Favorite OP cherry/grape/cocktail/salad tomatoes?

[habitat-gardener]

When I lived in a more moderate climate, I used to grow several cherry tomato plants. Then I got tired of picking thousands of cherries, so I limited my selections to 1-2 types of cherries each year.
But now I live in a HOT summer climate and I've noticed that my neighbors who are harvesting lots of tomatoes are growing small varieties -- lots of Juliet F1, which is kind of boring, and SunGold F1, which is not one of my favorites (I like SunSugar F1 much more). For both taste and production, my best tomatoes last year were salad size: Early Pink Wonder, a determinate, and Purple Boy F1, which iirc both stayed under 4 oz. And I miss picking baskets of cherry tomatoes!

So my new strategy is to grow a dozen or so varieties of all colors that meet ALL these criteria:
(1) small, from salad tomato to cocktail, grape, and cherry size (but not currants!)
(2) preferably open-pollinated
(3) will set in the heat (90F+ days for months, with heat waves 100F+; nights are 50s-60s)
(4) productive
(5) as close to a "knock your socks off" variety as possible for a small tomato
(6) preferably early, so they have a head start before the hordes of leaf-footed bugs come
(7) don't need to fully ripen on the vine, also to thwart the LFBs (can cherry tomatoes be picked at first blush?)

Cracking does not matter because we get no rain from May to September.
I'm interested in dwarf and determinate varieties but so far have not had much production from any dwarf plants.

[karstopography]

Japanese Black Trifele turns out to be about an ounce or two once it gets hot here, but I’m still getting them here near the end of July and there’s at least 10 or 15 more out in the vine. So it has been very productive since early in May. Maybe the tomatoes were three or four or five ounces when it was cooler. Weather in April and May is certainly different than now in July. This tomato seems to handle cooler or warmer nights. We haven’t been getting days above 95°, maybe one or two, but around 95° is pretty standard summer weather. I don’t know exactly how many fruit the Potato leaf Japanese black Trifele has produced, but it has steadily produced throughout most of May, all of June and all of July to date. Not a big, rangy indeterminate plant, more compact, but still an indeterminate.

I personally like this tomato for salsa above any other use, but we’ve used them fresh with cottage cheese and the rare lettuce based salad we might eat. I never vine ripen this tomato, generally pick at first color.

Describing flavor is almost useless information. Way too much subjective in that, plus the differences in climate, soil, etc.

Japanese black Trifele is popular among the entire household. No one finds it offensive. Everyone likes it.

Btw, I also grew Purple boy and those were good. Slightly larger fruit overall in my plot than JBT. Very productive, but it got smacked hard by spider mites not too long ago, so I removed it. It seemed heat tolerant.

[rxkeith]

open pollenated category my go to small tomatoes are alston everlasting for a cherry, and matina for a saladette.
both are good tasting, decently productive, and matina is early. i really, really like them.


keith

[Cole_Robbie]

I was the first vendor at my farmer's market to sell a box of mixed color cherry tomatoes. Now it seems everyone does. I moved on to saladette size, because they fill up a box much faster and take less time to pick. Several of these varieties tend to vary in size depending on weather, but they range from large cherry to tiny slicer/saladette. I had:

Bola Maciza (dark, taste like Paul robeson)
Juanne flame
Brad's atomic grape
Bosque blue bumblebee (pale yellow antho)
And Mano was my red, compact dwarfish determinate.

[wxcrawler]

I can't recommend KARMA Peach enough as a small, saladette tomato from Karen Olivier and Marsha Eisenberg.

[Gardadore]

Karma Peach and Apricot are both delicious. But the only one I am growing now and last year is Rosella Cherry. Soooo good!

[Labradors]

I LOVE Rosella Cherry. Must grow it again next year.

I think that Maglia Rosa might fit the bill for you because, not only is it fairly early, but the taste is great even before it is completely ripe!
I grow them in 3-gallon containers, and start a few plants in mid-Feb which ripen in mid-June.

Linda

[GoDawgs]

Another vote for Rosella Cherry! I didn't grow it this year because of trying several I got in the MMMM but will be doing Rosella again next year. So good!

[NarnianGarden]

My favourite orange op cherries may be Goldkrone and the Ambrosia series.
White Cherry was also extremely tasty and plentiful.
Talking of Artisan, my all-time fave was Pink Tiger. Just tropical fruit-a-liciousness ..! and, productive too.

[Yak54]

My vote is for Sun Orange which to my taste buds is Outstanding !!!

[Tormahto]

For something way out of the ordinary, I recommend Microbecium Occemus.

[Acer Rubrum]

Peachy Keen is a salad size (sometimes a bit smaller or bigger) orange tomato. It's fairly short, at least when grown in a container. The one I have in the ground is in the lower side of average for height right now. They're supposed to produce well in the heat and one of my customers grew one on a hot rooftop last year with good results.

I'll second Maglia Rosa. Linda recommended that variety to me and it's done super well in hanging baskets. Very good flavor.

Another good one that I'm really liking this year is Chocolate Sprinkles. It's a hybrid but the ones I have are from a grower who has been saving the seeds for several years. It matches the description of the hybrid and I think it's great, so I'm saving seed from it as well. It's a full sized plant with dark red/brown striped cherry size fruit. Quite sweet.