear, you'll love Sun Gold. It's much more intense and flavorful. It's just phenomenal.
Here in Denver CO. Trying a new variety of cherry tomato. Flaming burst. Have been growing the yellow pear, sun gold, sun sugar, super sweet 100. They are all good. Peace.
How do they perform in your relatively short season? I imagine beefsteaks are a challenge, but cherries do well?
@@TheMillennialGardener small fruit do very well here. Japanese eggplants, small figs, and cherry tomatoes. I prune a lot. One stem per plant. Being attentive to them pays dividend.
I would recommend you to try Black Cherry tomato. I've grown Sun gold and prefer black cherry because the skin is thinner and the fruit is so good. I just eat it off the vine like a fruit.
Lots of folks have been saying Black Cherry. I do want a purple tomato for next year. However, I do prefer acidic tomatoes, and in my experience, purple tomatoes tend to be sweet and low acid.
Outstanding video. I will try the sungolds in southwest Florida. Very sweet with the antiemetics. As always, Dale rocks.
I think the Sun Gold's will actually fruit for you in the hot season. I know tomatoes are a huge challenge where you live and you probably have to grow them during the winter, but these will actually work for you in the summer if you can keep the disease off. These are about as disease-resistant as a tomato can get.
I'm in Southwest Florida too. Try sun sugar, they are sweeter than sun gold!
Have been growing them for 40 years. The family call them bombers because the flavor just explodes in your mouth. And the Sun Golds are an extra treat.
The Sun Gold's are really something special. Thanks for watching!
Sun gold my second favorite
What's your favorite?
Sukura