I've been following the heirloom thread, and thought it might be helpful to separate the hybrids to another thread, and report our experiences, taste tests, etc. here.

Lemon Cherry is a really pretty tomato, and large for a cherry. No cracking or other problems. But, just about totally tasteless for me. And, did not at all live up to its early (58 day) promise - it was in fact way behind my 60-65 day tomatoes.



Sun Sugar, on the other hand, is a clear winner. This is by far the sweetest cherry I've tried. Reliable, no cracking, and so sweet. It is a smallish cherry, but produces well. Good size to just pop into the mouth or serve whole in salads.


Edited to correct: I've grown both Sun Gold and Sun Sugar, and it is the Sun Sugar that is my all-time favorite. Sweeter than Sun Gold which also cracked for me.

I have hardly any tomato experience, but I did grow Sungold and loved them.

They also "held their flavor" longer into the season than Stupice did. A few cool nights (around 50F?) made OP Stupice taste like cardboard. Sungold stayed sweet and a little tangy.

I've tried Stupice on several recommendations, but it's just never impressed me that much.

Sungold is sweet here too.
So is Orange Zinger another cherry type.
Both are hybrids.
I also had Sunsugar,but the hail damaged that plant and any fruit.

Ah, Caroline, I erroneously put down Sun Gold as my alltime favorite when in fact it is Sun Sugar. Your post brought this to my attention, and I have now corrected my initial post.

I have had good success with Mountain Fresh this year. Grew one plant in a 3 gallon container in the sun and it is producing at least a dozen perfect medium-sized globes so far. I put another plant in an "overflow" area that only gets 4-5 hours sun and although it took 2 weeks longer, I have started to harvest fruits from that as well.

By the way, I have a SunGold plant in that shaded "overflow" area as well, and its fruit does not crack as much as a plant in full sun, but is still producing well. I picked 32 of them yesterday minus several that somehow did not make it back to the house (but tasted great!).

Rick:
I have been disappointed with Stupice also. I had better results the last two years with Moravsky Div, an OP offshoot of Stupice which produced a lot of very early tomatoes (today I picked the last one) with a nicer taste. They are smaller than Stupice though, like a large cherry.

Grew Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes this year. This one did very well. I have grown cherry tomatoes for years. Our girls have loved eating them for snacks since they were little. DH takes them in lunch too. We have tried different ones and they love them all. So they are not too picky! I think this past week was probably peak production on this plant. The bowl this morning after picking was not near as full.

I have 2 Big Boy tomato plants now getting lots of green tomatoes on them. These were purchased and planted late to replace my Rutgers plants that died. So hopefully we have many tomatoes still to enjoy!

Bonehead said:I've been following the heirloom thread, and thought it might be helpful to separate the hybrids to another thread, and report our experiences, taste tests, etc. here.

Lemon Cherry is a really pretty tomato, and large for a cherry. No cracking or other problems. But, just about totally tasteless for me. And, did not at all live up to its early (58 day) promise - it was in fact way behind my 60-65 day tomatoes.

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Lemon Cherry')
• Uploaded by Bonehead

Sun Sugar, on the other hand, is a clear winner. This is by far the sweetest cherry I've tried. Reliable, no cracking, and so sweet. It is a smallish cherry, but produces well. Good size to just pop into the mouth or serve whole in salads.

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'SunSugar F1')
• Uploaded by TBGDN

Edited to correct: I've grown both Sun Gold and Sun Sugar, and it is the Sun Sugar that is my all-time favorite. Sweeter than Sun Gold which also cracked for me.

Excellent idea on these reports!

I totally agree about SunSugar and Sungold. Both taste fabulous but SunGold was very prone to cracking for me while SunSugar rarely does.

One of my all-time favorite hybrids is Country Taste -- a big, meaty and juicy tomato, productive, great taste. For once the catalog description of it having "old-time flavor" didn't disappoint me.

Weedwhacker said:One of my all-time favorite hybrids is Country Taste -- a big, meaty and juicy tomato, productive, great taste. For once the catalog description of it having "old-time flavor" didn't disappoint me.

That is one I never heard of and don't think was available around here.

I was thinking that too. Don't think I have ever seen it but would be willing to try it. Sandy, do you buy plants or get seeds for it?

DonShirer said:Rick:
I have been disappointed with Stupice also. I had better results the last two years with Moravsky Div, an OP offshoot of Stupice which produced a lot of very early tomatoes (today I picked the last one) with a nicer taste. They are smaller than Stupice though, like a large cherry.

Thanks, Don, I'll add that to my list. I think that early cherry tomatoes (and some early, small tomatoes) are all I should try until I have a hoop tunnel setup.

Rita and Claudia -- I start all my tomatoes from seed, so I don't know if it's sold as plants at all. (If it was, I have to think you'd have at least one of them, Rita, considering how many different kinds you put in this year ... )

Weedwhacker said:Rita and Claudia -- I start all my tomatoes from seed, so I don't know if it's sold as plants at all. (If it was, I have to think you'd have at least one of them, Rita, considering how many different kinds you put in this year ... )

That is the thing, I buy my plants so pretty much stuck with local selections. Now we do have a really great selection but they just can't have everything.

I have been sitting here thinking of what tomatoes I new to me I would like to try next season.

Weedwhacker said:Rita and Claudia -- I start all my tomatoes from seed, so I don't know if it's sold as plants at all. (If it was, I have to think you'd have at least one of them, Rita, considering how many different kinds you put in this year ... )

That is what I thought so but wasn't sure. Another new one to maybe check out!

Another excellent hybrid, IMO -- going from one extreme (large) to the other (small) is Cupid. Jelly-bean size, tasty, and produce like mad! I'm hoping I can replace it with Mexico Midget (because I just like the idea of being able to save my own seed), but so far the jury is still out

They ARE about the same size, though.

I found Country Taste on line here-

http://thetomatolady.com/tomat...

This area has a major problem with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) so I trial several resistant varieties each year. This yeras trial varieties were PS01522942, Mountain Majesty, and Red Morning. Control was Bella Rosa which has been a good performer and better tasting than most TSWV varieties in the past. PS01522942 out yielded the Bella Rosa, flavor and texture were comparable. Mountain Majesty succumbed to TSWV without producing. Red Morning produced a crown set of medium size fruits befor succumbing. In past trials Amelia and Mountain Merit have performed well. Several TSWV varieties have shown adequate resistance in earlier trials but many like BHN 444, Topgun etc are are hard firm tomatoes most suitable for playing catch.

farmerdill said:This area has a major problem with Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) so I trial several resistant varieties each year. This yeras trial varieties were PS01522942, Mountain Majesty, and Red Morning. Control was Bella Rosa which has been a good performer and better tasting than most TSWV varieties in the past. PS01522942 out yielded the Bella Rosa, flavor and texture were comparable. Mountain Majesty succumbed to TSWV without producing. Red Morning produced a crown set of medium size fruits befor succumbing. In past trials Amelia and Mountain Merit have performed well. Several TSWV varieties have shown adequate resistance in earlier trials but many like BHN 444, Topgun etc are are hard firm tomatoes most suitable for playing catch.

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'PS 01522942')
• Uploaded by farmerdill

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Mountain Majesty')
• Uploaded by farmerdill

• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum 'Red Morning')
• Uploaded by farmerdill

Oh boy that must be a real downer not being able to grow the tomato varieties that you would like.