With groaning shelves of tomato sauce in my basement, I've decided not to grow (so many) large tomatoes this season, but to concentrate on trying out some cherry varieties that I've had my eye on for some time. The plan is to dehydrate the extras.....

Of course I still want to grow too many plants so I'm thinking that pruning to one stem would help (if I can bring myself to actually do that and not end up with the usual jungle).

This morning, I woke up thinking that picking all those cherries is going to be a full-time job

If anyone knows how many cherry plants a "normal" family of two would grow to have lots of cherries, but not a tsunami of them, please let me know

Linda

My guess would be 4 to 6.
Then eat the things.
Im growing nothing but cherries this year.
Sun Gold and Sweet 100.
Im letting the nursery keep them for me in the big hoop house they have thousands in.

That sounds about right Worth. Maybe 6, plus the dwarfs that I grow on the deck.

You're lucky to have a hoop house spot at the nursery and you could always grow some more plants at home . (I prefered Sweet Million to Sweet 100 the year that I grew them both!)

Linda

worth1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:33 am My guess would be 4 to 6.
Then eat the things.
Im growing nothing but cherries this year.
Sun Gold and Sweet 100.
Im letting the nursery keep them for me in the big hoop house they have thousands in.

Worth does this mean that you won't be having any tomatoes at home?

I'd say five gives me plenty for a family of two plus giveaways. Note that two or three of those five are cherry-producing machines. Without something like Sungold or Post Office Spoonful churning them out left & right, you'll need more. If you're pruning to one stem, you're gonna need more.

Linda, you mention you have a few in mind ,,,,,,,, some cherries produce a lot more than others and a lot of cherries tend to split, at least here on the coast and some produce earlier than others

I can relate to your thoughts for grow outs this year - I'm going with three, perhaps four plants - I love cherry tomatoes in salads

my cherry list includes Sunchocola F1 - an abundant cherry - but I've yet to grow (hopefully no splits); Brad's Atomic Grape - a larger grape cherry on a manageable plant which I loved last year - but on the later side and KARMA Apricot - again a larger coctail cherry also new to me; I'm also thinking perhaps Green Krim just to confuse the help yourselfers at my community garden

not sure what you use for dehydrating, but I understand it takes about 16 hours ........ could be a lot of time for a small baggie

just some thoughts ......

I cut cherries in half and put them in the dehydrator. Not much work, and the product is delicious. I found that if a cherry is too mild when eaten fresh, it dehydrates into something wonderful.

I only grow one sun gold or sun sugar in the RGGS, and have plenty for two to three people and giveaways, so i'd say maybe 2, or plant 2 then a few weeks later 2 more to prolong the harvest. --tom

I love Sweet Aperitif. They are smaller than most cherries but very prolific and I call them my "tomato-flavored sugar bombs." (I get my seeds for them from Seeds'n'Such.) For yellow, we enjoy Galina's, which are also heavy producers for us. Black Cherry always. But I will not plant nearly as many plants as I did last last year. We had a dozen - and cherry tomatoes coming out our ears!

Argh! Just wrote a long message, decided to go back and give some thumbs up to people. Hit "quotes" on one by mistake, and lost my message - sigh!

Linda

MissS wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:25 am

worth1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:33 am My guess would be 4 to 6.
Then eat the things.
Im growing nothing but cherries this year.
Sun Gold and Sweet 100.
Im letting the nursery keep them for me in the big hoop house they have thousands in.

Worth does this mean that you won't be having any tomatoes at home?

No I'll buy the plants in a week or two.
They can take care of them for me.

Thanks for all the comments which are most helpful .

I want to grow and compare Blush (which I love) to, Blush 2, Lucky Tiger and Lucky Agi F1. I'm also keen to grow KARMA Miracle, Super Snow White, Galina, Madeira F1 and Green Bee.

Guess I'll have to put Sungold, Rosella and Dr. Carolyn Pink on the back burner for this season, and prune everything to one stem (except Blush).

I'll be growing Maglia Rosa and Taste Patio in containers on the deck for "earlies", and just in case I hate the taste of all the new-to-me's =:o

My dehydrator is an 8-tray Excaliber which can take a LOT of halved cherry tomatoes .

Linda

I love Dr. Carolyn Pink. I used to grow them years ago and then couldn't seem to find seed any more. Where do you get yours from?

Edie, I will PM you.

Linda

I usually grow at least 8 cherries, for just me! I do this for a couple of reasons- first, I make a lot of salad type things, with legumes and halved cherries, or pasta and halved cherries, so that there is always at least one of them in the fridge at all times (a couple of friends head straight for the fridge, before they say hi!). The other reason is that in so many years I get heat waves, causing blossom drop in most of my tomatoes, and even the cherries that do stop production, when they flower again, the tomatoes are ripe much sooner than large ones.

Sunsugars are one variety I always grow 2 of, to snack on, as well as dry - they make an almost raisin like dried tomato! And they are my absolute favorite tomato for Som Tum, a Thai salad I love to make in the summer, with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and garlic!

Linda, I always grow a BUNCH of cherries, and so it will be this year. After the big disappointments in the past 2 years when the biggies produced almost nothing, I'll re-grow some varieties that have done fine in the past, but mostly cherries - they resisted the heat which made the bigger ones become a failure. If I fill all my hanging baskets on the tomato gallows, it's already 25 cherries. Then the indet. varieties in the containers... May be between 40 and 50 varieties each year.

Why so many?
1. Many of them are quiet early and I always can't wait to have the first ripe tomatoes in my garden.
2. It's easy to make a salad out of them, just one cut and that's it. You need a lot of cherries for a big salad.
3. Also only one cut before they end in the dehydrator.
4. My surplus goes to my daughter; what she did not use herself, the boys took to the kindergarten in former years, now to elementary school. Just one bite for the kids, much better than a big tomato.
5. When I make a tomato sauce, I like to add a few of them (very small ones) to the sauce just before it is ready to have whole little tomatoes in the sauce.

Sounds great Clara! I want to grow lots of varieties for comparisons, as well as having a few old faithfuls that I always enjoy.

I might ditch some large varieties this year as I can always cook cherries instead, and if I grow all those that I had planned I'll still grow less than you do {LOL}.

Thanks (I think),
Linda

I also like very colorful salads with almost white to dark blue cherries - another reason to grow a lot of them. Or a yellow - green salad (yellow cherries and lots of herbs). Always fascinating to people who only know red tomatoes...

I can make a yellow pear taste like blue cheese.

Neat trick! How do you do that, Worth?